abusesaffiliationarrow-downarrow-leftarrow-rightarrow-upattack-typeburgerchevron-downchevron-leftchevron-rightchevron-upClock iconclosedeletedevelopment-povertydiscriminationdollardownloademailenvironmentexternal-linkfacebookfiltergenderglobegroupshealthC4067174-3DD9-4B9E-AD64-284FDAAE6338@1xinformation-outlineinformationinstagraminvestment-trade-globalisationissueslabourlanguagesShapeCombined Shapeline, chart, up, arrow, graphLinkedInlocationmap-pinminusnewsorganisationotheroverviewpluspreviewArtboard 185profilerefreshIconnewssearchsecurityPathStock downStock steadyStock uptagticktooltiptwitteruniversalityweb

這頁面沒有繁體中文版本,現以English顯示

簡報

2021年2月25日

UK Modern Slavery Act: Missed opportunities and urgent lessons

Shutterstock

The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the Act) was established nearly six years ago and hailed as a landmark piece of legislation. It was supposed to encourage businesses to remove modern slavery from their operations and supply chains by both introducing transparency requirements for companies and inspiring a ‘race to the top’ by increasing competition to drive up collective standards.

To monitor the impact of the Act, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) developed and hosted the only public repository of statements – the Modern Slavery Registry – and assessed compliance from over 16,000 modern slavery statements from some of the largest global companies over the past five years. This analysis, included in a new report, concludes the UK Modern Slavery Act has failed in its stated intentions and that efforts must now focus on more effective approaches.

Key findings:

  • Despite persistent non-compliance by 40% of companies, no injunctions or administrative penalties have been issued to companies failing to report.
  • Section 54’s lack of mandatory reporting areas has led to companies publishing general statements that do not engage with the risks of modern slavery specific to their sectors and regions of operation.
  • The Act has not driven significant improvement in corporate practices to eliminate modern slavery.
  • The narrow focus of the law treats modern slavery as distinct from other forms of labour abuse and disclosure requirements exclude the spectrum of labour abuse risks that could lead to or are a clear indication of modern slavery.

Transparency is necessary but relying on voluntary disclosure is insufficient to prevent the worst forms of labour abuse. Not even the government’s proposed amendments to the Act will save it. There is an urgent need for legally binding obligations on companies - properly and forcefully implemented - that go beyond hollow reporting requirements.

Key Recommendations

  • New UK legislation: a failure to prevent law that imposes legal liability on all companies in all sectors which fail to prevent human and labour rights harms from occurring in their business operations. Companies would have to show reasonable and appropriate human rights due diligence practices as a defence to legal liability.
  • Import bans: the government should also consider laws that allow for import bans on products linked to severe human and labour rights violations including forced and child labour, to complement the failure to prevent law.
  • Public procurement: the above legal frameworks must cover public sector procurement given the government’s staggering spending power. This would provide government leverage during public contract tendering processes and incentivise companies to improve their human rights due diligence.

Press Release

Six years on: Modern Slavery Act failed to tackle forced labour

Public Procurement

Explore our assessment of modern slavery reporting by strategic cleaning suppliers to UK Government

Modern Slavery Registry Archive

Access our historical record of 16,000 statements from 2015-2020

隱私資訊

本網站使用 cookie 和其他網絡存儲技術。您可以在下方設置您的隱私選項。您所作的更改將立即生效。

有關我們使用網絡儲存技術的更多資訊,請參閱我們的 數據使用和 Cookie 政策

Strictly necessary storage

ON
OFF

Necessary storage enables core site functionality. This site cannot function without it, so it can only be disabled by changing settings in your browser.

分析cookie

ON
OFF

您瀏覽本網頁時我們將以Google Analytics收集信息。接受此cookie將有助我們理解您的瀏覽資訊,並協助我們改善呈現資訊的方法。所有分析資訊都以匿名方式收集,我們並不能用相關資訊得到您的個人信息。谷歌在所有主要瀏覽器中都提供退出Google Analytics的添加應用程式。

市場營銷cookies

ON
OFF

我們從第三方網站獲得企業責任資訊,當中包括社交媒體和搜尋引擎。這些cookie協助我們理解相關瀏覽數據。

您在此網站上的隱私選項

本網站使用 cookie 和其他網絡儲存技術來增強您在必要核心功能之外的體驗。