Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 72
72
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 214
Changes to NRM impacting victims and First Responders, reducing positive decisions.
Conclusion
The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and revisions to the Modern Slavery statutory guidance have changed the amount and type of evidence required for a potential victim to be referred into the National Referral Mechanism decision-making process. It is unclear what the impact of either of these changes will be on either victims and First Responders, but early data suggests a decline of positive Reasonable Grounds decisions for potential victims and a significantly increased draw on First Responder capacity.
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the committee's observations about the impact of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 on NRM decisions, stating they are monitoring and evaluating these changes and that the decline in positive Reasonable Grounds decisions is the intended outcome for robust decision-making.
Paragraph Reference:
214
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Home Office is monitoring and evaluating the New Plan for Immigration and the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, and has revised this work to take into account the Illegal Migration Act 2023. The programme monitoring will analyse data from a range of indicators to assess whether the measures introduced are meeting our objectives. Evaluation will be conducted in line with HM Treasury Magenta Book principles to provide detailed insight on the process, impact and value for money of changes implemented, and will be integrated into the delivery of the Acts. The Home Office keeps all of its policies and procedures under review and regularly updates the Modern Slavery Statutory Guidance to ensure that potential victims of modern slavery are appropriately identified and provided with the support they need to begin rebuilding their lives. The Reasonable Grounds (RG) guidance introduced by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 enables decision makers to use all available evidence to determine whether a case meets the RG threshold. The change builds on and simplifies much of the previous guidance to ensure decision making at the RG stage is robust while still providing scope to consider unusual circumstances, and to ensure that in those circumstances victims are still able to access the NRM. Initial results following the change suggest the new threshold and guidance is having the intended impact of making RG decisions more robust: prior to 2023, the proportion of positive RG decisions was typically 90%, but between July to September 2023 this fell to 52%. The Government regularly reviews policies and will continue to monitor results.