Lets get unstuck on slavery

Today (18 October) is Anti-Slavery Day in the UK and across Europe. With 49.6 million around the world living in conditions of modern slavery, according to the UN, there is not much to celebrate. Breaking this figure down, 22 million are in forced marriages and 27.6 in forced labour, of which 17.3 million are exploited in the private sector. As the Australian Government recently put it in the review of their own Modern Slavery Act: "There is a strong commercial incentive for businesses to search worldwide for low-price products, components and labour services. Underpaid and exploited labour in one country can yield lower-priced goods and services in another country."

There are several things about the UK's 2015 Modern Slavery Act that desperately need reforming and there have now been many false dawns: parliamentary interventions by former Prime Ministers and intentions delivered in Queen's/King's speeches - the most recent in May 2022. But nothing happens, instead current ministers talk openly of limiting the definition of 'slave' in an aim to cut asylum numbers, whilst former Prime Minister Theresa May opposes and establishes her own international commission. Meanwhile forced labour and human trafficking continue largely unabated around the world.

One of the most frustrating elements of the whole impasse is that we know what needs to significantly reduce slavery in business supply chains and many businesses support it. Many of the recommendations set out by Professor John McMillan AO in his statutory review of the Australian Act would make very good sense in the UK too - requiring businesses to have due diligence systems and not just self-selective reporting, penalties for not doing so and greater clarity about what is material (such as the payment of recruitment fees). Since March 2021, the UK has had a voluntary registry of modern slavery statements, but a report by the Financial Reporting Council and the UK's previous Anti-Slavery Commissioner found that one in ten organisations do not publish statements at all and one in three issue poor quality statements. Less than half provide information on their organizational structure and supply chains, and describe their relevant policies informatively. The UK has a significant 'free-rider' problem and anything but a level playing field for those businesses taking their supply chains seriously.

But let's not encumber our businesses with red tape at a time of fragile economy recovery might be the retort! Last month I had the opportunity to address a conference of 400 UK SMEs in the construction sector and high on the agenda was 'double materiality' and EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and forthcoming mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence requirements. The UK might have left the EU but many British companies have not left the supply chains of European companies or the need to sell overseas. It is a salient factor that when I spoke at the Australian Modern Slavery Conference in Melbourne earlier this year this is what they also wanted to learn about. The appendices of Professor McMillan's report gives a detailed overview of legislation progressing across Europe, North America and other parts of the world.

Meanwhile, the UK has no national strategy on non-financial due diligence and even our financial disclosure frameworks are heavily skewed to environmental issues and not social issues such as forced labour and human trafficking. British companies cannot afford to wait and are meanwhile aligning with what is emerging from Brussels and even Washington DC. The UK's Modern Slavery Act has been the honourable exception to that but we need to catch up with our colleagues in Australia, Europe and the US or else become followers of agendas set elsewhere.

I remember back in 2012 facilitating a number of meetings for the UK Government with business and civil society as we developed the world's first Business and Human Rights National Action Plan under David Miliband and then William Hague (there was even cross-party consensus). This too has been joined, sometimes overtaken, by many others over the past decade, including many across Asia. Come on Britain, we can do better!