Written question asked by Jeremy Browne (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 25 May 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 5 June 2006. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Wednesday, 7 June 2006 on behalf of the Home Office.

People Trafficking

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in the prevention of human trafficking into the United Kingdom.

Answer: The Government are committed to tackling human trafficking and on the 5 January 2006 launched a national consultation exercise on proposals for a UK action plan on human trafficking. The question of how to prevent human trafficking features prominently in the consultation and a summary of the consultation responses is due to be published on the 21 June 2006 with a final UK Action Plan to follow later in the year.The Government have introduced comprehensive legislation to criminalise trafficking and in 2000 established Reflex, a multi agency taskforce on organised immigration crime which has worked closely with international law enforcement partners in taking forward trafficking investigations and in strengthening the capacity of other countries to deal effectively with trafficking at source. In addition, on 3 April 2006 the Serious Organised Crime Agency was launched with organised immigration crime as one of its key priorities, bringing a renewed focus on improving intelligence on organised criminals engaged in this type of crime. During the course of our Presidency of the Council of the European Union the Home Office developed an EU Action Plan on Human Trafficking which was adopted at the JHA Ministerial Council on 1-2 December 2005. This plan takes an end-to-end approach to the issue and includes specific measures to prevent trafficking into and within the EU.

Secondary information