A National Referral Mechanism (NRM) should be a framework within which state actors ful l their obligations to protect and promote the human rights of all traf cked persons, including British nationals, working in collaboration and partnership with civil society. The NRM currently in operation in the UK is not such a framework. As shown in this report and evidenced in previous ATMG research, the system is at best awed, at worst discriminatory. As a result, it is systematically failing to protect victims’ rights. The ATMG has proposed two models for the operation of the NRM for adults; one with a centralized governmental body that will act as the ‘Competent Authority’, and the other which will operate at the regional level through ‘Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs’ (MASH), or equivalent multi-agency bodies, in line with the model proposed for children. The ATMG believes that both are viable, and each may offer certain bene ts over the other. These differences have been considered and presented at the end of this document (p. 23-24).