To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who have been trafficked who are (a) in the UK and (b) working as prostitutes in the UK. (241131)

The covert and deceptive nature of the crime make it difficult to provide an accurate assessment of the numbers of people who have been trafficked into the United Kingdom.

However, we estimate that at any one time in 2003 there were up to 4,000 women who had been trafficked into the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research her Department has used to estimate the number of people who have been trafficked into the UK. (241132)

The current estimate is that at any one time in 2003 there were up to 4,000 women who had been trafficked into the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation. This was a result of work by Home Office officials which formed part of a wider piece of work on the economic and social costs of organised crime.

The UK Human Trafficking Centre, in conjunction with the Serious Organised Crime Agency and Police Regional Intelligence Units, continues work to build a clearer picture of the nature and scale of the threat posed by all forms of trafficking.