The Modern Slavery Act 2015 is an Act of Parliament designed to tackle slavery in the UK and consolidates previous offences relating to trafficking and slavery. The idea is to ensure that no slavery is linked to British products or services and that companies are taking a proactive approach, ensuring they have transparency in supply chains.
Organisations with a turnover of more than £36 million are required to make an annual statement setting out what they have done to tackle and prevent slavery and child labour, in their supply chains. The rules are meant to have a cascading effect on smaller businesses, as those that supply larger organisations will also be required to do the same to maintain business, making their chains slavery free as well.
Failure to provide an annual statement could lead to a company facing a high court injunction requiring them to comply, and an unlimited fine.
Steps organisations should take include:
- Ensure all your workers receive minimum wage
- Carry out thorough immigration checks on all employees
- Clearly map out supply chains, in particular highlight and investigate any high-risk supply chains
- Ethical sourcing
- Awareness of all workplace locations and carry out site inspections
- Provide training and guidance to relevant members of staff on modern slavery
- Ensure supplier contracts comply with the Modern Slavery Act
- Publish a statement annually online outlining the steps the company is taking to tackle modern slavery, highlighting the progress on how supply chains are being monitored year-on-year. There is increasing attention from the Government and pressure groups for when organisations are publishing second and third year modern slavery statements, that they show how they are evolving and progressing in identifying and tackling modern slavery risks.
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