Prosecutions under the Modern Slavery Act
Wednesday 14 May 2025, 12.30pm UK time.
Dr Alicia Heys, a Senior Lecturer in Modern Slavery at the Wilberforce Institute at the University of Hull, Co-Investigator of the Modern Slavery PEC on behalf of Hull University.
About the event
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 was introduced to consolidate offences, improve victim protection, and enhance the UK’s ability to prosecute those responsible for human trafficking and modern slavery offences.
The key measures of the Act were consolidating and clarifying offences gathered under the umbrella of modern slavery, from slavery and servitude, to trafficking and compulsory labour, increasing the penalties for these crimes up to life imprisonment. The Act also introduced statutory defence for people forced to commit crimes as a result of their exploitation, confiscation of traffickers’ assets and prevention orders to restrict activities of suspected perpetrators.
But despite increased public and professional awareness and a growing number of National Referral Mechanism (NRM) referrals, prosecution and conviction rates under this legislation remain low.
The Modern Slavery and Human Rights PEC has published a report analysing what has gone wrong - and well – for successful prosecutions since the Modern Slavery Act was introduced ten years ago, and identifies opportunities to address these challenges. The research was carried out by Dr Alicia Heys, a Senior Lecturer in Modern Slavery at the Wilberforce Institute at the University of Hull, and the Co-Investigator of the Modern Slavery PEC on behalf of her University.
In this lunchtime seminar, Dr Alicia Heys will talk about her research exploring why convictions under the Modern Slavery Act remain limited and what we can do to improve the situation.
Modern Slavery PEC lunchtime seminar series
At the Modern Slavery PEC we believe in increasing the understanding of modern slavery, particularly through promoting the latest robust and relevant evidence in a way that is accessible to everyone.
This is why we have started a series of monthly lunchtime seminars, at which modern slavery researchers can share their latest findings with a diverse audience - everyone is welcome! The format is deliberately accessible and concise: no more than 15 minutes to present, followed by questions and discussion. Each seminar will last no longer than 45 minutes (unless there are lots of questions), which we hope will fit nicely into your lunch break!
We’ll be asking researchers who present to explain their findings in plain language that non-experts can easily understand, focusing on the real-world implications of their work and potential for impact on policy or practice, and, above all, on people and communities affected by modern slavery.
The seminars are open to anyone to join – you don’t have to be a researcher yourself. We encourage everyone interested to come along.
For those who can't make it, we will record the presentations and publish them on our YouTube channel and as short podcasts.
