automatically filled. That’s what we’re lacking.’
Nick Kinsella, founder and former head of the UK Human Trafficking Centre and board member, United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking
slavery. The SPOC should also be able to share information at a regional and national level, communicating with the UKHTC about developments in intelligence or investigations that may occur. The Inter-Departmental Ministerial Group on Human Trafficking (IDMG) has identified this need for a SPOC in every force:
‘Within each police region throughout the UK a responsible senior police officer for human trafficking has been identified, with the intention of a network of single points of contact (SPOC) being identified within each force. The members of this group will act as the conduit between local and national activity in respect of trafficking. It will also work to ensure this area of work is considered in mainstream policing, intelligence gaps are closed and responses are standardised. Wales already has a very successful SPOC network’.14
However, the IDMG report’s assertion that such individuals have ‘been identified’ is not supported by the CSJ’s research, which found that of the 33 out of 43 forces which responded, only half were able to give information about a SPOC. Some claimed they did not have one, and others could not provide their details.15 The necessity for an embedded role within
each force must be recognised as part of the solution for improving police awareness and response; creating a network of SPOCs should be a national priority, and selecting a SPOC for each force should be a pressing local priority endorsed by chief constables and PCCs. The SPOC should be the champion for this issue in each force, and should be a consistent position that remains and is filled despite changes in staffing.
5.2.6 The National Crime Agency
The National Crime Agency (NCA), which will be fully operational by December 2013, will replace the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) as the UK’s coordinating hub for serious crime.16 The NCA will produce and maintain the national threat assessment for
serious, organised and complex crime, which all other agencies will work to. Using this agreed intelligence picture, the NCA will task and coordinate the police and other law enforcement agencies and will manage efforts to fight crimes that go beyond local, regional and national boundaries. The NCA will be made up of four distinct commands:17
14 Inter-Departmental Ministerial Group on Human Trafficking, First annual report of the Inter-Departmental Ministerial Group on Human Trafficking, London: Home Office, October 2012, p51
15 Results of CSJ Freedom of Information request, August 2012
16 Home Office website, The National Crime Agency [accessed via: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/nca/ (20/02/13)]
17 Home Office, The National Crime Agency: The plan for the creation of a national crime-fighting capability, London: Home Office, June 2011, p18 [accessed via: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/crime/nca-creation-plan?view=Binary (24/09/12)]
Recommendation:
An embedded Single Point of Contact (SPOC) role should be established in every force, to enable local SPOCs to share information, intelligence and best practice with regional SPOCs which can then communicate with the UKHTC.
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All four commands will access an intelligence hub which will aim to build and maintain a comprehensive picture of the threats to the UK from organised criminality. The NCA will have the authority to task local police and other enforcement agencies. It will also commit its own resources to support investigations.
The only direct mention of human trafficking under the specialist commands that will make up the NCA is under the Border Policing Command. Whilst the international cases of trafficking and modern slavery will, to some extent, be relevant to the remit of this command, it must also be recognised that this human trafficking takes place within the UK, involving no movement across borders. It is therefore of serious concern that human trafficking and modern slavery is not mentioned in any form under the remit of the Organised Crime Command. The CSJ recommends that modern slavery and human trafficking be made a priority area for the NCA, and that this crime ceases to be seen only in the context of border security. Furthermore, there is still ambiguity over the placement of the UKHTC within the NCA. Greater clarity is needed on how this new agency will tackle this crime, both strategically and operationally, since it is often organised, it involves both UK and foreign nationals and it can take place wholly within the country. Given the international elements of some human trafficking and modern slavery investigations which require gathering evidence from other jurisdictions, the CSJ welcomes the aim of the NCA to develop an international network of law enforcement contacts to aid the gathering of evidence from abroad.
Figure 5.1: The National Crime Agency
Recommendation:
Modern slavery and human trafficking should be made a priority area for the NCA, ensuring that this crime is not seen only in the context of border security or organised immigration crime.
NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY Senior Chief Constable
Intelligence, analysis and prioritisation
Organised Crime
Command Border Policing Command Economic Crime Command
Child Exploitation and Online Protection
Centre
Law enforcement agencies including the police, UK Border Agency, HM Revenue and Customs
5.3 Sharing information
Although there are some pockets of expertise within the police, many police officers do not know how to respond to a suspected case of modern slavery when they may see it. They are often not clear about whom they should report suspicions to, or what information counts as valuable and how much to pass on to agencies such as the UKHTC.
An improved national strategy and structure implemented across local forces, including active SPOCs, with universal training to give officers an awareness of what to do with their suspicions and/or specific intelligence, will help in addressing this situation and providing the level of protection that victims of human trafficking and modern slavery deserve. Sharing information will be a crucial facet of this strategy.
5.3.1 Regional information sharing
The CSJ has encountered significant problems with the police’s ability to deliver a coordinated response between forces and across agencies, as well as nationally and internationally. The variety of different operating systems for each force’s intelligence collecting makes cross-force cooperation very difficult. Regional Intelligence Units, for example, comprise teams with access to all the intelligence systems of the forces in the region. However a number of the intelligence systems cannot share the data automatically and must be manually downloaded and, in some cases, transferred using floppy discs.18 It is essential that every force area allocates the resources
to develop and analyse intelligence on modern slavery. This also includes personnel, and the CSJ recommends that dedicated researchers and intelligence analysts are allocated to look into the issue at a regional level. This information should then be shared with the UKHTC. This applies equally to the Gangmasters Licensing Authority and any other agency which may collect such information. This will facilitate investigations that go beyond a single force boundary, and in partnership with the UKHTC will enable a better national or, where appropriate, international response through sharing information with the European intelligence hub, Phoenix. At present, information and intelligence sharing is not up to standard, as one senior police officer told the CSJ:
‘intelligence on human trafficking should be managed locally before being shared through the regional intelligence units and into the national hubs. It just doesn’t work, so we are 18 Anonymous police officer, in evidence to the CSJ
‘Trafficking doesn’t sit prominently in the list of frontline police concerns.’
Chief Superintendent John Sutherland, Metropolitan Police, in evidence to the CSJ
‘We are all working in silos and some have no knowledge of the
problem.’
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continuously having to do things twice. We send it through these formal processes but it takes too long, so we also send it directly to the UKHTC’.19
5.3.2 Multi-agency information sharing
The diversity of modern slavery demands cooperation not just across forces but also between other sectors. In its evidence gathering our review has seen examples of excellent information sharing, such as in South Wales where a Consultation Group has been developed by Gwent Police to build a better picture of what is going on in Wales. The group facilitates cooperation and sharing of information amongst police officers, health professionals, school staff and housing providers by sharing regular intelligence bulletins through which the police are able to update members on the latest developments in the area, and hear from the other agencies involved. The group has had considerable success in fostering links between professionals who are able to share experience and generate a better understanding of how the problem manifests in their area. A similar group operates in the West Midlands through the Regional Anti-Trafficking (RAT) Network and in the South West through the Bristol Anti-Trafficking Partnership. It is our recommendation that every region establishes an equivalent group, creating a forum whereby information and intelligence can be shared across agencies. This multi-agency approach is essential for police in disrupting traffickers and identifying victims. It will enable police to foster a better understanding of the problem.
This notion of a multi-agency approach must form part of any national strategic and operational plan to combat modern slavery in a force area. In Scotland, a multi-agency group ‘dedicated to strategic, operational, and formalised intelligence sharing, analysis and enforcement action against traffickers’ was recommended by Baroness Helena Kennedy’s report for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.20 Formal links with ‘those identifying
and those supporting victims’ are vital to the success of these groups, which should be developed in every region in the UK.21 This would then enable the groups to speak to each
19 Senior police officer, in evidence to the CSJ, December 2012 20 Ibid
21 Kennedy H, Inquiry into Human Trafficking in Scotland: Report of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Scotland: ECHR, November 2011, p26 Recommendation:
Dedicated researchers and intelligence analysts should be allocated to develop the policing response to modern slavery at a regional level.