These notes refer to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (c. 30)
which received Royal Assent on 26 March 2015
appointment (as soon as reasonably practicable where there are reasonable grounds to believe a child may be a victim of trafficking – this can be before any referral into the UK’s victim identification process) and the advocates’ functions. These regulations must also include requirements on the public authorities that are taking decisions regarding, or providing services to, a child to recognise and pay due regard to the child’s independent child trafficking advocate and to provide information regarding the child to the child’s independent child trafficking advocate (subject to any restrictions on disclosure).
234. Subsection (7) provides that the Secretary of State is required to lay a report before Parliament on the steps that the Secretary of State proposes to take in relation to independent child trafficking advocates under this section. The Secretary of State is required to report back to Parliament within 9 months of Thursday 26 March 2015, the day on which this Act was passed.
Section 49: Guidance about identifying and supporting victims
235. Section 49 requires guidance to be issued to public authorities and other persons as considered appropriate by the Secretary of State in relation to identifying and supporting victims. The guidance will cover the sorts of things which indicate that a person may be a victim of slavery or human trafficking; arrangements for the provision of assistance and support to persons who there are reasonable grounds to believe may be victims of slavery or human trafficking and any arrangements, including those made under section 50, for determining whether a person is to be treated as a victim of slavery or human trafficking. The purpose of the guidance is to further support effective identification of potential victims of slavery and human trafficking and to set out the assistance and support on offer to all slavery and trafficking victims, taking into account international requirements set out in the Convention on Action against Trafficking and the Directive on preventing and combating trafficking.
Section 50: Regulations about identifying and supporting victims
236. Section 50 enables the Secretary of State to make regulations about identification of and support for victims. The UK currently meets its international obligations on victim identification and support on a non-statutory basis, using administrative powers. The Home Office intends to pilot significant changes to the current process as a result of the recent review of its operation. This enabling power allows for the future possibility of the UK’s system regarding victim identification and support being set out in regulations. Under section 58(4)(g), the regulations would be subject to the affirmative procedure.
Section 51: Presumption about age
237. The purpose of this section is to reflect in this Act the presumption at Article 13(2) of the Directive on preventing and combating trafficking, that where the age of a person subject to trafficking in human beings is uncertain and there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person is a child, that person is presumed to be a child in order to receive immediate access to assistance, support and protection in accordance with Articles 14 and 15. Convention on Action against Trafficking contains a similar provision at Article 10(3).
238. Subsection (1)(a) and (b) set out who the section applies to. Subsection (2) sets out the terms under which the presumption may be applied and allows for the presumption to be removed when the person’s age has been determined by a lawfully compliant age assessment or other determination.
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