My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Warner, for moving the amendment. This is another example of where we are moving towards a general principle of the statutory footing of the national referral mechanism, but not going as far as he would like in his amendment. The noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and my noble friend Lady Hamwee have set out some of the reasons why his amendment would need further work in any event. I will respond to the issues briefly, being aware that we will of course come back to consider this in more detail in the second day on Report.
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The quality of the identification and support for victims is an essential issue, as I have said before and said in my letter, and it is right that we had thorough debates on this. I entirely understand the sentiment behind the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Warner, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Derby and the noble Lord, Lord Patel, which would put the mechanism on a statutory footing immediately.
As noble Lords will be aware, we have some concerns about moving immediately to a statutory footing for the NRM. We have just had a review of the system. That review, carried out by Jeremy Oppenheim, was the subject of another of the meetings which we had in the period between Committee and Report. I think that there was general recognition that Jeremy Oppenheim carried out an excellent review. We were genuinely grateful to him for the quality of his work.
When considering that review, it is also important to remind ourselves that it did not recommend a statutory footing. Jeremy Oppenheim said in his review:
“Any process put on a statutory footing can become inflexible and unresponsive to changing demands and indeed improvements, due to the requirement to further legislate before making changes”.
That is a very important point to bear in mind. However, the Government have listened carefully to the debates on the issue. I listened particularly carefully to the imaginative and practical idea put forward in Committee by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and my noble friend Lady Hamwee. They have tabled Amendment 48 today, which takes a similar approach.
Given the changes being made currently, the idea of an enabling power which allows the Government to move to place the national referral mechanism on a statutory basis, once we have a more settled and effective system and when the pilot schemes have been considered and evaluated, seems a good one. That is why I have tabled government amendments to place an enabling power in the Bill to make regulations in relation to the support and assistance for victims of modern slavery. Given our progress, it is likely that I will formally move those amendments on Wednesday, which will allow for regulations to be made about accommodation, financial assistance, assistance in obtaining healthcare, provision of information and translation and interpretation services, where a person is a victim of modern slavery or there are reasonable grounds to believe that they are.
I turn specifically to Amendment 47, which seeks to place the national referral mechanism on a statutory footing through an immediate duty to make secondary legislation. It covers similar ground to the government amendment that I have tabled. However, Amendment 47 seeks for the regulations specifically to give effect to the right to a one-year residence permit, as well as providing for a right of appeal. Those who have been identified as potential victims of trafficking are helped and supported for a period of at least 45 days. During this reflection and recovery period, no action is taken to return the victim to their home country unless they specifically request support to return. Beyond this period, and in accordance with our international obligations, victims are already eligible for discretionary leave of one year and one day—renewable if appropriate—if their specific personal needs require this or if they are helping police with their investigations. This is in addition to any other leave that the person may be eligible for. I therefore do not believe that it is necessary to provide all victims of modern slavery with a residence permit for one year.
Amendment 47 includes a process to appeal against an NRM decision. I do not believe that it is necessary to provide for a right of appeal in legislation at this point. The purpose of the NRM review was to consider the end-to-end process for ensuring that victim identification is strengthened and that decision-making is prompt but also provides the right outcome for victims. In testing the recommendations through the pilots, we are planning to include a review process. Where a negative decision is made because the multidisciplinary panel believes that the person is not a victim, there will be an opportunity for an alternative panel chair to review the decision. This will put in
place a process to ensure that the right decision is made, based on the facts, and will avoid a costly and lengthy appeals process based on the court system.
I hope that noble Lords will feel able to welcome the Government’s approach in listening to the Committee debate and bringing forward a power to place the NRM on a statutory footing, and that the noble Lord will therefore feel able to withdraw his amendment at this stage.