Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that modern slavery does not take place within the Government's supply chains.

The Government is committed to tackling modern slavery in both private and public sector supply chains. Since 1 October 2015, commercial organisations which have an annual turnover of £36 million or more have been required, under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, to prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year. The statement must set out the steps taken to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place within its own business or supply chains.

The Government has published a Supplier Code of Conduct to make clear the standards and behaviours that are expected of our suppliers when they work with government and we will now develop proposals for the government’s biggest suppliers to publish data and provide action plans for how they plan to address key social issues, including the scourge of modern slavery.

In addition, the Government’s Standard Selection Questionnaire includes Mandatory Exclusion Grounds if an organisation or an associated individual has been convicted of child labour and other forms of trafficking in human beings, within the last 5 years

The Home Office and the Crown Commercial Service will be developing further guidance to support contracting authorities to identify, and mitigate against, modern slavery risks in supply chains.