Sentencing Council launches consultation on sentencing guidelines for modern slavery offences
Sentencing Council launches consultation on sentencing guidelines for modern slavery offences 
Draft sentencing guidelines for offenders convicted of modern slavery offences (external site, opens in a new tab), including slavery, servitude, compulsory labour and trafficking people for exploitation purposes, have been published for consultation today by the Sentencing Council.
The draft guidelines, which apply to adult offenders, cover two main offences under the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) 2015 (external site, opens in a new tab):
- Holding someone in slavery, servitude and forced labour (section 1), including physical restraint or imprisonment, threats or treatment which make escape from their position an impossibility.
- Human trafficking – transporting people for purposes of exploitation (section 2), which may involve recruiting, harbouring, receiving or transferring people cross-border.
The Sentencing Council has published a statistical bulletin and data tables (external site, opens in a new tab), detailing recent sentencing trends for modern slavery offences.
A press release (external site, opens in a new tab) is available on the Sentencing Council website.