UK: Tough New Measures Aimed at Tackling Modern Slavery
The UK government has introduced new mandatory reporting requirements for large public bodies to help tackle modern slavery risks in supply chains.
Tough new measures on large businesses and public bodies to tackle modern slavery risks in supply chains have been announced by the UK government.
The new measures added to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 mean public bodies with a budget of £36 million or more, including local authorities in England and Wales, will be required to regularly report on the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their supply chains.
The mandatory reporting will cover business metrics such as due diligence and risk assessments, and will be required to be submitted digitally to on a new Government reporting service, which will be launched early next year.
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) called the move a “step in the right direction” – but said more needed to counter modern slavery.
This includes: removing the ability for organisations to simply say they have taken no steps to tackle modern slavery in their supply chains; progressively reducing the £36m threshold for reporting; and extending the licensing powers of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority to other at-risk sectors.
IOSH Head of Policy and Regulatory Engagement, Richard Jones, said the measures were welcomed but that a culture change was needed across the business sector.
“But these alone won’t be enough to tackle this global scourge which we abhor. We’d like to see a culture change, with organisations taking prompt preventive action and held to account if they don’t. There’s clear public support (83 per cent) for employer-provided training on preventing modern slavery across operations and supply chains, and strong support (88 per cent) on the need for business advisers to understand the risks of modern slavery.
“We need a multi-faceted approach to fighting these insidious crimes. We believe transparency and high-quality reporting are essential tools and that standardising and harmonising them enables better benchmarking and comparability. They can help customers and investors to make informed choices and can help drive improvement on corporate action to prevent modern slavery.
“We believe that public, professional and worker awareness can help ensure that warning signs of exploitation don’t slip beneath the radar and go unnoticed, with organisations mistakenly thinking they don’t have a modern slavery problem when, in reality, they need to act.”
