Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment the Government has made of (a) the compliance of digital supply chains with the provisions of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and (b) the accuracy of Huawei's statements pursuant to section 54(1) of that Act.

Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires certain businesses, in all sectors, including the digital industry and businesses supplying digital goods or services, with a turnover of £36m or more to report annually on the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.

The prevalence of modern slavery and complexity of global supply chains means that it is highly unlikely that any sector or company is immune from the risks of modern slavery. Section 54 therefore does not require organisations to certify that their supply chains are ‘slavery free’ or that the Government verifies the content of modern slavery statements. The Government encourages companies to report transparently about how they are mitigating modern slavery risks and to use their modern slavery statements to demonstrate year on year progress.

The transparency legislation was designed to enable consumers, investors and civil society to scrutinise business action. To improve reporting quality, accountability and accessibility of statements, we are developing a government-run registry which will host modern slavery statements. We have also consulted on proposals to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act, including requiring organisations to report on the steps they have taken within specific areas, including due diligence, and introducing civil penalties for non-compliance. The Government response will be published this summer.