With the BBC recently reporting that the number of modern slavery cases reported within the UK care industry more than doubled in the past year, Paul Kelly, head of employment law at Blacks Solicitors, discusses the Modern Slavery Act, how to prepare a modern slavery statement and how care employers can use the Act to protect and support anyone working in the sector who is being exploited through slavery.

The Modern Slavery Act

The Modern Slavery Act (“the Act”) was created in 2015 to consolidate historic trafficking and slavery offences to combat modern slavery in the UK.

The Act focuses on protecting victims as well as punishing those responsible for forced labour, slavery or human trafficking. From an employer’s perspective, the Act was brought in to ensure that businesses across every sector, including social care, are transparent about the way they are working to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking.

The Act ensures victims receive protection by:

• Creating a statutory defence for victims of modern slavery so that they are not inappropriately criminalised
• Giving the courts new powers to order perpetrators of slavery and trafficking to pay Reparation Orders to their victims
• Providing child advocates to support child victims of trafficking
• Extending special measures so that all victims of modern slavery are sufficiently supported through the criminal justice process
• Providing statutory guidance on victim identification and victim services, including an enabling power to put the relevant processes on a statutory basis
• Introducing protections for victims of abuse on an overseas domestic worker visa.

Being compliant

Section 54 of the Act requires all commercial organisations with a global annual turnover above £36 million to prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement each financial year, ensuring that businesses are transparent about the ways they are tackling modern slavery.

An organisation will be required to produce and publish a modern slavery statement if it:

• Is a commercial entity (i.e. a company or a partnership)
• Conducts business, or part of its business, in the UK
• Is a provider of goods and/or services
• Has a turnover of £36 million or greater.

If an organisation’s turnover falls below £36 million after the duty has previously been triggered, guidance from the government recommends that the organisation should, in the interest of transparency, still produce a statement.

A statement must be prepared at the end of each financial year and be signed off by a senior officer of the business or organisation. The statement must be published on the homepage of the organisation’s website (if it has one) or some other prominent place.

The duty doesn’t require an organisation to take steps, nor are they required to ensure that supply chains are free from slavery. However, those organisations which fail to do so run the risk of damaging their reputations in the eyes of their customers.

How to prepare a modern slavery statement

A statement must set out all the steps that the business has taken to deal with any  modern slavery risks, not only with the business but also in their supply chains.

The Act doesn’t prescribe the form which a statement needs to take, nor is there any content which is specifically required. The only requirement is that organisations must detail all of the steps (or lack thereof) they have taken, although the Home Office has published a practical guide to achieving transparency in supply chains which you can access here.

We recommend that organisations should consider the following when preparing a statement:

1. Use plain, simple English to ensure that the statement is easily accessible and understood
2. Keep the statement concise
3. Cover only the relevant points
4. Where appropriate, provide links to publications, policies, or documents
5. Ensure the statement is accurate and refer to steps which have been taken or have begun.

What does the Act mean for businesses?

Currently, there are no criminal penalties for organisations which fail to produce a modern slavery statement, although the secretary of state can in some cases apply to the High Court for an injunction to require compliance.  A failure to comply with a High Court order could result in an unlimited fine being issued. 

Businesses subject to the Act need to ensure that any modern slavery statement they produce is published on their website.  A failure to publish the statement is itself a failure to comply with the Act and exposes the business to the risk of sanction, such as a fine being issued. Aside from the financial penalties a business could face for failing to comply with the Act, the reputational damage a business would be exposed to if it fails to prevent modern slavery could be incalculable. Despite the statement having no criminal penalties for non-compliance, it is best advised for businesses to comply to prevent reputational damage.

The Act extends to both England and Wales, but some provisions apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland.  The 2019 Global Slavery Index placed the UK as the country taking the most action to respond to modern day slavery, along with France, Netherlands and Australia who all introduced legislation targeting slavery and trafficking within the last 10 years.

For more information on modern slavery statements please contact a member of Blacks Solicitors’ Employment Law team today.