Government response to the independent review of the Modern Slavery Act

The Government published its response to the independent review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA) in July 2019, together with a consultation paper on proposed changes to the statement on transparency in supply chain required under section 54 of the MSA.

The Review, published in May 2019, contained a number of recommendations to strengthen and enhance the effectiveness of the Act. One of the areas of focus in the Review was section 54 of the MSA, which requires commercial organisations within scope to publish a statement discussing the steps taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in their business or supply chain.

The Review recommendations that the Government intend to take forward include:

• Contents of statements – The Review recommended that statements should be required to discuss all of the areas currently listed in the Act. The Government supported this recommendation and consulted on how this should be implemented.
• Reporting deadline – The Government has proposed to introduce a single reporting deadline on which all organisations would be required to publish their statements each year. The Government's view is that this will aid comparisons and facilitate better engagement.
• Online registry – The Government intends to take forward the Review's recommendation that there be an online registry for statements and proposes to amend the Act to require publication of statements via the online registry and the organisations website.
• Enforcement – The Review recommended that additional sanctions be added to the Act to tackle non-compliance with section 54 of the MSA, including warnings, fines and director disqualification. The Government consulted on whether to introduce fines for non-compliance.

The consultation closed on 17 September 2019.