The UK's Modern Slavery Act 2015

The Modern Slavery Act became law in the UK on 26th March 2015. Under Section 54 of the legislation, a commercial organisation that has an annual turnover of over £36 million and with operations in the UK has to publish a slavery and human trafficking statement each year. The statement should set out the steps the company has taken to ensure there is no slavery or trafficking in its supply chains and its own business, or state that it has taken no such steps.

The legislation does not prescribe what these statements should include, but provides some suggestions that the statement describe relevant policies, due diligence processes, risk assessment and risk management mechanisms, training programmes, and the means by which the company measure the effectiveness of these approaches.

The Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018

The Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018 (the Act) entered into force on 1 January 2019. The Act established a national Modern Slavery Reporting Requirement (Reporting Requirement) for large businesses and other entities in the Australian market with annual consolidated revenue of at least AUD$100 million.

The Reporting Requirement supports the Australian business community to identify and address their modern slavery risks, and maintain responsible and transparent supply chains. Entities required to comply with the Reporting Requirement must prepare annual Modern Slavery Statements (statements). These statements must set out the reporting entity’s actions to assess and address modern slavery risks in their global operations and supply chains.

Project Goals

To evaluate the quality of Modern Slavery Statements that are produced by companies in accordance with UK's Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018. This year we want to establish a baseline against which we can measure the impact of the Act on companies, and in turn, on modern slavery.

What is modern slavery?

Modern slavery describes situations where offenders use coercion, threats or deception to exploit victims and undermine their freedom.

Practices that constitute modern slavery can include:

• Human trafficking
• Wlavery
• Wervitude
• Rorced labour
• Eebt bondage
• Rorced marriage, and
• Child labour

Modern slavery is a term used to describe serious exploitation. It does not include practices like substandard working conditions or underpayment of workers, although these practices are also harmful and may be present in some situations of modern slavery.

Find out more about modern slavery:

Suggested reading:

1. Walk Free Tackling Modern Slavery in Supply Chains: A Guide 1.0

2. Statements can be found here

Further Guidance:

Check out the following example company to see how the project organisers have researched these metrics:

• Marks and Spencer Group plc