- In July 2019 Government published a consultation regarding increasing transparency and compliance in supply chains
- Government has now published its response to the consultation - see the full response here
- It has been five years since the UK made it mandatory to identify and address modern slavery in supply chains, under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (‘the Act’), and Government are committed to further strengthening measures
- Currently section 54 of the Act suggests areas that should be reported on by a business, on its modern slavery and human trafficking statements (‘statements’). However, respondents to the consultation supported the introduction of mandatory reporting areas – this is going to be taken forward
- Respondents mostly agreed that publishing a statement on a Government-run reporting service would not present any challenges – this is going to be mandated so businesses captured by section 54 of the Act will publish their statement on one reporting service
- It was suggested that there would be a single reporting deadline on which all annual statements should be published with potential civil penalties for non-compliance – a single reporting deadline of 30 September will be introduced for a shared reporting period of 1 April – 31 March
- Respondents were clear that there is a need for greater enforcement of the current requirement. However, there were mixed views on extending penalties to the public sector – this is going to be considered in line with the development of the Single Enforcement Body
- Respondents agreed that the requirement to publish a statement should be extended to large public bodies – this will be introduced and a budget threshold of £36m will be used
- For all measures which require legislative change, the Home Office intends to introduce this when parliamentary time allows
Aspire Business Partnership ("Aspire") provide WK1 with practical and commercially sound advice in relation to all aspects of compliance, business strategy and conflict resolution. WK1 engage Aspire on a retained basis through which Aspire provide WK1 with advice on an ad-hoc basis.
