The number of referrals into the National Referral Mechanism has continued to grow year on year (17,004 individuals were referred into the NRM in 2023), and the pressure on the timeliness of decision-making in the NRM has only continued to increase.

The previous government concluded that the design of the Multi-Agency Assurance Panels (MAAPs) process contributed to the number of days being added to the decision-making timelines for those exiting the NRM as non-victims, and therefore, to help provide greater certainty sooner to that cohort of individuals, MAAPs were removed in December 2022.

To further improve the timeliness of decision-making in the NRM, this Government has made arrangements for an additional 200 Home Office decision makers to be recruited in order to eradicate the backlog of decisions on modern slavery cases within 2 years.

Regarding assurances of decision making, both competent authorities employ a Quality Strategy intended to support the vision of delivering quality outcomes for victims of modern slavery by regularly reporting quality assurance outcomes to decision making teams.

All negative decisions taken by Competent Authorities are reviewed by a second caseworker or manager in line with statutory obligations. This includes negative Reasonable Grounds decisions, negative Conclusive Grounds decisions, and Public Order Disqualification and Bad Faith disqualification decisions. The quality assurance of decisions made also includes random sampling of positive decisions.

The Home Office continues to keep the assurance of decision making in the competent authorities under review, including whether independent assurance would be beneficial to decision making outcomes.

The Small Boats Enhanced Raw Data report and the Vantage Single Competent Authority Hybrid are the source datasets where information about small boat arrivals and National Referral Mechanism (NRM) referrals are brought together, any processing applied and totals calculated. They are then used as the source data for reporting, including publication of demographic and asylum outcome data for small boat arrivals as published in the ‘Irregular Migration to the UK release’.

Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, as well as quality and availability of data.

The Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority (IECA) will streamline decision-making and ensure, wherever possible, that the various factors which may be pertinent to decisions about an individual are taken by those who can consider their circumstances most fully.  IECA decision makers will receive the same training as the Single Competent Authority (SCA) on National Referral Mechanism (NRM) decision making.

Both competent authorities will be held to account through existing quality assurance processes and the Multi-Agency Assurance Panels will continue to quality assure all negative conclusive decisions. Decisions will continue to be made in line with the definitions and standards of proof in the published Modern Slavery Statutory Guidance.

The data on decisions taken by the IECA will be set out in the quarterly publication of NRM statistics and a breakdown by competent authority will be published once there is sufficient data to ensure individuals are not identifiable. Naturally, we will regularly review this data to understand the impact of the change and ensure polices are being applied consistently.

This Government remains committed to identifying victims quickly, enhancing the support they receive and improving the training given to First Responders, who are responsible for referring potential victims into the NRM.

The Home Office has produced e-learning to help First Responders to identify potential victims of modern slavery and make referrals into the NRM when appropriate to do so. The e-learning is available through the Modern Slavery Organised Immigration Crime (MSOIC) website.

The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the UK’s system for identifying and providing access to support for potential victims of modern slavery.

Potential victims have their individual support needs assessed on entry to the NRM and through contact with their support worker. The Recovery Needs Assessment (RNA) is conducted after a positive Conclusive Grounds (CG) decision.

The RNA enables support workers to consider whether a victim has any ongoing recovery needs arising from their modern slavery experience.

The information requested on RNA data does not currently form part of the published NRM statistics. The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) which can be found at gov.uk.

The 2021 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery has recently been published and contains an overview of key RNA trends for the year up to 31 July 2021. This report can also be found on gov.uk. The RNA process is kept under continual internal review. Our approach to victim support will be considered further as part of the 2014 Modern Slavery Strategy review which will be published next year.

There are 251.75 FTE decision makers working in the Single Competent Authority. There are 26.26 decision makers working within the Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority. Both Competent Authorities carry a number of vacancies being filled through recruitment activity.

All decision makers across both Competent Authorities will receive consistent training on NRM decisions, Modern Slavery Discretionary leave decisions (as relevant) and on current statutory guidance. All decision makers will be held to the same standards across the Home Office.

Since 10 December 2020, over 260 new staff have been recruited to work in the Home Office Single Competent Authority, with 26 of these staff already in post. A recruitment exercise for a further 100 posts (which were not filled in the first recruitment round) is due to conclude this month.