National PCC Lead on tackling modern slavery welcomes Anti-Slavery Day reports
18th October 2019
The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC), Dame Sara Thornton has published her Strategic Plan for 2019 - 2021 today (18/10) listing 4 overarching priories:
- Improving victim care and support
- Supporting law enforcement and prosecutions
- Focusing on prevention
- Getting value from research and innovation
Responding to the publication, Mark Burns-Williamson OBE, West Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and National Lead PCC on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, said:
"I welcome the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Dame Sara Thornton's Strategic Plan for 2019 - 2021 and the priorities set out within which I have been supporting both regionally and nationally.
"This plan will build on a whole host of activity that has already taken place and is continuing in West Yorkshire as well as across much of England and Wales, such as through the National Anti-Trafficking and Modern Slavery Network (NATMSN) which I chair, and which the IASC attended shortly after being confirmed in post.
The Government has also this week published the 2019 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery. The report specifically highlights the NATMSN and the Modern Slavery Transformation Programme as good practise in tackling Modern Slavery. Both of which Mr Burns-Williamson plays a key role in.
Mark added: "Since first becoming the PCC in 2012 I made tackling modern slavery and human trafficking a priority in my own Police and Crime Plan following the adoption and analysis of strategic threats at that time, I have also encouraged many of my PCC colleagues to take the same approach working with their police forces and other key partners. I have consistently driven forward the need for a multi partnership response, keeping the victims and survivors of these awful crimes at the heart of what we do.
"I look forward to continuing to work with the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and my PCC colleagues, as well as a raft of local, national and international partners, to tackle the scourge of modern slavery and human trafficking, bringing perpetrators to justice wherever possible and ending all the human rights abuses that go along with them."