Submission to the UK Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into Human Trafficking

This submission focuses on question 5 which the Inquiry into Human Trafficking invites written evidence- how can legislation, including Modern Slavery Act (MSA) 2015, policy and criminal justice system practice be improved to prevent and address human trafficking. We write as academics with a long-standing interest in human trafficking, and in particular the evidential issues that arise in trafficking cases. The submission falls into two parts. The first, without attempting to provide a detailed proposal, outlines the direction we think should be taken in improving defence under MSA s. 45. The second calls for a specific legal reform on a relatively narrow point: to reverse the effect of the Court of Appeal’s decision in R v Brecani (2021) that decisions of the Competent Authority as to whether someone is a victim of human trafficking or modern slavery are inadmissible as evidence in a criminal trial.