Our Numbers Explained

Under the UK Modern Slavery Act, each statement published by a company must meet three minimum requirements. The Modern Slavery Registry tracked compliance with these minimum requirements. Read more to learn about how we monitored compliance by companies.

How we counted statements

We tracked the number of statements we held on the Registry by counting the single, unique statement provided by a company or group of companies. We did not count a statement that covered more than one entity multiple times.

How we counted companies

We linked statements to the company or companies named in a statement. If more than one company was named in a statement- for example, a parent and its subsidiaries - we linked the statement to each of those named entities. Where statements simply stated that it applied to all subsidiaries or a group of companies and did not name each entity that was covered, we linked it to, and counted, a single entity.

How we assessed minimum requirements

The UK Modern Slavery Act requires each statement published by a company to meet certain requirements:

Approval – The board of directors must approve the statement (if the company is a limited liability partnership, the members must approve the statement). Under our assessment:

• The statement had to explicitly state the board (or members) had approved the statement; if the statement did not mention approval it was assessed as non-compliant.
• Approval could not be delegated by the board to an individual (such as a board member or director) or to a committee of the board.
• Home Office guidance says best practice is to include the date of the meeting the board (members) approved the statement.

Signature - A director must sign the statement (if the company is a limited liability partnership, a designated LLP member must sign the statement). Under our assessment:

• The name and title of the appropriate person was sufficient; a signature was not required.
• A signature or title alone was assessed as non-compliant.
• A signature and title, without an individual’s name, was assessed as non-compliant.
• Home Office guidance says best practice is that a member of the board of directors sign the statement.

Link - There must be a link to the statement on the homepage of the company website, or in a dropdown menu on the homepage. Under our assessment:

• The link had to be in a visible location on the homepage or in an obvious drop-down menu on the homepage.
• The link had to clearly indicate it is a modern slavery statement; links called “compliance statement”, “supply chains”, “policies”, for example, were assessed as non-compliant.
• Home Office guidance suggests the link be called “Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement”