Agenda item

Members to receive a presentation following the motion put to Council on 27 September 2018 by Councillor Dilks and the Council’s decision reproduced below:

In the spirit of working to do everything within its power to eradicate this and recognising recent changes in the way projects and services may be delivered, the Council resolves to work with contractors, Police and H M Revenue and Customs to deal with instances of modern slavery and to build on its existing Public Statement. The Council further undertakes to request the Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee review the Council’s existing commitments, including those set out in the Equality and Diversity Annual Position Statement 2017 and propose any further recommendations as appropriate.

At the Council meeting in September 2018 Councillor Dilks had presented a motion in relation to Modern Slavery.  The decision of the Council asked that the Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee reviewed the Councils existing commitments including those set out in the Equality and Diversity Annual Position Statement 2017 and to propose any further recommendations as appropriate.  Councillor Dilks had been invited to the meeting and he thanked the Committee for the invitation.  His motion had referred to a 10 point action plan to strengthen and increase awareness of modern slavery in society today,although the Councils decision had not adopted the action plan it had agreed todo everything within its power to eradicate modern slavery and recognised recent changes in the way projects and services may be delivered.  The Council resolved to work with contractors, Police and H M Revenue and Customs to deal with instances of modern slavery and to build on its existing Public Statement. Councillor Dilks then made reference to a quote from the judge relating to the Police operation about not resting until potential other victims in our Country had been identified.

The Community Engagement and Policy Development Officer then gave a presentation to the Committee on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking with input from Detective Chief Superintendent Davison on Operation Pottery which was the largest modern slavery operation to have taken place in Lincolnshire.  Ms Drury outlined that Modern Slavery was the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of children, women or men through the use of force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation. 

Members had already seen from the previous presentation that there were links with County Lines to Modern Slavery.    Crime was of course the major factor of modern slavery but the Committee was reminded that consideration needed to be given to those people that were forced or coerced into slavery and were then made to carry out criminal activity.    Safeguarding was also an arena where modern slavery could be identified and careful consideration of the potential for modern slavery needed to be considered win relation to the potential for modern slavery needed to be considered in relation to supply chains.   The clothing industry was well known for modern slavery exploitation although perhaps not so much in this country but there had been media cases in relation to some high street shops.   The Council needed to ensure that there was no modern slavery within its own supply chains. 

Modern Slavery was hidden in plain sight and reference was made to nail bars, hand car washes, agriculture and gardening services and the building trade.  All of these were areas where modern slavery could be hidden in plain sight and examples of what to look for were given such as failure to interact, not wearing the correct protective gear or high visibility clothing;  people looking unwell, malnourished. Reference was made to a new app which could be downloaded which allowed people to check if a car wash was safe.  A brief discussion followed and it was stressed that most of the businesses discussed could be legitimate but it was for Members to be aware that they may not be.  A reference was made to having qualification for nail bars but that was only in relation to beauty therapists.

Detective Chief Superintendent (DCS) Davison then spoke to the Committee about Operation Pottery which had taken a huge amount of work which was both difficult and complex.   

(3:15pm to 3:30pm meeting adjourned)

DCS Davison referred to the words that Judge Timothy Spencer Q.C. had said when sentencing the perpetrators to the Committee, sentences ranged from 18 to 22 years

 “You preyed on men who for a variety of reasons had fallen on hard times.  Men who had become homeless, alcoholic, men with mental health problems.  Men who for a variety of reasons, and to varying degrees, were vulnerable and easy to manipulate.  Once located you exploited their natural desire to find useful employment, somewhere to regard as home, some place in society – even the society you offered……

Vulnerability underlies every aspect…….

It may be that society and government have been slow to wake up to this pernicious wrongdoing, but society and government have woken up….”

H.H Judge Timothy SPENCER QC

DCS Davison then went on to talk about how the organised crime group drove around the whole country finding people who were vulnerable to them due to their circumstances promising them good money, work, accommodation and food.  He went through how Operation Pottery came about following two other police operations where drug warrants had been executed at Drinsey Nook in January 2013 and December 2013. Although the workforce was questioned at the time and asked if they needed any help they declined any assistance even though the quality of the accommodation and site in general was atrocious.  Following the raids, concerns were raised by other agencies with referrals being made by the Police Surgeon due to physical state of one of people in custody.   In February 2014 a strategy meeting was held where concerns were raised from the Probation service about the controlling influence of the main perpetrator.  There were numerous reports of people looking unkempt working on driveways.  The intelligence picture started to take shape and DCS Davison spoke about how the perpetrators isolated victims, threatened them with violence took all important documents off the victims and forced them to work with threats, intimidation and violence. Examples were given such as getting the victims to drive the family’s children to school even though they did not have a driving licence or insurance. 

DCS Davison then referred to the driveway businesses that the perpetrators ran, which from the outside, looked legitimate. He showed the Committee examples of the signs which advertised the business which looked very professional.  The 0800 telephone number advertised was answered in a professional manner and the signs were up in various locations in different towns.  They used registered trademarks on vehicles and examples were shown to the Committee.   The business was very lucrative and enabled the perpetrators to have luxury holidays and other luxuries such as attending football matches and expensive watches.  During the indictment period the Police had traced driveway work payments in the region of £300,000 and examples of payments were listed for Members information.

The operation had been very complex as the victims were so vulnerable and the conditioning that they had received from the perpetrator family through threats and violence was hard to break.  This often meant that the victim made no complaint or report to the police. DCS Davison explained however that as long as there is evidence which proved all the elements of the offence, the Crown Prosecution Service could still proceed to a prosecution for human trafficking without the need for the victim to make a complaint..

