Former Prime Minister Theresa May speaks in Cambridge in support of county-wide modern-day anti-slavery charter

Leading figures in the fight against modern day slavery showed their support for a modern-day slavery charter at the High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire’s Business Conference at Cripps Court last week.

On the agenda at the event, which was hosted by law firm Birketts, was the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough-wide modern day slavery charter. The charter aims to tackle the issue, with the keynote delivered by former UK prime minister, Baroness Theresa May. Speaker Caroline Haughey KC telling the conference: “Modern Slavery is the pandemic of our generation – something which we believed to have been abolished 300 years ago.”

The goal is for Cambridgeshire to become the first county to be free of modern day slavery, which is estimated to effect approximately 50 million people across the world, with approximately 100,000 in the UK.

The challenge is significant - new figures show that potential victims of modern-day slavery are at al all-time high. A total of 4,758 potential victims were referred to the Home Office between July and September last year.

This is up 10 per cent compared to the previous three months and a rise of 15 per cent on the same quarter in 2023. Almost a quarter (23 per cent or 1,092) of referrals were of UK nationality, with the second most common being Albanian (11 per cent; 523) and Vietnamese (11 per cent; 514).

Some 74 per cent of UK nationals referred into the system were children, most three-quarters (74 per cent or 2,414) of adult referrals were male and 26 per cent (834) were female, while for children almost eight in 10 (78 per cent or 1,169) referrals were male and 22 per cent (326) were female.

Labour exploitation was the most commonly reported kind of exploitation among adults, but children were most often referred for criminal exploitation.

While males most often reported criminal or labour exploitation, females most often reported sexual exploitation, making up just over a third of (34 per cent) of referrals.

The Home Office said the number of referrals for the latest three-month period is the highest since the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) began in 2009.

Hosted by law firm Birketts, the Cripps Court event saw the county’s business community gather to hear from those leading the way in tackling modern day slavery, including legal experts in human trafficking and modern slavery in the UK, the Anti Slavery Collective, the chief constable of Cambridgeshire Police and other members of the Charter Committee.

Speakers contributing to the discussion included Jonathan Agar (chief executive, Birketts), Doug Field (former CEO, East of England Co-op), John Shropshire, (chairman G’s Fresh group of companies), Arnab Dutt (policy champion for procurement and social value, Federation of Small Businesses) and Lucy Crumplin (COO of Cambridge Building Society).

High Sheriff David Way, calling slavery “a terrible evil”, said: “It is shocking that it is a feature of life today in this county. Businesses have a vital part to play in combatting this evil; current UK legislation puts responsibility on some businesses to employ certain safeguards.

“My hope, however, goes beyond this bare minimum - it is to encourage businesses to agree on and adopt a Cambridgeshire and Peterborough-wide modern day slavery charter, as a big step on the road to the ultimate prevention of slavery in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. I am so grateful to the business and civic leaders who took part in the conference for their willingness to share this vision.”

Baroness Theresa May said: “: “I was grateful to the High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Birketts for holding this important business conference on modern slavery.

“It is encouraging to see so many businesses proactively engaging in eliminating this heinous crime. Their commitment to creating ethical supply chains and raising awareness is essential in ensuring Cambridgeshire is an area where modern slavery has no place. I hope, that in Cambridgeshire taking the lead on this issue, others will follow and together, we can make a real difference."

Jonathan Agar, chief executive at law firm Birketts, added: "The UK has come a long way in tackling modern day slavery, and we were fortunate enough to hear from some of the architects of those efforts on Wednesday.

“The concept of a Cambridgeshire and Peterborough-wide Charter is the next step in dealing with this very serious issue."