Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the 10 Year Health Plan on victims of (a) modern slavery and (b) human trafficking.

When developing the 10-Year Health Plan, workshops were held for people experiencing multiple forms of social and economic exclusion played a large part in it, including victims of modern slavery.

As part of the recommendations from the review into modern slavery risk in NHS supply chains in December 2023, it was recommended to lay regulations with a view to eradicate modern slavery, supporting the amendment of Section 12zc in the NHS Act 2006.

The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England in collaboration have developed detailed guidance to support the embedding of the regulations and policies throughout a procurement exercise. This ensures alignment of procurements conducted under all legal regimes including the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Procurement Act 2023 and the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.

A public consultation for the content and approach of those regulations was launched in Autumn 2024. A Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) was laid in both Houses of Parliament on 21 November 2024 to launch the consultation, and is available at the following link:

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-11-21/hcws245.

As set out in the WMS, the draft regulations and guidance were published alongside the consultation. The consultation closed in February 2025 and the Department published a consultation report in June, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tackling-modern-slavery-in-nhs-procurement-proposed-regulations-and-guidance/outcome/tackling-modern-slavery-in-nhs-procurement-government-response. It is planned to lay the regulations in the autumn, to come into force in the spring/summer of 2026.

The published guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tackling-modern-slavery-in-nhs-procurement-proposed-regulations-and-guidance. This refers to a risk assessment tool that NHS England have developed based on the six characteristics to help assess modern slavery risks as set out in the Public Procurement Policy Note on identifying and managing modern slavery risks. These are: industry type; nature of the workforce; supplier location; context in which the supplier operates; commodity type; and business/supply chain model.