Modern Slavery Act 2015

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is designed to tackle slavery in the UK and consolidates previous offences relating to trafficking and slavery. The act extends to England and Wales. The bill was introduced to the House of Commons in draft form in October 2013 by James Brokenshire, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Crime and Security. The bill's sponsors in the Home Office were Theresa May and Lord Bates. It received Royal Assent and became law on 26 March 2015.^[1]

James Brokenshire was quoted as saying that the act would "send the strongest possible message to criminals that if you are involved in this disgusting trade in human beings, you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted and you will be locked up."^[2]

Provisions

The act contains a number of provisions:^[3][4]

• The consolidation of the existing slavery and trafficking offences
• The introduction of two new civil orders to enable the courts to place restrictions on those convicted of modern slavery offences, or those involved in such offences but not yet convicted
• The establishment of an independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to encourage good practice on the prevention of modern slavery offences and the identification of victims. The first commissioner was Kevin Hyland
• The provision of mechanisms for seizing traffickers’ assets and channelling some of that money towards victims for compensation payments
• The creation of a new statutory defence for slavery or trafficking victims compelled to commit criminal offences
• The provision of child trafficking advocates

Amendments to the bill

Supply chain

The draft bill included no measures to counter the use of slave labour abroad as the Home Office believed that asking businesses to audit and report on modern slavery in their supply chains would be an “additional burden”. However, campaigning resulted in a supply chain clause being added to the bills so that “big business will be forced to make public its efforts to stop the use of slave labour by its suppliers”.^[5] Consultation regarding the reporting requirements of the supply chain clause took place in February and March 2015.^[6]

From 29 October 2015 the Transparency in Supply Chain Provisions require businesses to publish an annual statement if they have an annual turnover above a threshold (£36 million).^[7] The statement must confirm the steps taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in the business (or in any supply chain) or declare that no steps to confirm the existence of slavery or trafficking have been taken. It is expected that few businesses would take the latter option as it may place their ethical position into question and affect their reputation. There are, however, no legally binding requirements to conduct due diligence on supply chains and there are no criminal or financial penalties for non-compliance.^[8]

Prostitution

In November 2014 Fiona Mactaggart MP added an amendment to the bill concerning prostitution, aimed at criminalising the purchase of sex.^[9][10] In the bill's debate in the House House of Commons, John McDonnell MP argued against the amendment. He highlighted the lack of evidence for any correlation between the Swedish sex purchase ban and a reduction in numbers of sex workers or their clients, and cited findings "that not only do such measures not work, they actually cause harm". McDonnell quoted Reverend Andrew Dotchin, a founding member of the Safety First Coalition: “I strongly oppose clauses on prostitution in the Modern Slavery Bill, which would make the purchase of sex illegal. Criminalising clients does not stop prostitution, nor does it stop the criminalisation of women. It drives prostitution further underground, making it more dangerous and stigmatising for women.”^[11] The amendment was subsequently dropped.^[12]

Tied visas

In March 2015 an amendment was brought forward in the House of Lords concerning migrant workers who are brought to the UK by their employer using "tied visas". These workers are typically foreign domestic workers and they are not allowed to legally leave their job and find employment elsewhere. The system of tied visas, introduced in 2012, has been compared to the Kafala system of employer-sponsored workers used in some Middle East countries.^[13] The amendment would have given workers in the UK using tied visas the right to change employer, but it was rejected by the House of Commons.^[14]

Criticism of the bill

Experts in the issue were sceptical of the bill, believing that it had many shortcomings.^[15] Parosha Chandran, a human rights barrister and United Nations expert on trafficking, claimed that "the bill is very poor on victim protection". Anthony Steen, who advised on the legislation and chairs the Human Trafficking Foundation, claimed that the bill failed to focus on the needs of victims of trafficking in the UK. “The bill is wholly and exclusively about law enforcement – but it shouldn’t be enforcement-based, it should be victim-based", he said.

Human rights group Liberty argued that the bill should have:^[16]

• Addressed abuses associated with the Domestic Overseas Worker Visa which prohibits individuals from changing their employer
• Addressed the conflict of interest arising from UK Visas and Immigration being involved with the National Referral Mechanism which is used to identify trafficking victims and which acts as a gateway to support
• Extended legal aid to slavery victims in civil matters

See also

• Human trafficking in the United Kingdom
• Migrant domestic workers

External links

• The Modern Slavery Act (2015) – UK government website
• Modern Slavery in Supply Chains – an overview from CORE

References