Thousands of UK companies are failing to meet standards set out by the Government’s UK Modern Slavery Act, new figures show, with only a few leading companies demonstrating real efforts to tackle modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.
New data from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre shows that of the 9,000-11,000 companies that should publish yearly reports on their actions to address the risk of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains, only just over 5,000 have done so.
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“The UK Government is to be congratulated for provoking 5,000 companies to make anti-slavery statements,” says Phil Bloomer, executive director of the Centre. “But, with another 5,000 companies flouting the Government’s Modern Slavery Act, the Home Office should now act decisively to use its enforcement powers against companies in breach of UK law. Without action, irresponsible companies will quickly sense impunity, and see the Modern Slavery Act as optional.”
The landmark Modern Slavery Act came into force on 26 March 2015, requiring any company with a turnover of GBP36m or more and operating in the UK to produce a yearly modern slavery statement. UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, has said a total of 45m people are victims of modern slavery worldwide, with around 13,000 victims in the UK.
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre says the UK Government should also be “deeply concerned” that the quality of statements is poor, with only a few leading companies demonstrating real efforts to tackle modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.
Figures from the Home Office show just 20% of the statements published so far were assessed by the Centre as meeting all three minimum requirements set out by the Act. 40% of statements in the Modern Slavery Registry were not available from the company’s homepage, 30% were not signed by a director, and 65% did not contain explicit board approval.
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By GlobalData“With just one in five statements meeting even the basic administrative duties set by the government, the UK government has a substantial challenge to enforce the Act, and to insist that the majority of companies start taking seriously their duty to cut out the risk of modern slavery in their business,” says Bloomer.
In separate research released in October 2017, the Centre looked in detail at the quality of action FTSE 100 companies reported undertaking. It found only a handful – including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Unilever, British American Tobacco, Tesco and Vodafone – were adequately incorporating modern slavery into risk assessments, staff training and sourcing decisions.
“None of us want the products we buy and the services we use to be tainted with slavery,” adds Patricia Carrier, project manager of the Modern Slavery Registry. “Companies that have not produced a statement under the Act are failing to demonstrate to consumers, customers and investors that they are taking these problems seriously.”
