Government Reforms (2): Modern slavery

What do we already know?

We updated you in our February 2016 Newsletter Government reforms (1): Modern slavery disclosure obligations that organisations which:

• have a worldwide turnover in excess of £36 million per year;
• supply goods or services; and
• carry on business, in whole or in part, in the United Kingdom;

need to comply with the UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA) disclosure obligations, including publishing an annual slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year (‘MSA statement’).

What’s new?

The Home Office has released guidance (available here) designed to help organisations identify if they need to publish a modern slavery statement and provide best practice on how to produce a statement.

The Government has also updated its guidance for organisations on how to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in its business or supply chains (available here)

Also, for help structuring a modern slavery statement see Ethical Trading Initiative’s Modern Slavery Statements Evaluation Framework available here.