Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they are taking to ensure that companies found to have lied on their public declarations, made under the provisions of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, about the use of Uyghur slave labour in the manufacture of products or within supply chains, are (1) identified, and (2) held to account.

Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires certain businesses with a turnover of £36m or more, equating to approximately 16,000 businesses, 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 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, increase transparency and improve compliance.