New rules on modern slavery signal shift to mandatory prevention in supply chains

Tom Stocker was commenting after the government published its much awaited Immigration and Asylum Bill, which includes proposed reforms aimed at curbing the abuse of the UK’s modern slavery system.

Legislation to tackle modern slavery was introduced in the UK more than a decade ago through the Modern Slavery Act 2015. While both Scotland and Northern Ireland have passed their own legislation to prevent human trafficking and exploitation, section 54 of the Act requires all businesses operating across the UK with a turnover of £36 million or more to disclose on an annual basis what actions they have taken to ensure there is no modern slavery in their business or supply chains.

S54 made it mandatory for companies to publish a public statement on their website that outlines the measures they have taken to prevent modern slavery. The statement must be approved by the board, signed by a director and published with a prominent link on the company’s homepage. 

The obligation has encouraged greater preventative measures and corporate transparency. However, it has been criticised for not imposing penalties on companies that fail to comply, resulting in a large number of businesses resorting to publishing generic statements that do not change substantively from one year to the next. While some companies disclose the findings of due diligence audits, others report only their due diligence policies without providing detailed information on the outcomes. 

Public sector organisations are also not currently in scope of the requirements, exacerbating concerns that exploitation and abuse may be falling through gaps in UK supply chains.

Within the Immigration and Asylum Bill, which was introduced to Parliament on 30 June, the government has now signalled its intention to strengthen the requirements of s54 with significant new duties. These include increasing reporting requirements, tightening the provision that allows companies to state only that they have taken no steps to address modern slavery, introducing penalties and a specific ‘name and shame’ mechanism for companies that fail to publish modern slavery statements.

The bill also proposes extending the s54 obligation to public authorities that meet certain budget thresholds, mandating the inclusion of certain contents in a modern slavery statement and requiring parent companies to approve the modern slavery statements of subsidiaries. 

Stocker, a global investigations and compliance risk expert at Pinsent Masons, said the proposed changes, if signed into law, would be significant. “Penalties are now proposed, along with a requirement for parent company certification of a subsidiaries statement,” he said. “This will move modern slavery statements from almost being a discretionary compliance topic to a mandatory compliance topic, requiring deeper thought and resource allocation.”

He said whilst the provisions do not yet mandate due diligence in supply chains, which will be of disappointment to some, they do go some way towards addressing the recent criticisms. “In particular, organisations in scope must give details of their modern slavery risk assessments and mitigation measures as well as their modern slavery policies and procedures,” he said. “Details are also required of the due diligence measures carried out in their operations and supply chains to ensure there is no modern slavery risk and there is relevant staff training.”

However, Stocker warned that there is likely to be criticism of the proposal that businesses can still declare that “no such steps” were carried out to prevent modern salary in a given period. “Whilst the proposals state that reasons for this should be given,” he said, “currently compliance is achieved in theory at least simply by saying "we were too busy". 

Alistair Wood, a compliance risk management expert at Pinsent Masons, agreed. “The hope will be that investors, customers and the wider marketplace will be unimpressed, forcing a more responsible approach,” he said. “There may well be some logic in the government's stance – it is at pains to reduce rather than increase the regulatory burden of businesses – but there will be concern that the result will not result in the level playing field that is hoped for.”  

The bill also proposes to strengthen enforcement with provisions to impose financial penalties for failure to comply without “reasonable excuse”, up to a maximum of either £1m or 1% of turnover or budget. The precise details of the enforcement regime are to be set out in regulations, the detail of which will be crucial, as will determination of what might amount to a “reasonable excuse”, added Stocker.

The bill, first announced in the King’s Speech on 13 May, was introduced to parliament alongside announcements by home secretary Shabana Mahmood about the government’s plans to prevent abuse of the asylum system. A second reading of the bill took place on 13 July.

The UK has taken steps more broadly to boost transparency and encourage companies to act more responsibly in relation to their supply chains. In its June 2025 trade strategy, the government announced a review of responsible business conduct focusing on global supply chains. Human rights, labour abuses, modern slavery and environmental harms were all within scope. The conclusions of that review have not yet been published.

In its 2025 Make Work Pay: Employment Rights Bill inquiry, the House of Commons’ Business and Trade Committee also recommended that consideration be given to the introduction of ‘failure to prevent’ offences, similar to those in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA); and the use of import bans on products from regions where forced labour is prevalent.