Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are planning to require public bodies to include a statement on slavery and human trafficking in their annual report and accounts.

Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act was designed to shine a light on action that private sector organisations are taking to prevent slavery in their supply chains. Public bodies are subject to different transparency and accountability arrangements. We have added a question to the cross-government procurement selection questionnaire, so that we can assess whether would-be suppliers to HMG are compliant with the Modern Slavery Act. We are also considering whether further steps are needed to support public bodies to do more.