I shall do my best. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) for securing this debate. As he made abundantly clear, he has a long-standing interest in this issue and has done a lot of work on it over the past decade. I welcome this opportunity to respond, and I will address as many of the points that he and others made as I can in this reduced time.
First and foremost, I want to express my total disgust at cases of modern slavery and human trafficking. The Government are steadfast in our determination to prevent these heinous crimes from happening, to support genuine victims and to bring perpetrators to justice. This is an ever-evolving threat, and our policy levers need to keep pace with changing trends.
I pay tribute to the previous Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), and the former Member of this House, Anthony Steen. I second the comments from my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough, who thanked my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead for all her work on the landmark Modern Slavery Act, and Anthony Steen, who was one of the early advocates in this field and is now the chair of the Human Trafficking Foundation. I thank them and all others who have contributed to our efforts in this space.
The former Home Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witham (Priti Patel), worked very hard on this issue for three and a half years. I recall that in one of the first meetings I had with her when I was a new MP, she talked about upstream work and about looking internationally. Her work in this field required foresight and effort. We must not forget to thank those who have worked hard on this issue.
I was going to outline in detail the difference between human trafficking and people smuggling, but I do not need to because my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough did that most eloquently—I will save half a minute by skipping over that page. Instead, I will talk about the progress that has been made on prosecutions. Many Members have emphasised the need to increase prosecutions. It is shocking that there were only 188 live operations in 2016, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Witham will recall. That rose to 3,724 live investigations in February 2023. The Government have made real progress, and we continue to be committed to improving the criminal justice response to modern slavery and to ensuring that law enforcement has the right tools and capability to identify victims and tackle offenders.
Prosecutions have increased since the MSA came into force, other than in 2020 when there was a decrease due to courts closing during the covid pandemic. In 2021, the Government prosecuted 466 individuals for modern slavery crimes, with a conviction rate of more than 70%. Those with an interest in criminal justice will know that that is high. The Government have granted more than £1.3 million of funding to the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime unit, which operates out of Devon and Cornwall police, and have supported the development of national infrastructure to bring consistency across forces. There has also been a significant increase in activity since the Modern Slavery Act came into force, leading to better identification, information and evidence, and an increase in live investigations, prosecutions and, importantly, convictions.
Notwithstanding that success, there is a great deal more to do. The Government recognise that there are still challenges in the criminal justice system, which is why we are continuing to do more with law enforcement generally and the Crown Prosecution Service, including identifying ways of supporting victims to engage with prosecutions to help bring the exploiter to justice.
In addition, the Human Trafficking Foundation’s lived experience advisory panel will work with the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime unit. I hope that this collaboration will help to enhance guidance and ensure that the police take account of victim and survivor experience. I am grateful to Justice and Care for its work in this field, and to the victim navigators. We welcome their use by law enforcement agencies across the UK.
It is hoped and expected, through intense preparation, that the Online Safety Bill will assist in this area. The Government will add section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act to the list of priority offences in the Bill. That section makes it an offence to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person, including through recruitment, with a view to their exploitation.
Right hon. and hon. Members said that sentencing needs to be looked at and raised concerns about the low level of sentences handed down by courts relative to other offences. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 gives law enforcement agencies the tools to tackle modern slavery, including a maximum life sentence for perpetrators and enhanced protection for victims, and following consultation in August 2021, the Sentencing Council published new sentencing guidelines for those convicted of modern slavery in England and Wales, but further progress is needed. Judges and magistrates now have clear dedicated guidelines when sentencing adult offenders who are guilty of offences under the 2015 Act, including slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and trafficking for the purposes of exploitation. The new guidelines came into effect in October 2021 and aim to promote consistency of approach, improve the general area and help the courts to pass appropriate sentences when dealing with modern slavery offences.