Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:51 pm on 14 November 2018.
Yes, indeed. The latest figures on the reported cases of slavery in Wales are telling us that we are now beginning to understand the true scale of this problem and that our multi-agency approach to gathering intelligence and raising awareness is, indeed, working. In Wales in 2017, there were 192 people identified as potential victims of slavery and referred into the national referral mechanism, which is operated by the National Crime Agency. But, just in the first six months of this year, 116 people have been referred into the national referral mechanism and there's no sign of a slowdown in this year-on-year increase in referrals. Of the 116 referrals this year in Wales, the highest number of referrals were UK nationals, and that was 42 women, men and children, and the other main sources were countries from all over the world, in fact. They included 46 women and 70 men; 65 were referred for adult exploitation and 51 for exploitation as a minor.
The Member made an excellent point about it being in plain sight, because a large number of these young people, in particular, have been caught up in the county lines crime, particularly teenage boys who are UK nationals, but we are also dealing with girls as young as two who have been rescued from sexual exploitation.
Currently, labour exploitation is, however, the main form of exploitation, followed by sexual exploitation and domestic servitude. From the reported cases, we know that often people are held in that kind of captivity in plain sight. A large number of people knew that they were there but hadn't recognised the symptoms. So, the Member's quite right to say that we can all play our part in tackling slavery by raising awareness of what the signs are, what to look out for and how to report that into the mechanisms.