Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many companies with an annual turnover of £36 million or more failed to produce a (a) modern slavery statement and (b) modern slavery statement that met minimum requirements under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, in each of the last five years.

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. To comply with the requirement, statements must be:

• Published annually via a prominent link on the organisation’s homepage;
• Approved by the Board of Directors or equivalent;
• Signed by a Director or equivalent.

In 2019, the Home Office contracted the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) to undertake an audit of compliance with Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The audit was concluded in January 2020 with data accurate up to this point. The high-level findings of this audit were published on 17 September 2020 in the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s annual report (available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-anti-slavery-commissioners-annual-report-2019-to-2020).

In March 2021, the Government launched the modern slavery statement registry to radically enhance transparency by bringing together modern slavery statements on a single platform. Since launch, over 7,000 modern slavery statements covering over 23,500 organisations have been submitted to the registry on a voluntary basis.

Businesses’ response so far is demonstrating the registry’s positive impact by providing greater visibility of the steps organisations are taking to prevent modern slavery in their global supply chains and empowering investors, consumers and civil society to scrutinise the action organisations are taking to prevent modern slavery.

To improve the quality of reporting and compliance further, the Government has committed to introduce a package of measures to strengthen section 54. This includes the introduction of financial penalties for non-compliance and a requirement for organisations to publish their statements on the Government’s modern slavery statement registry which will enable Government to monitor and drive compliance with the legislation. These commitments require changes to primary legislation and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.