Part of Questions to the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:38 pm on 9 March 2021.
I thank the Member for that important question. The fact that organisations like Soroptimist International are coming forward and taking this as an issue for which they're concerned and seeking evidence, and making representations to tackle modern slavery—. Of course, there is a cross-party group on human trafficking, chaired by Joyce Watson, who actually was also responsible for ensuring that we had the appointment of the Welsh Government anti-slavery co-ordinator. We're the first and only country in the UK to appoint an anti-slavery co-ordinator, even though, of course, not all of the consequences of slavery fall to the devolved Government.
But your points about identifying the impact of COVID, not just in terms of people not coming forward, but identifying victims and awareness raising are crucially important, and we do work closely with key agencies across north Wales. And I think you make also an important point in terms of the issues around county lines. So, we're working with our partners to tackle slavery in county-lines-related crime, to safeguard vulnerable people from becoming victims of exploitation. So, our Welsh Government anti-slavery co-ordinator is working very closely with key agencies in Wales to determine scale, types and location of slavery, and also improving intelligence and recording of incidents in Wales, using the national referral mechanism, NRM, to increase cases within the criminal justice system.