Last month, the Home Office issued letters directly to the CEOs of approximately 17,000 organisations about obligations under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.<\/p>
The Home Office plans to carry out an audit at the end of this financial year and intends to publicly name non-compliant organisations.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4399", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Victoria Atkins"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Louth and Horncastle"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Victoria Atkins"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-11-26", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-11-26T15:14:52.84Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-11-21", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Slavery: Business"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent plans his Department has made to enforce Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4641", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Alex Norris"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Nottingham North"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Alex Norris"} ], "uin" : "194191"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1011575", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Home Office"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1011575/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
The Government has commissioned an independent review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The Review will identify where the legislation is working well, how implementation can be improved and whether specific areas of the Act need to be strengthened including Section 54 (Transparency in Supply Chains requirements) of the Act.<\/p>
The Review is due to report its recommendations to the Home Office at the end of March 2019. Further to these recommendations the Home Office will consider whether further measures are required to improve compliance with Section 54.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4399", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Victoria Atkins"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Louth and Horncastle"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Victoria Atkins"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-11-26", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-11-26T15:12:58.673Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-11-21", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Slavery: Business"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress his Department on creating a registry of businesses that are obligated to produce a slavery and human-trafficking statement as outlined in Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4641", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Alex Norris"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Nottingham North"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Alex Norris"} ], "uin" : "194192"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/834040", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Home Office"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/834040/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
As a result of the world-leading provisions in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, we have seen thousands of transparency statements published and businesses are now more focused on this issue than ever before. The legislation was designed to harness pressure from civil society and we are pleased that NGOs are using company statements to hold businesses to account, including contacting businesses that have not yet published statements.<\/p>
No injunctions have yet been issued at this early stage of implementation and the Government is taking other action to improve implementation. The Government has strengthened guidance for businesses and recently wrote to over 10,000 businesses that may be required to publish statements reminding them of their obligations and providing useful resources. We expect this activity will further increase the number of statements published.<\/p>
In October the Government also launched a new \u2018Business Against Slavery Forum\u2019. This aims to establish a new partnership between Government and business to accelerate progress in tackling modern slavery. It will focus on sharing best practice and building new initiatives to tackle modern slavery, including improving business engagement with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4399", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Victoria Atkins"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Louth and Horncastle"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Victoria Atkins"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-02-02", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-02-02T13:35:03.2Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-01-30", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Slavery: Business"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has for monitoring compliance by businesses with the requirements placed on them by the Modern Slavery Act 2015.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/163", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "East Ham"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Stephen Timms"} ], "uin" : "125797"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/828776", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Home Office"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/828776/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
As a result of the world-leading provisions in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, we have seen thousands of transparency statements published and businesses are now more focused on this issue than ever before. The legislation was designed to harness pressure from civil society, consumers and investors rather than set up a burdensome system of Government monitoring. We are pleased that civil society organisations are using company statements to hold businesses to account, including contacting businesses that have not yet published statements.<\/p>
The Government has strengthened guidance for businesses and recently wrote to over 10,000 businesses that may be required to publish statements reminding them of their obligations and providing useful resources. We expect this activity will further increase the number and quality of statements published.<\/p>
In October the Government also launched a new \u2018Business Against Slavery Forum\u2019 which will establish a new partnership between Government and business to accelerate progress in tackling modern slavery. It will focus on sharing best practice and building new initiatives to tackle modern slavery, including improving business engagement with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.<\/em><\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4399", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Victoria Atkins"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Louth and Horncastle"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Victoria Atkins"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-01-30", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-01-30T16:11:39.967Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-01-23", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Slavery: Business"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that businesses who are required to provide statements on their supply chains (a) provide such a statement and (b) complete their statements to a sufficient standard; and what steps her Department is taking to monitor the performance of businesses in providing those statements.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/533", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for David Hanson"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Delyn"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "David Hanson"} ], "uin" : "124411"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 4, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }