The September 2024 House of Lords report ‘The Modern Slavery Act 2015: becoming world-leading again’ analyses the shortfalls of the UK’s modern slavery legislation in the current socio-political setting. There are approximately 130,000 victims of Modern slavery in the UK, in many industries including illegal drugs, prostitution, agriculture, and the care sector. Perpetrators of slavery continue to profit from victims without a serious risk of repercussions considering the proportion of prosecutions to National Referral Mechanism referrals is 1.8%. The UK Modern Slavery Act was deemed to be ‘world leading’ when it was passed in 2015. Now, nearly 10 years on, global factors have changed and best practice has moved on which needs to be reflected in the legislation. 

Some key findings: 

• Changes to immigration legislation has led to limited support and protection for victims 
• Increase in recruitment of victims in the care sector resulting from relaxed visa rules and regulation of employers 
• Need for a Single Enforcement Body to regulate and enforce workers rights 
• Limited supporting legislation for requirements for companies to report on how they tackle modern slavery in supply chains, and practical implementation of compliance and enforcement 
• Need for international cooperation to ensure due diligence and import bans on companies producing services and goods made with forced labour
• The vacant role of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner for 18 months suggested modern slavery was not a policy priority, however there is the opportunity for the Government to take action and make the UK world-leading in the fight against modern slavery once again. 

 

See the full report ‘The Modern Slavery Act 2015: becoming world-leading again’ here.