One to One Questions
1) What is your current position?
I am the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner for the United Kingdom. I have been appointed to spearhead the UK’s response to modern slavery. My job in brief is to make the UK once again, the lead the in the eradication of this disgraceful activity.
2) What are your proudest achievements?
Establishing the Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking Unit. Improving the numbers of victims identified from less than 20 to hundreds in only three years is something I am extremely proud of.
3) What inspires you?
I truly believe that everyone should be able to access justice and it is a huge privilege to have a job that fights for this. Indeed, the mission of my office is to “demand freedom and justice”.
4) What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?
Bureaucracy and bureaucrats. Anyone who thinks creating a form or document can be a solution must live in a different world to mine.
5) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
There are many I have met in the police force who have provided ideas, leadership and enthusiasm. I have met excellent role models from constables to chief officers. I am also fortunate to have worked with so many exceptional people from a wide cross section of society. But I recall as a young constable almost three decades ago, whilst on foot patrol I helped an elderly woman who was a victim of a burglary. She thanked me and as I recall said to me “keep doing your job and catch the bad ones and you’ll be alright, never give up and stand up to the bullies, that’s what we’ve done all our lives.” These were wise words and still resonate with me now.
If the question were who inspires me in contemporary history it would be Nelson Mandela. He stood up to the bullies and changed a nation, indeed the world.
6) What is the best aspect about your current role?
I see victims become survivors. In my new role I now have the opportunity to ensure there are far more outcomes such as this, where the victims are identified and supported and the criminals are sent to prison.
7) And the worst?
Seeing victims of modern slavery ignored, go unidentified or, unbelievably, wrongly imprisoned. It is frustrating and profoundly disappointing when those who have a duty to protect society fail in this duty. This is something I will not tolerate in my new role.
8) What are your long term goals?
I want to see the United Kingdom become the global lead in the eradication of modern slavery, where victims feel confident to report to the authorities and the criminals are relentlessly pursued. My long-term objective is to see this crime stamped out in the UK within my lifetime and to have played a role in the UK setting an example to the world.
9) If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?
I would place a greater value on volunteering and community. I know that David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ idea has attempted to address this, but I would go further. I would make it a requirement that everyone in the public sector, starting with the Prime Minister, commit to working at least one day a year in a voluntary organisation.
10) If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?
Without doubt, William Wilberforce. I would have to start the conversation with an apology that his foresight, leadership and true compassion to mankind was not continued sufficiently to achieve his ambitions and I would make a commitment to him that I would do my upmost to follow his leadership and example.
