202403821 B2 - [2025] EWCA Crim 1205

The legal framework:

Article 4 of the Convention, incorporated by the Human Rights Act 1988, provides that:

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.

No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.”

Article 8 of the Convention provides that:

Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.

There shall be no interference with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”

Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, and of this court, establish that Article 4 entails a procedural obligation to investigate situations of potential trafficking: see R v AFU [2023] EWCA Crim 23, [2023] 1 Cr. App. R. 16 at [81], where the court emphasised the importance of early identification of actual or potential VOTs in order to respect their Article 4 rights. In compliance with its duty as a party to the European Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, the United Kingdom has established the NRM, to which police officers should refer the case of a person whom they suspect may be a VOT.

The MSA 2015, s1, provides for the offences of slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour. By s1(5):

The consent of a person (whether an adult or a child) to any of the acts alleged to constitute holding the person in slavery or servitude, or requiring the person to perform forced or compulsory labour, does not preclude a determination that the person is being held in slavery or servitude, or required to perform forced or compulsory labour.”

Section 2 of the MSA 2015 provides for the offence of human trafficking. By s2(1), it is an offence to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person (“V”) with a view to V being exploited. By s2(2):

“It is irrelevant whether V consents to the travel (whether V is an adult or a child).”

An offence under s2 of the MSA 2015 is one of the types of offence to which s1 of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992, as amended, applies. So far as is material for present purposes, s1 provides: