Modern slavery at record levels in UK and expected to worsen, report warns

Slavery in the UK is at record levels and is expected to worsen over the next decade, the government’s independent anti-slavery commissioner has warned. According to the number of referrals to the national referral mechanism , which assesses potential victims of slavery and provides support to victims, numbers have almost doubled in the last five years from 12,691 referrals in 2021 to 23,411 in 2025, the highest ever number. In her report, published on Tuesday, Eleanor Lyons said this increase was not only due to better detection of slavery but also to worsening conditions in the UK and across the world. “Poverty, global instability, conflict, global displacement of people and the breakdown of safe migration routes are creating a growing pipeline of vulnerability that traffickers are quick to exploit,” said the report, Anticipating Exploitation: A Futures-Based Analysis. It pulled together research compiled by more than 50 different experts across law enforcement, government, civil society and the charity sector and is the first comprehensive forward-looking analysis of how modern slavery and human trafficking are likely to evolve in the UK over the next decade. …