After the highest recorded numbers of potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in 2024, statistics from the first quarter in 2025 show this trend continuing. In 2024 there was an increase of 13% of referrals from 2023.  Annually in 2024, 19,125 people were referred to the NRM.

This summary is pulled from the Home Office Official Statistics on Modern Slavery for the first quarter in 2025 (January to March). It includes key facts and findings regarding the numbers of potential victims of modern slavery referred into the NRM or via the Duty to Notify (DtN) process.

• 5,297 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the Home Office from January to March 2025, representing a 4% decrease compared to the previous quarter (5,538) and a 17% increase from January to March 2024 (4,517)
• the number of referrals received this quarter is the second-highest since the NRM began in 2009, behind only the record in the previous quarter
• 72% (3,826) were sent to the Single Competent Authority (SCA) for consideration and 28% (1,471) to the Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority (IECA)
• the most common nationalities referred this quarter were UK (23%; 1,210), Vietnamese (12%; 645) and Eritrean (10%; 553)
• this was the highest number of referrals for UK and Vietnamese nationals in a quarter since the NRM began
• this was the first quarter since the start of the NRM data series in 2014 that Albanian nationals were not in the top 3 most referred nationalities
• 5,239 reasonable grounds and 5,833 conclusive grounds decisions were issued this quarter; of these, 53% of reasonable grounds and 58% of conclusive grounds decisions were positive
• the number of conclusive grounds decisions issued this quarter was the highest in a quarter since the NRM began, representing a 12% increase on the record in the previous quarter (5,253)
• the number of cases awaiting a conclusive grounds decision continues to fall, with 14,033 cases awaiting a decision at the end of March 2025, a reduction of 18% from the previous quarter (17,168) and a reduction of 52% from the peak at the end of 2022 (29,275)
• the average age of cases awaiting a conclusive grounds decision at the end of March 2025 was 460 days, as compared to 630 days at the end of the previous quarter
• the Home Office received 1,609 reports of adult potential victims via the DtN process, the second-highest in a quarter since the DtN began and behind only the record in the previous quarter (1,800)

 

See the full Home Office report here.