In December 2008 the UK ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. The Convention is the first international treaty obliging states to adopt minimum standards to assist trafficked persons and protect their rights.

The Convention came into force in the UK in April 2009 but without an accompanying formal monitoring mechanism. In its absence, in May 2009 a group of nine UK-based organisations set up the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group to monitor the implementation and to share the information they were able to gather about the UK’s compliance with the Convention.

This summary presents the results of the group’s research to examine how the UK and its devolved administrations are meeting their obligations under the Convention. It finds that the UK Government’s anti-trafficking practice is not compliant with the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings and, where it relates to children, is not compliant with other aspects of UK law or best practice.