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Human Trafficking

Volume 454: debated on Wednesday 13 December 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) notifications, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions there were of cases involving people trafficking in each police authority in England and Wales in each of the last five years. (107913)

The information for the number of notifications and prosecutions is not held. However following the commencement of dedicated trafficking offences in 2004 the number of convictions in each police authority in England and Wales is as follows:

Police authority

Number of convictions

London Metropolitan

2004

1

2005

11

2006

0

South Yorkshire

2004

2

2005

5

2006

0

West Yorkshire

2004

0

2005

1

2006

0

South Wales

2004

0

2005

2

2006

0

Leicestershire

2004

0

2005

2

2006

0

West Midlands

2004

0

2005

0

2006

3

Kent

2004

0

2005

3

2006

0

Operation Pentameter, a multi-agency initiative aimed at tackling the trafficking of human beings for sexual exploitation was recently co-ordinated across the whole of the UK. All 55 police forces and a number of NGOs were involved. 84 victims of trafficking were rescued during the operation. This operation will result in an increase in the number of convictions when they go to court.