“Cuckooing” in the homes of vulnerable people by drug gangs should become a criminal offence, according to a call from the Centre for Social Justice thinktank which has gathered cross-party backing.are leading calls for the practice – which was spotlighted in the BBC series Happy Valley – to be criminalised as part of an overhaul of the 2015 Modern Slavery Act.
During a police crackdown in March 2022 on “county lines” gangs who distribute drugs from city hubs to bases in smaller towns and villages, they visited 799 different cuckooed addresses. Polling by the CSJ has found that one in eight people have seen signs of cuckooing in their communities. “We must outlaw this exploitation of vulnerable people, threatened and manipulated by drug gangs who take over their home,” said Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley. “We cannot leave them any longer to suffer behind closed doors at risk of being prosecuted themselves.”
The proposal to make cuckooing a crime is part of calls to update the law on modern slavery. The CSJ said nearly four times as many modern slavery victims were formally identified and referred for support in 2021 compared with the year the laws were introduced.