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GOVERNMENT ignorance is holding back efforts to tackle the scourge of modern slavery, a parliamentary watchdog warned yesterday.
Efforts to stamp out the crime will fall short unless there is a great improvement in the government’s knowledge and identification of those at risk, according a report by the National Audit Office (NAO).
The NAO found that there is inadequate oversight of the support offered to victims and said few cases have led to prosecution.
In two-thirds of cases referred in 2016-17, the government has taken at least three months to make a “conclusive” decision on whether someone is held in slavery, the report said, adding that this was “causing further distress and anxiety to the vulnerable people in the system.”
NAO head Amyas Morse said: “To combat modern slavery successfully government will need to build much stronger information and understanding of perpetrators and victims than it has now.”
Modern slavery includes a range of criminal activity such as forcing people into servitude and labour, as well as human trafficking.
