The MSA requires that the statements are discussed at senior management level and approved by the Board of Directors, Members, or Partners (who signs it is dependent on the type of company it is). This ensures senior level accountability, leadership and responsibility for modern slavery and gives it the serious attention it deserves.
A board of directors (B of D) is a group of individuals that are elected as, or elected to act as, representatives of the stockholders to establish corporate management related policies and to make decisions on major company issues.
A member must sign when it is a limited liability partnership. A member is a partner in a business who is only liable for the money they invest in the business, not the business or other partners.
A partner must sign when it is a limited partnership, or any other type of organisation. Partners have management control, share the right to use partnership property, share the profits and have joint and liability for debts of the partnership.
For further information on approval of a statement please read the Home Office Guidance, page 13.
Where the statement includes an explicit statement that it has been approved by Board of Directors select the "Approved by Board" option.
Approval for the statement can usually be found near the end of the document. If the statement has been explicitly approved by some entity or person other than the board of directors, please select "Approved - not by Board" and add the relevant sentence as a comment on your value. If no explicit approval can be found choose the "Approval not explicit in statement" value.
NOTE: explicit approval is not the same as signature - this is covered under the metric MSA Statement Signed.
* Note on choosing the Year of your answer
Read the MSA Statement carefully to find out what year it covers.
When a statement is referring to a Financial Year (FY) ending in Q1 or early Q2, it should be labeled with the previous year. Example:
- Statement for FY2018/19 ending in April 2019 = 2018
- Statement for FY2018/19 ending in May 2019 (or later) = 2019