Modern Slavery

This Freedom of Information request is made to access to data in relation to children referred by your local authority to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) for children who were identified as potential victims of modern slavery. Therefore, I would like you to provide me with:
1. Gender: How many of children referred to the NRM as potential victims of modern slavery by your local authority in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and in the Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023 were identified as males and females?
2. Nationality: What were the nationality of children referred to the NRM as potential victims of modern slavery by your local authority in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and in the Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023?
3. Location: What was the location of the exploitation in the UK for children referred to NRM as potential victims of modern slavery by your local authority in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and in the Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023? Please state how many of exploitations referred in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and in the Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023 happened in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
4. Exploitation type: For children referred to the NRM as potential victims of modern slavery by your local authority in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and in the Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023, how many of them were recorded as potential victims of:
 Criminal exploitation
 Domestic exploitation
 Labour exploitation
 Sexual exploitation
 Organ harvesting
 Domestic and criminal exploitation
 Labour and criminal exploitation
 Sexual and criminal exploitation
 Domestic and labour exploitation
 Domestic and sexual exploitation
 Sexual and labour exploitation
 Criminal and domestic and sexual exploitation
 Criminal and labour and sexual exploitation
 Domestic and labour and sexual exploitation.
5. County lines: For children referred to the NRM as potential victims of modern slavery by your local authority in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and in the Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023, how many of them were recorded as potential victims of county lines?
6. Reasonable ground decision: For children referred to the NRM as potential victims of modern slavery by your local authority in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and in the Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023:
6.a. how many of them received a positive reasonable ground decision?
6.b. how many of them received negative reasonable ground decision?
7. Conclusive ground decision: For children referred to the NRM by your local authority in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and in the Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023,
7.a. how many of them received a positive conclusive ground decision?
7.b. how many of them received negative conclusive ground decision?

In response to all of the above questions we can confirm the following:

Prior to January 2023, this information was not held in a central record and this information would therefore have to be extracted using a manual review of all social care records.  This would be a significant exercise and would take longer than the appropriate time limit of 18 hours.  Pursuant to section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, we are therefore not obliged to provide this information.

The central records which are held since January 2023 confirm information which, if disclosed, would risk identifying the individuals concerned.  This would be a breach of their personal data and disclosure of this information is therefore exempt pursuant to section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.