Modern Slavery Act 2015 Committee Report

Lord Smith of Hindhead Excerpts

Friday 28th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Smith of Hindhead (Con)]

My Lords, I start by mentioning how sad I was that Baroness Henig, who was due to chair this committee, was sadly unable to take on this role due to ill health, and in fact passed away as our deliberations began. Ruth was a very intelligent and kind lady whom I had the privilege to serve alongside on other committees of special inquiry.

I also say, however, how fortunate we were that the noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, took on this role. Despite having been in your Lordships’ House for only a short time, she was, in my view, an excellent chair whose past experience was evident in her careful and considerate handling of an important and timely review of the Modern Slavery Act. I of course add my thanks to our clerk and the wider team for their professionalism in dealing with the committee’s work.

The task of post-legislative review is never straightforward, and it is even less so when the subject matter is complex—and there is no doubt that modern slavery is a complex subject with a great many overlapping factors. We certainly saw that when hearing evidence and cross-examining witnesses.

In the short time we all have to speak today, it is possible to pick out only a couple of topics from our report, and I will therefore focus on the following. During our deliberations, we heard from a huge number of NGOs, academics, experts and people who had spent often years or decades studying or working in the area of modern slavery. But the word “prevention” was rarely spoken and, until our eighth meeting, I think it had been said only twice. There seemed at times to be a lack of understanding between cause and effect. The last statistic produced by government, back in 2017, estimated that modern slavery cost the UK economy between £3.3 billion and £4.3 billion each year, which is about as broad-brush as one could get.

Yet, despite these costs, despite people being able to have a career in the industry of NGOs looking after the victims of modern slavery, and despite all the difficulties that we as a committee saw evidence of, the current prosecution rate of people who are behind all this misery, human tragedy and suffering is 1.8% of all cases brought to the attention of the police and courts.

I understand that there are many contributing factors for this low figure, and indeed we were assured that since hidden crimes, such as domestic abuse and sexual offences, sat at a similar prosecution rate of between 1% and 3% it was not apparently as low as it seemed. The figure nevertheless struck me and other members of the committee as being painfully inadequate. Will the Minister update the House on what measures are being considered to increase this prosecution rate and whether there are any plans significantly to increase prison sentences for those who are prosecuted as a deterrent to what is viewed by many in the criminal fraternity as being a high-profit, low-risk crime? Can the Minister provide an updated figure from the one available from eight years ago on how much the effects of modern slavery are costing the UK economy today?

The second point I would like to raise is that during our findings I was somewhat dismissive of certain areas and topics being examined which, in my view, constituted bad employment practices rather than modern slavery. I felt at times that we were being taken off course, but I have changed my mind. That is one of the great things about your Lordships’ House: we have the freedom and are entitled to change our views. I now accept that certain employment practices may provide a culture in which modern slavery can exist.

My view changed following the publication of a news article in September last year, subsequent to the publication of our report, which was briefly referred to by the noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, concerning modern slavery victims, all from the Czech Republic, who were forced for years to work at both a McDonald’s branch in Cambridgeshire and a company supplying bread products to major supermarkets. The criminal gang in question forced 16 victims to work at either the fast food restaurant or the factory that supplied Asda, the Co-op, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.

I cannot comment on the bakery company, as I have no knowledge of it, but McDonald’s is an excellent employer with a happy, long-standing workforce, but well-established warning signs of slavery, including paying the wages of four men into one bank account, were missed over many years. On several occasions, some of the victims escaped and fled home, only to be tracked down and trafficked back to the UK. Now, while I am delighted that this exploitation ended after the victims contacted the police in the Czech Republic who then tipped off their British counterparts, how could so many red flags have been missed, allowing this exploitation to continue for so many years with the criminal gang making hundreds of thousands of pounds?

Will the Minister comment on whether there are any plans to initiate further collaborations with police forces from other countries to help solve this international problem and on whether the Government should provide advice to employers about red flags that indicate that modern slavery may be operating? Perhaps banks should be encouraged to be vigilant in cases where wages are being paid into a single account.

I end by saying that it was a privilege to serve on this committee of special inquiry, and I sincerely hope that our work and recommendations to the Government may in some way help to break the invisible chains of modern slavery.