To ask Her Majesty's Government how many public officials are invited to attend meetings of the Modern Slavery Stakeholders Forum.
Answered on
15 July 2014
The Modern Slavery Stakeholder Forum was set up in February 2014 and has met three times. Its pre-cursor, the Joint Strategic Group, was set up in early 2013 and also met three times. The Modern Slavery Stakeholder Forum provides an opportunity for the Home Office to engage with partners, understand what is happening on the front-line, and develop policy collaboratively. Non-Governmental attendees have the opportunity to engage with officials and Ministers, and to influence policy making.
The minutes of these meetings are made available to all attendees and are public documents available to anyone who requests them. However, it is not considered appropriate to place the minutes of each meeting in Library of the House.
The invite list for these meetings is subject to regular review and attendance varies depending on the availability of those invited and the topics for discussion. At the last meeting of 10 June 2014, 16 public officials attended which included officials from the Home Office, other government departments, law enforcement agencies and the devolved administrations. 20 representatives of non-governmental organisations were invited of whom 15 attended. Separate meetings are held with private sector representatives.
No advisors or experts, paid for by public funds, are ordinarily invited to the stakeholder forum meetings.