Source · Select Committees · Business and Trade Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 59
We are disappointed by the Government’s refusal to commit to a clear timetable for making...
Recommendation
We are disappointed by the Government’s refusal to commit to a clear timetable for making changes to the Modern Slavery Act. We recommend that the Government strengthen the supply chain transparency obligations for companies and introduce tough fines for non-compliance in line with other price/ earnings to growth responsibilities for companies.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government partially accepts the recommendation, committing to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act 2015 by extending reporting requirements to public bodies, enhancing transparency through a new digital service, and introducing financial penalties, to be legislated as parliamentary time allows.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
59
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted in Part
45. The Government partially accepts these recommendations and is taking forward action to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and reporting obligations. To improve the quality and detail of reporting and accelerate action to prevent modern slavery, in September 2020 the Government committed to strengthen the reporting requirements on businesses under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, including: 10 Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang and UK value chains: Government Response • extending the reporting requirement to public bodies with a budget of £36 million or more; • radically enhancing the transparency and accessibility of modern slavery statements by requiring organisations to publish their statements on a new Government digital reporting service; • improving the quality of statements by requiring organisations to report against specific topics, including how they risk assess their supply chains and the due diligence they have undertaken, and to clearly state if they have omitted a topic; • driving greater accountability by setting a single reporting deadline on which all modern slavery statements must be published; and • developing options for civil penalties for non-compliance in line with the ongoing work to establish a single labour market enforcement body.
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