Tackling modern slavery

Tackling modern slavery remains an “urgent priority” for its members, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) recently confirmed in its written evidence to a parliamentary committee. The BRC argued that public pressure alone could not be relied on to drive business action on forced labour. It called on the government to legislate to enforce mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence, to introduce import restrictions on products made with forced labour, and argued that the Fair Work Agency (the new single enforcement body currently being created) should be given greater powers to tackle modern slavery. 

It is fair to say that legislative reform of the UK’s modern slavery laws has long been promised but, as yet, has not been delivered. In the meantime, retailers should note that the Home Office has recently updated its guidance on transparency in supply chains, and ought to take proactive steps to ensure they are compliant with this updated guidance.

When does a retailer have a duty to publish a modern slavery statement?

Larger retailers (i.e. those with a total turnover of over £36 million p.a.) are currently required to publish an annual modern slavery statement under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Many smaller retail organisations also publish a modern slavery statement, either entirely voluntarily or because they operate within supply chains which require them to do so.

How has the government’s guidance changed? 

The Home Office’s updated guidance, ‘Transparency in Supply Chains: Statutory guidance’, clearly sets out the government’s expectations for modern slavery statements and encourages businesses to take meaningful action to tackle modern slavery. The guidance has been updated to reflect the learnings from the 10 year period that has passed since the Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force. 

The foreword to the guidance notes that an estimated 27+ million people each year globally are trapped in forced labour and that victims can be found in almost every sector and every country. 

Key highlights of the updated guidance include: 

• Due diligence: organisations should be vigilant to ensure they are not knowingly or unwittingly complicit in abuse taking place in their operations and global supply chains. They must be proactive in identifying actual and potential risks. The guidance notes that modern slavery is so prevalent across the globe that if a business is not identifying risks and cases of modern slavery in its supply chains, then it can be argued they are not looking hard enough.

• Victim-centred: organisations are encouraged to take a victim-centred approach to remediation where they uncover modern slavery. They should avoid knee-jerk reactions that could cause further harm to the victims. 

• Transparency: if an organisation identifies case(s) of modern slavery and/or human trafficking in their supply chains, they should be transparent about this in their modern slavery statements.

There is also greatly enhanced guidance on what information to include in a modern slavery statement – based on two levels, with level one covering basic compliance and level two involving more detailed information - in relation to the employer’s: 

• Organisational structure, business and supply chains: including info on the countries involved and details of how goods and services are sourced from both direct and indirect suppliers, produced and/or distributed.

• Policies, stakeholder engagement and communication: including info on the employee and supplier codes of conduct, recruitment practices, responsible purchasing procedures, and on the prohibition of child labour.

• Assessment and analysis of modern slavery risks: including info on risk assessments, risk prioritisation and how modern slavery risks are incorporated into the compliance function.

• Due diligence in relation to modern slavery: including info about risk-based due diligence, the identification of actual and potential risks, and steps taken to mitigate those risks.

• Training on modern slavery: including info on internal and external training, and the development of the training package and training materials.

• Monitoring and evaluation: including info on goal setting, KPIs, use of quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of policies/measures, stakeholder engagement and success stories.

The guidance also recommends that employers should retain online access to their historic modern slavery statements when new statements are published, to allow the public to evaluate the organisation’s progress over time.

How can we help?

Our experienced team have previously advised retailers of varying sizes on their modern slavery statements, due diligence, contractual requirements and global supplier audit protocols. If you require our advice and support on these issues, please contact our retail and leisure team.