To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the acknowledgement in the European Directive on Human Trafficking that it is essential to identify children as victims of trafficking before they go missing, what action they are taking to increase the identification of trafficked children at a local level.

Government take the issue of early identification of child victims as well as the response to missing children very seriously. In addition to work being done at a national level to raise awareness of child trafficking among police and local authority officers, the Government have supported the development of the London Safeguarding Children Board Trafficking toolkit and guidance which was launched on 3 February 2011. The aim of the toolkit is to better aid practitioners in identifying and safeguarding child victims of trafficking.

Government have also widened the list of first responders of the national referral mechanism to include Barnardo's and the National Society for the Protection of Children's child trafficking advice and information line. This will allow more potential victims of this crime to be identified through their specialised work.