Slavery in The 21st Century

Provisions
The act contains a number of provisions:
The consolidation of the existing slavery and trafficking offences
The introduction of two new civil orders to enable the courts to place restrictions
on those convicted of modern slavery offences, or those involved in such
offences but not yet convicted
The establishment of an independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to encourage
good practice on the prevention of modern slavery offences and the identification
of victims. The first commissioner was Kevin Hyland
The provision of mechanisms for seizing traffickers’ assets and channeling some
of that money towards victims for compensation payments
The creation of a new statutory defense for slavery or trafficking victims
compelled to commit criminal offences
The provision of child trafficking advocates
Amendments to The Bill
Supply Chain
The draft bill included no measures to counter the use of slave labor abroad as the
Home Office believed that asking businesses to audit and report on modern slavery in
their supply chains would be an “additional burden”. However, campaigning resulted in
a supply chain clause being added to the bills so that “big business will be forced to
make public its efforts to stop the use of slave labour by its suppliers”. Consultation
regarding the reporting requirements of the supply chain clause took place in February
and March 2015.
From 29 October 2015 the Transparency in Supply Chain Provisions require businesses
to publish an annual statement if they have an annual turnover above a threshold (£36
million). The statement must confirm the steps taken to ensure that slavery and human
trafficking are not taking place in the business (or in any supply chain) or declare that no
steps to confirm the existence of slavery or trafficking have been taken. It is expected
that few businesses would take the latter option as it may place their ethical position into
question and affect their reputation. There are, however, no legally binding
requirements to conduct due diligence on supply chains and there are no criminal or
financial penalties for non-compliance.
On 21 March 2016 the Home Office held a Transparency in Supply Chains (TISC) event
where an independent civil society modern slavery register, the TISC Report, was
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