Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Modern Slavery Act 2015; and what action, if any, they are taking as a result of any such assessment.

The UK is regarded as a world-leader for its response to modern slavery. The UK response is underpinned by the Modern Slavery Strategy 2014 and the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the first legislation of its kind.

In July 2018, the Government commissioned an Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 led by Baroness Butler-Sloss, the then Rt. Hon. Frank Field and the Rt. Hon. Maria Miller MP. The Review considered where the Act is working well and where implementation can be strengthened. The final Review made 80 recommendations across four themes:

• The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner;
• Transparency in Supply Chains;
• Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (renamed from Independent Child Trafficking Advocates in line with the recommendations of the Independent Review);
• Legal application of the Modern Slavery Act.

The Government response to the Independent Review was published on 9 July 2019, accepting or partially accepting the majority of the Review’s recommendations.

Key work that we have taken forward in response to the Independent Review includes:

• In October 2019 we appointed a HMG Modern Slavery and Migration Envoy to drive forward global progress.
• Following a public consultation, the Government committed on 22 September 2020 to taking forward an ambitious package of changes to strengthen and future-proof the Modern Slavery Act’s transparency legislation including extending the reporting requirement to public bodies with a budget of £36 million or more.
• In January 2021, the Government announced plans to introduce financial penalties for organisations who fail to meet their statutory obligations to publish annual modern slavery statements under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. These measures require legislative change and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.
• Creating a free online central reporting service for businesses’ modern slavery statements, to make it easier for consumers, NGOs and investors to scrutinise the action that businesses are taking to prevent modern slavery in their supply chains. We are at the final stages of work to launch this service.
• Work to further roll out Independent Child Trafficking Guardians which will continue to be informed by the Independent Review recommendations.
• We have put in place a MoU between the Home Office and the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to clarify roles and responsibilities.