The Government has announced today that it plans to make key changes to how victims are formally identified.

The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) acts as a gateway for adult victims to receive support and assistance and also provides key information to the Government about the nature and scale of trafficking in the UK. During the process two decisions are made about whether there is sufficient evidence that a person has been a victim of modern day slavery or human trafficking. The NRM is currently operated by the Home Office, UK Visas and Immigration and the National Crime Agency.

In the announcement made today the Home Secretary has said that in future

• All decisions about whether somebody is a victim of modern slavery under the NRM will be made by a single, expert unit to be created in the Home Office replacing the roles of the National Crime Agency and UK Visas and Immigration, and this unit will be completely separate from the immigration system
• An independent panel of experts will be established to review all negative decisions
• There will be a new digital system to support the NRM process, making it easier for victims to be referred, and simpler for data to be retained and analysed to support the development of the law enforcement response to these crimes

These changes follow trials of a new way of working proposed by a review of the NRM process in 2014 which made a number of recommendations for improving the process to make it more victim-friendly and to improve the quality and transparency of the decisions that are made.

CARE welcomes the separation of the NRM from the immigration system and the proposal for an independent body to review negative decisions. These changes will give greater assurance that all victims will be treated fairly and can have confidence that decisions about whether the authorities accept they are a victim of exploitation will be made solely on the information about their exploitation and not be influenced by their immigration status.

These are just the first proposals to be announced and more detailed plans are expected in due course. It is, however, disappointing that at this stage no plans have been announced for improving the support available to victims after the NRM process is complete.

The NRM review itself recommended that the Government should consider the provision of support beyond the NRM process. Since then a lot of evidence has come to light about the risks of homelessness, destitution and re-trafficking faced by victims at the end of the NRM, including the recent Work and Pensions Committee Report.

We urge the Government to support the private members bill introduced by Lord McColl of Dulwich to give victims guaranteed rights to assistance during the NRM process, and access to services for a further 12 months helping them on a pathway to long term recovery.