Mapping the contours of modern slavery in Greater Manchester

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Summary

The research reported here arose from an N8 Policing Small Grant that aimed to map the contours of modern slavery as they appeared in 2015 data recorded for the Greater Manchester area by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and the Modern Slavery Human Trafficking Unit (MSHTU) – formerly the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC). The MSHTU oversees the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which is the formal process through which victims of modern slavery in the UK are officially identified and supported. In 2015 GMP filed 581 intelligence logs pertaining to Modern Slavery as it became defined under the 2015 Modern Slavery Act. These intelligence logs derived from 333 enquiries lodged in the Modern Slavery Data Tool (MSDT). Many intelligence logs and enquiries refer to the same suspects and offenders. Hence, the 333 enquiries pertained to just 120 suspects and 102 victims. Omissions in the datasets were rectified and backfilled where possible and records were linked before being thoroughly anonymised. The vast majority of jobs in the 2015 MSDT were generated within GMP itself, with only 4% coming from external sources (NGOs or another police force).

Research authored by: David Gadd, Rose Broad (University of Manchester), Jonathan Craven (Greater Manchester Police), Carly Lightowlers (University of Liverpool) and Elisa Bellotti (University of Manchester)