Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had recent discussions with businesses which operate in China on their legal obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Home Office Ministers have not met with businesses which operate in China to discuss the Modern Slavey Act 2015.

Under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act, commercial businesses who operate in the UK and have a turnover of £36m or more are required to report annually on the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. The aim of the requirement is to provide transparency, allowing consumers, investors, and civil society to scrutinise business action.

In 2021 the Government launched the modern slavery statement registry to bring together modern slavery statements on a single platform and make the data readily available for investors, civil society and consumers. Since launching the online modern slavery statement registry in March 2021, over 12,500 modern slavery statements covering over 43,000 organisations have been submitted to the registry on a voluntary basis.

The Government does not routinely review the quality of individual modern slavery statements.