The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner is a position created by the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
The role complements the existing role of Victims' Commissioner to ensure that modern slavery issues are tackled in a coordinated and effective manner across the UK. The role involves working closely with law enforcement agencies, local authorities, third sector organisations and internationally to encourage good practice in the identification of victims and the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of modern slavery crimes, including international collaboration. The role requires published annual reports for Parliamentary scrutiny. [1] [2]
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 provides the home secretary's power to appoint a person to the role. [3]
| Commissioner | Took office | Left office | Period | Appointed by | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Kevin Hyland [2] | November 2014 (initially as 'designate' Commissioner) | May 2018 [4] | 3 years and 6 months | Theresa May | |
| Vacant | May 2018 | May 2019 | 1 year | |||
 | Sara Thornton [5] | May 2019 | April 2022 | 2 years and 11 months | Sajid Javid | |
| Vacant [6] | April 2022 | December 2023 | 1 year and 8 months | |||
 | Eleanor Lyons [7] | December 2023 | Suella Braverman | |||
Anthony David Steen CBE is a former British Conservative Party politician and barrister. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 2010, and the Chairman of the Human Trafficking Foundation. Having represented Totnes in Devon since 1997, he was previously MP for South Hams from 1983, and had also been the MP for Liverpool Wavertree between February 1974 and 1983. From 1992 to 1994, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Peter Brooke MP as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Sir Mark Rowley was appointed to the post on 8 July 2022 after Dame Cressida Dick announced her resignation in February 2022.
James Peter Brokenshire was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in Theresa May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2016 to 2018 and then as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government from 2018 to 2019. He also served as a minister at the Home Office under David Cameron and Boris Johnson. Brokenshire was Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornchurch from 2005 to 2010, and for Old Bexley and Sidcup from 2010 until his death in 2021.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is an independent centre-right think tank based in the United Kingdom, co-founded in 2004 by Iain Duncan Smith, Tim Montgomerie, Mark Florman and Philippa Stroud.
Dame Sara Joanne Thornton, was the UK's Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner from May 2019 until April 2022. She was appointed by the Home Secretary at the time, Sajid Javid, in succession to Kevin Hyland who left the post in May 2018.
Contemporary slavery, also sometimes known as modern slavery or neo-slavery, refers to institutional slavery that continues to occur in present-day society. Estimates of the number of enslaved people today range from around 38 million to 49.6 million, depending on the method used to form the estimate and the definition of slavery being used. The estimated number of enslaved people is debated, as there is no universally agreed definition of modern slavery; those in slavery are often difficult to identify, and adequate statistics are often not available.
The United Kingdom (UK) is a destination country for men, women, and children primarily from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe who are subjected to human trafficking for the purposes of sexual slavery and forced labour, including domestic servitude. It is ranked as a "Tier 1" country by the US Department of State, which issues an annual report on human trafficking. "Tier 1" countries are those whose governments fully comply with The Trafficking Victims Protection Act's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The TVPA is a federal statute of the United States. It is believed that some victims, including minors from the UK, are also trafficked within the country. It is also believed that migrant workers are trafficked to the UK for forced labour in agriculture, construction, food processing, domestic servitude, and food service. Source countries for trafficking victims in the UK include the United Arab Emirates, Lithuania, Russia, Albania, Ukraine, Malaysia, Thailand, the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.), Nigeria, and Ghana. Precise details about the extent of human trafficking within the UK are not available, and many have questioned the validity of some of the more widely quoted figures. In 2020, the US State Department estimated that there were 13,000 trafficking victims in the UK.
Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation. Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally. It is distinct from people smuggling, which is characterized by the consent of the person being smuggled.
Human trafficking in Australia is illegal under Divisions 270 and 271 of the Criminal Code (Cth). In September 2005, Australia ratified the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, which supplemented the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Amendments to the Criminal Code were made in 2005 to implement the Protocol.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and international borders; but it can be tasked to investigate any crime. The NCA has a strategic role as part of which it looks at serious crime in aggregate across the UK, especially analysing how organised criminals are operating and how they can be disrupted. To do this, it works closely with regional organised crime units (ROCUs), local police forces, and other government departments and agencies.
Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blackstock,, is a British government official working in social welfare.
A police and crime commissioner is an elected official in England and Wales responsible for generally overseeing police forces. A police, fire and crime commissioner (PFCC) is an elected official in England responsible for generally overseeing both police forces and fire services. Commissioners replaced now-abolished police authorities. The first incumbents were elected on 15 November 2012.
The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation is an independent person, appointed by the Home Secretary and by the Treasury for a renewable three-year term and tasked with reporting to the Home Secretary and to Parliament on the operation of counter-terrorism law in the UK.
The Blue Heart Campaign is an international anti-trafficking program started by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Established in 1997, the UNODC supported countries in implementing three UN drug protocols. In 2000, after the UN General Assembly adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, the UNODC became the “guardian” of that protocol and assumed the functions of fighting against human trafficking. The Blue Heart Campaign was launched in March 2009 by the Executive Director of the UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, during his address to the World's Women's Conference meeting in Vienna. The campaign's symbol is a blue heart. The Blue Heart Campaign uses its website, as well as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr to communicate goals, objectives, and news with the public.
Hope for Justice is a global non-profit organisation which aims to end human trafficking and modern slavery. It is active in the United Kingdom, United States, Cambodia, Norway, Australia, Ethiopia and Uganda and has its headquarters in Manchester, England.
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is designed to combat modern slavery in the UK and consolidates previous offences relating to trafficking and slavery. The act extends essentially to England and Wales, but some provisions apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Kevin Hyland, OBE was the United Kingdom’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, leading efforts to tackle slavery and human trafficking. He left the post in May 2018 and was succeeded by Dame Sara Thornton. He is the Chair of IHRB's Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment, collaboration between leading companies and expert organisations to drive positive change in the way that migrant workers are recruited. He was formerly head of the London Metropolitan Police Service’s Human Trafficking Unit.
The office of the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales is an organization of the government of the United Kingdom. The role of the Victims' Commissioner is to promote the interests of victims and witnesses of crime, encourage good practice in their treatment, and regularly review the Code of Practice for Victims which sets out the services victims can expect to receive.
The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom proposed in July 2021 relating to immigration, asylum and the UK's modern slavery response. The Act also deals with British overseas territories citizenship and registration of stateless citizens. Amongst other elements, it proposes to introduce "designated places" or "offshore" asylum hubs for application of refugee and migrant asylum claims, potentially in another European country or an African country. Part 5 of the Act grants the Government new powers to limit who is considered a victim of modern slavery, with clauses limiting support in cases where survivors have not complied with State-set deadlines to disclose their abuse. Under Part 5, decision makers would also be asked to consider the survivors' criminal history before deeming them eligible for support.
The home secretary is one of the most senior and influential ministers in the UK Government, and the holder of a Great Office of State. The home secretary's remit includes law enforcement in England and Wales, matters of national security, issues concerning immigration, and oversight of the Security Service (MI5).
(1)The Secretary of State must, after consulting the Scottish Ministers and the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland, appoint a person as the Independent Anti-slavery Commissioner
Sara Thornton to take up role to help combat modern slavery.
Eleanor Lyons will take up the role to help combat modern slavery... The appointment is designated for a fixed period of three years, with Ms Lyons taking up the role from 11 December 2023
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