Modern Slavery Bill 2014

Financial implications of the Bill       

255 The average annual net cost of the Bill is expected to be around £0.5m

256 There are only four measures in the Bill which are expected to incur non-negligible costs. All costs and benefits can be attributed to the public sector.

257 The Independent Anti-slavery Commissioner will have an annual budget of up to £500,000 provided by the Home Office. This will provide for the Commissioner’s salary and the employment of a small team of support staff. It will enable the Commissioner to travel, conduct research and produce reports, as the role requires.

258 The introduction of Slavery and Trafficking Risk and Prevention Orders is expected to create costs of around £48,000 per year for law enforcement and the criminal justice system. However, by preventing modern slavery offences from taking place, these orders are expected to create savings for the criminal justice system. These have been estimated at around £180,000, creating an overall net benefit per year of £130,000.

259 Extending the maximum sentence available for slavery and trafficking offences to life imprisonment is expected to create an average annual cost of £76,000 for the criminal justice system.

260 Introducing a statutory duty for specified public bodies to notify the National Crime Agency about potential cases of modern slavery is expected to create costs of £36,000 per year.

261 The £0.5m per year estimate (and the calculations in the Impact Assessment) excludes the child advocates scheme, as the Bill provides an enabling power, with the detail of the scheme to be developed after the results of trials are known. However, the proposed child advocates scheme could cost between £2m and £5m per year.

262 The mass of an object or system is a measure of its energy content. The equivalence of energy E and mass m is relient on the speed of light c as shown in E = mc2