LEGAL COMPLIANCE - 31.05.2016

Modern slavery - do you need to publish a statement?

Modern Slavery Act 2015

In accordance with s.54 Modern Slavery Act 2015 , for financial years ending on or after 31 March 2016, larger firms are required to publicly state the steps they have taken to ensure their business and supply chains are slavery free or to state that they have taken no such steps.

Tip. If your company’s financial year ended before 31 March 2016, then you won’t need to make an anti-slavery statement in respect of that year.

Is your business caught by this?

A business must publish a statement if it is:

• a company or partnership that carries on a business in the UK; and
• supplies goods or services and has a minimum total turnover of £36 million per year.

Note. If you’re a parent company, you must include the turnover of your subsidiaries when working out whether you breach the turnover threshold.

Tip. Identify the businesses in the group structure that satisfy the turnover threshold and which must prepare a statement.

Writing a statement

If your business is required to produce an anti-slavery statement, what should it include? The legislation states that it may include information on:

• your organisation’s structure, business and supply chains
• your policies in relation to slavery and human trafficking
• your due diligence processes in relation to slavery and human trafficking in your business and supply chains
• the parts of your business and supply chains where there is a risk of slavery and human trafficking taking place, and the steps that it has taken to assess and manage that risk
• your effectiveness in ensuring that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in your business or supply chains, measured against such performance indicators as it considers appropriate
• the training about slavery and human trafficking available to your staff.

Each of these points is addressed in the model template (see The next step ).

Tip 1. Before drafting the statement, it’s worth reading the government’s free practical guide (see The next step ). Tip 2. As anti-slavery statements must be available to the public, try to avoid including jargon that is sector-specific or only used within the organisation.

What are the penalties? There are limited penalties for non-compliance - failure to publish a statement could result in the Secretary of State enforcing it by injunction, which seems unlikely. But by not publishing a statement, an organisation is potentially opening itself up to reputational damage, particularly if it’s in a vulnerable sector. The government may also decide to name and shame organisations which drag their heels.

For the anti-slavery statement template and the government’s practical guide on transparency in supply chains, visit http://tipsandadvice-financialcontroller.co.uk/download (FC 08.09.02).