Written question asked by Margaret Moran (Labour) on Wednesday, 22 April 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 24 April 2009. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Wednesday, 6 May 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.

Human Trafficking

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of victims of human trafficking who are repeat victims.

Answer: The nature of human trafficking makes it difficult to provide a precise estimate of the number of victims in the United Kingdom, including those who are repeat victims. Our current estimate of the number of victims is that at any one time in 2003 there were up to 4,000 women in the UK who were victims of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.The United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre continues to work on providing a more up to date estimate of the number of victims. We will be in a position to provide a more up to date estimate of the overall number including repeat victims by the end of the year.

Secondary information