Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will adopt the recommendations from the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015: Final report, CP 100, published in May 2019, to strengthen the domestic legal framework for ensuring corporate accountability for modern slavery in supply chains.

Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 established the UK as the first country in the world to require businesses to report annually on steps taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. The Government is committed to continuously strengthening our approach to increase transparency in supply chains. In 2018, the Home Office commissioned an Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act to look at where the Act has worked well and where it could be more effective, including section 54.

The Government accepted the majority (see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-independent-review-of-the-modern-slavery-act)of the Review’s recommendations and on 9 July 2019 the Home Office launched a public consultation seeking views on an ambitious package of measures to strengthen the Act’s transparency legislation. These included requiring organisations to report on specific topics, introducing a single reporting deadline and extending transparency to the public sector. The Government will publish its response to the consultation this summer.

We are also developing a new gov.uk registry for statements published under the Modern Slavery Act, to enable greater scrutiny from consumers, investors, civil society and others and drive a “race to the top”.