Today is Anti-Slavery Day, created in 2010 by a Private Member’s Bill introduced by former MP Anthony Steen CBE to raise awareness of modern slavery and to inspire government, business and individuals to eliminate it: an appropriate day to look at the first annual report from the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Kevin Hyland OBE, published last week.
The report covers progress made in the last year in the fight against modern slavery, and sets out priorities for 2017 (see Anti-Slavery Commissioner publishes first annual report).
In the last year, the Commissioner reports that he has communicated with over 1,000 companies operating in the UK, writing to them to detail his expectations of companies in relation to their reporting requirements under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. He has also led roundtables on supply chain transparency, and worked with trade bodies to tackle modern slavery. He says: “I have been humbled by the work of partners, in the UK and beyond, who are striving to end modern slavery – all of whom have my full support.”
The Commissioner reports that he has approached companies whose supply chains may have been tainted by slavery to offer assistance and ensure that they are responding to the issue appropriately. The Commissioner wrote to Kia and Volvo to ascertain what actions they were taking to eradicate slave labour from their supply chains, following Al Jazeera’s investigation into the use of slave labour in car washes in Kent, and has engaged with tea retailers over reports of exploitation in tea plantations in Assam, India.
While recognising the fact that the MSA has pushed slavery up the agenda for businesses, he describes this as just the first step:
“There is still much more to be done to ensure that companies produce statements that both comply with the Act’s obligations and point to decisive action being taken, as opposed to merely being a ‘tick box’ exercise.”
Priorities for 2017
The Commissioner is prioritising this in 2017. He will continue to engage with businesses committed to eradicating slavery from supply chains, and to encourage full compliance with section 54.
In addition, the Commissioner plans to work with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery to promote the use of a system that will allow for easy scrutiny and comparison of organisations’ annual slavery and human trafficking statements.
This kind of system could in principle be introduced without change to the primary legislation, by guidance issued by the Secretary of State under section 54(9). Mr Hyland envisages that this should ensure that businesses can be better held to account for their performance in this area, by enabling the public, consumer groups and potential investors to compare corporate responses to addressing modern slavery.
A number of groups have already done some work to look at the initial published statements and compare them, in the absence of any official system for cumulative reporting. Back in June, we reported on research by Ergon Associates that showed that many of the statements made to date had failed to meet the requirements of section 54.
A more recent independent study by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre looked at the FTSE100 companies. The study concluded that the 27 companies that have reported so far are “missing the opportunity to provide much needed leadership to eradicate forced labour from business operations and supply chains. The majority of company statements demonstrate weak risk assessment and due diligence.”
The key area for improvement according to the study is for companies to increase the information they provide on the structure and complexity of their supply chains (see Anna Triponel’s blog on transparency in supply chains and how to use soft law to help interpret the requirements of the MSA).
