UK Government issues updated guidance on Modern Slavery Act reporting

 

On 24 March 2025, the UK Government published updated guidance on the reporting obligations set out in section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “MSA”). This guidance was last updated in 2017 (see here).

The updated guidance aims to clarify the Government’s expectations for modern slavery statements (MSS) and, as stated in the Foreword by the current Minister, provide “practical advice to support businesses to undertake meaningful action to tackle modern slavery, incorporating the learnings from the past 10 years since the Act was introduced”.  The guidance is not mandatory and the updates do not involve any changes to existing law.

The updated guidance sets out:

• More detailed information on six recommended categories of disclosures.
• A new section containing general principles on anti-slavery activities, including information on modern slavery frameworks, stakeholder engagement and continuous improvement in relation to modern slavery disclosures.
• Stronger messaging around the importance of tackling modern slavery. 

It is not specified whether the updated guidance applies for the current reporting period or only for future reporting periods.  Organisations which will be unable to consider addressing the updated guidance for the purposes of their MSS covering the current reporting period may wish to consider including a note in the statement to make this clear.

Detailed guidance on MSS content

Section 54(5) of the MSA recommends – but does not require – that businesses make disclosures in relation to six topics, namely (1) the structure of the business and its supply chains, (2) organisational policies, (3) assessing and managing risk, (4) due diligence, (5) training, and (6) monitoring and evaluation.

Guidance from the Government on what should be included in relation to these topics previously set out in an annex has now been moved up into section 4 in the main body of the Guidance.

Where the previous guidance set out higher-level information in relation to particular recommended disclosure topics, the new guidance steps through each of six section 54(5) categories, expressly identifying what amounts to “good” versus “best” practice for disclosures. Overall, transparency expectations in relation to each category have increased compared with the previous guidance.

Significantly, nuance has been introduced by categorising certain types of disclosures as either "level 1" or "level 2". Level 1 guidance is aimed at those organisations drafting their MSS for the first time, while organisations that are more familiar with the disclosure requirements are encouraged to include, at least, level 2 disclosures).

Tackling modern slavery and continuous improvement

There is a new section in the guidance on “General Principles for undertaking anti-slavery activities”. This is split into a “framework for tackling and reporting on modern slavery”, “stakeholder engagement” and “continuous improvement”.

The subsection on tackling modern slavery goes beyond what is required to be included in an MSS, and considers what steps businesses can take to identify, manage and respond to modern slavery risks. It refers to voluntary human rights standards – the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct – as sources to inform how businesses should tackle modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.

The updated guidance encourages organisations to progress over time from so-called level 1 to level 2 disclosure in order to demonstrate continuous improvement and commitment to eradicating modern slavery in supply chains. Organisations are also encouraged to “highlight areas of change and improvement” so that year-on-year progress is clearly identified to stakeholders.

Stronger messaging

The guidance emphasises the serious adverse impacts which modern slavery may have on victims, survivors and on businesses. On this latter point, the guidance details how modern slavery can affect a business' market position and points out that the Procurement Act 2023 provides contracting authorities with stronger powers to exclude suppliers from public procurement where there is sufficient evidence of modern slavery within their supply chains.

Other updates

Other updates include:

• The guidance expressly "encourages" all organisations to upload their MSS to the voluntary modern slavery statement registry.
• Organisations are also encouraged to be transparent about cases where they have found incidents or indications of modern slavery and how they have responded.
• Regarding risk assessment and management, the new guidance emphasises that businesses should consider their leverage to drive change with different suppliers and advises how to increase leverage to enact change.
• Remediation policies and processes are now included in guidance for due diligence disclosure, and organisations are encouraged to follow the Walk Free Modern Slavery Response and Remedy Framework, which provides detailed advice on remediation following a six-step process.
• There is significantly more detail on responsible recruitment processes in the context of due diligence, and it is stated that companies should follow the Employer Pays Principle whereby no worker should pay for a job.
• Annex E (previously Annex D) which covers “the Act in the context of other national and international reporting requirements” has been updated to include reference to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct. Here the guidance emphasises that the UK Government expects businesses based or operating in the UK to engage with the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines in the event of complaints being made against them.

Alignment with other modern slavery regimes

Many multinational entities that submit an MSS in the UK are also subject to similar requirements in other jurisdictions, including e.g. Australia and Canada.

Both the Australian and Canadian modern slavery legislation contain more detailed mandatory reporting requirements as compared to the UK MSA, but all three laws follow a similar structure where legislative disclosure requirements are supplemented by detailed voluntary guidance.

The content of the updated guidance does not conflict with that of Australia or Canada, but where consolidated statements are prepared to comply with the requirements of multiple jurisdictions, organisations required to report under the UK MSA should consider whether their consolidated statement adequately addresses the topics covered by the UK modern slavery guidance.

Conclusion

Whilst updates to UK modern slavery guidance demonstrate the UK Government's desire for businesses to provide more detailed and continually improving modern slavery disclosures, they do not change or expand the current mandatory requirements under the Act.  Many stakeholders will, however, scrutinise disclosures by reference to the guidance and organisations preparing modern slavery statements should have regard to the updated guidance.  

Businesses should also continue to monitor the outcomes of the Government's ongoing review of the Act (see here) which may entail changes to the law in due course.