Further examples were then given about the injuries that had been sustained by one of the victims as they had not had the proper protective clothing and although they had been signed off they had still been made to work.    Various organisations had been in contact with the victims over a period of time including the Police, GPs, Accident and Emergency Services, walk in centres, mental health services, Probation Services Education, Fire and EMAS.  Examples were then given of these incidents from statements taken during Operation Pottery.    Housing benefits were also being taken by the perpetrator family and examples of this were shown to Members.  Each agency who had been in contact with the victims had a different piece of the puzzle; all had interacted in isolation, so a major task had been getting all the pieces together to see the whole picture of this case of modern slavery hidden in plain sight.

The Chairman and Members of the Committee thanked DCS Davison for his presentation and the work that the Police undertook.

Members then discussed the presentation and asked what needed to be put in place to stop this happening again.  DCS Davison indicated that there were lots of effective arrangements, but it was how these were pulled together intelligently, what people needed to look for. 

The Community Engagement Policy Development Officer referred to the national picture and there were three main sources of data available on the potential scale of modern slavery in the UK.   In 2017 the National referral system indicated there were 5,143 potential victims of modern slavery, this was a 35 % increase from 2016 and 2,121 of these were children.  Under the duty to notify provisions of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in 2017 1,694 potential adult victims were referred which brought the total number of potential victims to 6,837.  In 2018 Police in England and Wales had recorded 3,337 modern slavery offences which was a 49% increase on the previous year.

For a national referral to be made, adults needed to give consent for help.  If more people were aware of what to look for then more reporting would follow.  Exploitation in relation to children was then mentioned and since 2015 the figure for child labour exploitation had grown from 318 to 1026 in 2017. 

The UK had the largest number of children trafficked whereas the largest number of adult cases originated in Albania.  In the East Midlands the regional breakdown provided in the 2018 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery which reflected which Police force the National Referral Mechanism sent cases to for crime recording purposes showed an increase from 85 in 2015 to 253 in 2017.  

Specialist Support Services were currently undertaken by the Salvation Army who had the Government’s contract for adult victims of modern slavery. In the East Midlands 81 victims of modern slavery were referred to the Salvation Army support services in 2018. This number had increased by 30% compared to the same period in 2017 where the number was 62.

Currently there was a dedicated appendix in the Safeguarding Policy on Modern Slavery.  The Modern Slavery Act 2015 required the Council to publish a modern slavery transparency statement which sets out how the Council ensured that there was no modern slavery in its supply chains.   The latest draft statement had been developed and it was for the Committee to decide if they wished to add anything further to the Council’s statement based on the actions contained in it.

Members agreed that the actions listed within the presentation be included within the Council’s statement which were:

•      The Council will work across its service areas to identify any potential risk of slavery and human trafficking and develop appropriate steps to manage the risk.

•      The Council’s contract and procurement procedures will be reviewed to state that all appropriate action will be taken to ensure any risk of slavery or human trafficking will be mitigated within the Council’s business and within its supply chains.

•      Actively promote the training opportunity relating to Trafficking, Exploitation and Modern Slavery to all community facing staff.

•      Actively promote the training opportunities available to those employed to procure goods and services on behalf of the Council.

•      Develop and deliver an awareness raising campaign relating to Modern Slavery.

Members agreed that staff training needed to be strengthened and also the location of the where the modern slavery statement could be made easier to access on the website and an action plan be developed to include timescales for the implementation of the actions.  Members also agreed that a report on Modern Slavery should be reported twice a year to the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Recommendation

That the actions contained in the draft 2019/20 Modern Slavery Transparency Statement were appropriate to our requirements. Actions to be included as follows:

·                The Council will work across its service areas to identify any potential risk of slavery and human trafficking and develop appropriate steps to manage the risk

·                The Council’s contract and procurement procedures will be reviewed to state that all appropriate action will be taken to ensure any risk of slavery or human trafficking will be mitigated within the Council’s business and within its supply chains

·                Actively promote the training opportunity relating to Trafficking, Exploitation and Modern Slavery to all community facing staff

·                Actively promote the training opportunities available to those employed to procure goods and services on behalf of the Council

·                Develop and deliver an awareness raising campaign relating to Modern Slavery

·                To develop an action plan, including timescales for the implementation of the actions

·                To report to the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee twice each year on the actions contained in the Modern Slavery Transparency Statement

The Chief Executive who had attended the meeting said that the presentation had brought attention to the importance of what was happening in plain sight and what we needed to do as part of a larger community to raise awareness and be alert to the signs.  Staff needed to respond positively in our role as Council employees.

Further discussion followed and it was commented that following the elections in May Member training should include reference to Modern Slavery.  It was stated that all Members were invited to the Safeguarding training which last time focused on Child Sexual Exploitation, but this year the focus would be Modern Slavery.

Further comments about keeping Modern Slavery topical were mentioned including where it was accessed on the website.

Detective Chief Superintendent Davison thanked the Committee for the opportunity to speak to them and for their response.

Councillor Dilks thanked the Committee for the invitation to attend and stated that it was important that everyone worked together cross party.

As this was the last meeting of the Committee before the elections in May the Chairman thanked all Members and Officers for their support and work throughout the year.   He reminded Members about the Health and Wellbeing Workshop which was due to take place in the Newton Room at 10:00am on Friday 15 March 2019 to which all Members had been invited to attend.