The Queen announced the introduction of the much anticipated Modern Slavery Bill in her speech opening Parliament this morning: “A bill will be introduced to strengthen the powers to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking whilst improving support for victims of such crimes.”

Following the Draft Modern Slavery Bill, introduced in December 2013, which focused on prosecution of perpetrators and did not include provisions to prevent trafficking or protect the rights of victims, FLEX welcomes the recognition in today’s announcement that support for victims of trafficking must be included.  FLEX now awaits the introduction of the formal Bill, which is anticipated in the forthcoming week.