Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the 2019 Independent review of the Modern Slavery Act, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to (a) fulfil modern slavery statement reporting requirements or (b) act when instances of slavery are found an offence under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

The Government accepted the majority of the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act. The details are set out in the Government response to the Independent Review, published on 9 July 2019 at www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-independent-review-of-the-modern-slavery-act.

As part of its response to the Independent Review, the Home Office launched a public consultation on potential changes to the Modern Slavery Act’s transparency legislation on 9 July 2019. The Government response to the consultation, published on 22 September 2020, committed to introducing an ambitious package of measures to strengthen and future-proof the legislation, including:

extending the reporting requirement to public bodies with a budget of £36 million or more;

mandating the specific reporting topics that statements must cover

requiring statements to be published on the new Government digital reporting service

setting a single reporting deadline; and

taking forwards options for penalties for non-compliance in line with the ongoing development of the Single Enforcement Body for employment rights.

These measures require legislative change and as such will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.