Modern slavery in the waste sector
Freedom of Information Act request.
Ref: FOI 25-26 14
Date issued: 22 May 2025
Subject: Modern slavery in the waste sector
Question:
Please can you provide me with the following information about modern slavery in the waste sector:
1. A record of the number of times the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority referred a potential victim of modern slavery into the National Referral Mechanism over the past five years, with a breakdown of the number of reports per year.
2. A breakdown of the number of investigations into modern slavery in the waste sector
3. A record of the number of times the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority reported signs of modern slavery in the waste sector to the police over the past five years, with a breakdown of the number of reports per year.
a. Please can you also provide all details of what these reports said e.g. the name of the site that the incident occurred on and the details of the concern raised by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority.
b. Please can you provide information on whether these reports were investigated by the police alongside details of what the outcome of the investigation was.
Our Response:
1. The information requested is not recorded in a format that is easily retrievable. However, under our duty to assist (Section 16) we can provide the overall number of victims identified for those years. The number of victims identified is for those referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).
|
Year |
Number of victims identified through NRM (including duty to notify) |
|
April 2020-March 2021 |
99 |
|
April 2021-March 2022 |
33 |
|
April 2022-March 2023 |
199 |
|
April 2023-March 2024 |
21 |
|
April 2024-March 2025 |
15 |
2. Number of GLAA investigations raised into modern slavery in the waste (incl. recycling) sector.
a. 2020-21: 0
b. 2021-22: 0
c. 2022-23: 4
d. 2023-24: 0
e. 2024-25: 1
3. Number of logs linked to the waste (incl. recycling) sector which were referred / reported to the police.
a. 2020-21: 1
b. 2021-22: 2
c. 2022-23: 0
d. 2023-24: 2
e. 2024-25: 2
4. We do not record the information requested in an easy to extract format.
5. We do not hold the information requested.