Our response to the King’s Speech

It was great to hear the Government’s intentions to tackle child criminal exploitation and strengthen support for victims of crime in the King’s Speech.

We were also pleased to hear of plans to strengthen the neighbourhood policing response after this was recommended in our Criminal Exploitation report.

However, it is critical that further steps are taken to help vulnerable modern slavery victims and heighten risk for traffickers. We are calling on the Government to address these key points:

• We are disappointed that there was no mention of a specific offence of cuckooing in the Crime and Policing Bill today, Thousands of people are at the mercy of violent criminals in their own homes and we hope that there will still be a place for cuckooing legislation in the bill as it develops.

• There are many vulnerable adults out there who are also victims of criminal exploitation. We are urging the Government to strengthen the law in order to protect this group, alongside young people.

• The UK has recently made significant steps backwards by confusing modern slavery with organised immigration crime. We hope the new Border Security Asylum and Immigration Bill enables a review of the impact of recent immigration legislation on modern slavery victims, as recommended in our Programme for Government paper.

• It was announced today that the Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill will ‘ensure victims of crime and anti-social behaviour get the support they deserve’. We hope that this is an opportunity to strengthen support for modern slavery victims and that this includes Victim Navigators.

We believe that the new Government has a unique opportunity and a duty to put things right for those affected by modern slavery, and look forward to working with them on these issues.

You can download our Programme for Government report here.