Slavery

(asked on 11th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to ask British embassies to designate an official with special responsibility for modern slavery, focussing on supply chains for exports to the UK and the operations of UK companies overseas.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 25th January 2021

Many British Embassies and High Commissions already have a focus on modern slavery including supply chain aspects where appropriate. This Government is committed to eliminating modern slavery from our communities and the global economy, and in 2019 appointed the UK's first International Modern Slavery and Migration Envoy to help drive forwards our efforts in partnership with other Governments and multilateral organisations. Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires businesses to report on how they are tackling modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. Section 54 was designed to empower consumers, investors, civil society and others to scrutinise the action that businesses are taking to identify and address modern slavery in their supply chains.

The Government has committed to strengthening the legislation. Our response to the transparency in supply chains consultation, published on 22 September 2020, announced an ambitious package of changes to Section 54, including introducing specific reporting topics and requiring statements to be published by a single reporting deadline on a central Government-run registry, to enable the Government and others to continuously monitor compliance. In addition, the Government announced in the week of 11 January that it will introduce financial penalties for organisations that do not comply with the reporting requirements under the Modern Slavery Act. These measures require primary legislation and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

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