Kevin Hyland

Kevin Hyland, OBE (born 1963) is the United Kingdom’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, leading efforts to tackle slavery and human trafficking. He was formerly head of the London Metropolitan Police Service’s Human Trafficking Unit.

Hyland was a police officer for 30 years until retiring from the force as a detective inspector in 2014. As a detective Hyland specialised in various crimes throughout his policing career including homicide, gun crime, anti-corruption and then human trafficking and slavery. When working as a senior investigating officer, Hyland was responsible for the convictions of a large number of international organised crime groups, which included conducting multi-national JITs (joint investigation teams) bi-lateral prosecutions various criminal offences including money laundering, corruption, sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

In 2010 Hyland was appointed as the lead for the London Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking Unit. During Hyland’s tenure the London Metropolitan Police saw an increase in victim identifications and successful prosecutions of traffickers.

The creation of an Independent Commissioner is one of the main provisions of the UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015. Hyland was appointed to the role in November 2014 and acted as ‘designate’ Commissioner until the Bill received Royal Assent in March 2015, when he became Commissioner.

The Commissioner is a national official who works to ensure that modern slavery is tackled in a coordinated and effective manner, including strong international collaboration. The Commissioner is required to publish annual reports for Parliamentary scrutiny.

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