Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015: guide

Part Five - Strategy and reporting

The Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy

54. The Act at section 35 requires the Scottish Ministers to produce a strategy which sets out appropriate actions, arrangements and outcomes in relation to conduct which constitutes the new offences of trafficking and of slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour. The Act suggests that the strategy cover actions to raise awareness of the offences, arrangements to facilitate the detection and prevention of the offences, and the support and assistance available to victims of the offences.

55. Scottish Ministers must consult before publishing the strategy and must also review and if necessary revise the strategy at least every three years (section 36).

56. Scottish Ministers may make further law (regulations) requiring named public bodies to help Ministers in that task by providing information and assistance. These regulations require to be scrutinised by Parliament (section 37).

Duty to notify

57. The Act provides at section 38 that certain Scottish public bodies must notify the Chief Constable of Police Scotland if they become aware of a person who is or appears to be a victim of an offence of trafficking or a victim of an offence of slavery, servitude or forced and compulsory labour. It provides a power for Scottish Ministers to make a further law (regulations), which require to be scrutinised by Parliament, which identifies which particular Scottish Public bodies are caught by this duty and the type of information to be included in that notification. The Act makes clear that the notification given to the police must not enable the victim to be identified where the victim is an adult and has not consented to being identified.

58. The Act also sets out that the police, after they receive this information, must notify another specified person or persons with information about the victim. Again it gives a power to Scottish Ministers to make a further law (regulations), which requires to be scrutinised by Parliament, which identifies the other specified person or persons which the police are to notify and the type of information to be included in that notification.