"Modern Slavery Law proposed for Hong Kong", 8 Jan 2018

Dennis Kwok, a member of Hong Kong's Legislative Council, has sent the Chief Executive a draft Modern Slavery Bill 2017…for consideration. The Draft Bill is in similar terms to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (UK)…and follows proposals for similar legislation to be introduced in Australia. If passed into law, the Draft Bill would impose annual reporting requirements on certain commercial entities, in addition to creating new criminal offences and a civil cause of action against persons or entities committing or benefiting from such offences…

Bodies corporate and partnerships conducting business in Hong Kong whose turnover exceeds a threshold amount would each financial year be required to publish a slavery and human trafficking statement. The turnover threshold is proposed to be set by regulation…Similar to the UK Act, the Draft Bill requires that the slavery and human trafficking statement must:

• detail the steps taken that financial year to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of the organisation's business or in any of its supply chains. If no steps have been taken, the statement would have to state that;
• be approved by the board of directors (or equivalent) and signed by a director (or general partner); and
• be published on the company's website with a link to that statement appearing in a prominent place on the homepage…

A formal response to the Draft Bill from the Chief Executive has not yet been received. As such there is not yet a clear timetable for the consideration of the Draft Bill by the Legislative Council…