Modern Slavery Act 2015

(asked on 29th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the 2019 Independent review of the Modern Slavery Act, what plans she has to introduce penalties for non-compliance with Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.


Answered by
Victoria Atkins Portrait
Victoria Atkins
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This question was answered on 7th October 2020

The Government accepted the majority of the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act. The details are set out in the Government response to the Independent Review, published on 9 July 2019 at www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-independent-review-of-the-modern-slavery-act.

As part of its response to the Independent Review, the Home Office launched a public consultation on potential changes to the Modern Slavery Act’s transparency legislation on 9 July 2019. The Government response to the consultation, published on 22 September 2020, committed to introducing an ambitious package of measures to strengthen and future-proof the legislation, including:

extending the reporting requirement to public bodies with a budget of £36 million or more;

mandating the specific reporting topics that statements must cover

requiring statements to be published on the new Government digital reporting service

setting a single reporting deadline; and

taking forwards options for penalties for non-compliance in line with the ongoing development of the Single Enforcement Body for employment rights.

These measures require legislative change and as such will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

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