Modern Slavery Act 2015 - Implications for Universities
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 consolidates previous legislation relating to slavery and trafficking under two main offences: servitude or forced labour, and arranging or facilitating the travel of an individual with a view to that person being exploited.
The Act has been brought in to combat sexual exploitation, forced labour and domestic servitude and in particular human trafficking. Although these are not normally issues one would consider relevant in a university context, the Act introduces a requirement, which came into force on 29 October 2015, for many universities to prepare an annual slavery and human trafficking statement.
The Act introduces the concept of 'transparency in supply chains'. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Transparency in Supply Chains) Regulations 2015, require all commercial organisations which carry on a business, or any part of a business, in the UK with a total annual turnover of at least £36 million to produce an annual slavery and human trafficking statement. Universities satisfy the definition of 'commercial organisations' set out in the Act, so those with a turnover of £36 million or more are caught by this provision.
The statement will need to be produced for each financial year and should either set out the steps the university has taken during that year to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place either in the university or in any part of its supply chains, or alternatively simply be a statement stating that no such steps have been taken. The statement will have to be approved at Board/Council level and should be published on the university's website, with a link in a prominent place on the website's home page.
Although a university could simply make a statement saying no steps have been taken in relation to slavery and human trafficking and there is, in fact, no obligation to take any such steps, the legislation suggests that a statement should cover such issues as:
- the organisation's structure and supply chains
- the policies it has in relation to human trafficking and slavery
- what due diligence it carries out
- what the particular risk areas are and the steps taken to manage those risks
- what measures of effectiveness it uses in terms of key performance indicators
- any training it offers to staff
There is no legal requirement to carry out due diligence on supply chains and there are no financial or criminal penalties for failing to produce a statement. The only remedy under the Act is that civil proceedings could be brought against a university by the Secretary of State to enforce the requirement to publish a statement.
However, it is arguably not this sanction that has teeth but the external criticism, for example from the press and trade unions, and reputational damage a university may suffer if it chooses to take the easy option and just make a statement saying that it is taking no steps in relation to human trafficking and slavery, when this is something that needs to be published in a prominent place on its website.
There is obviously a lot for universities to consider and do in time to publish their first statements at the end of this financial year and preparing the statement is likely to involve a number of different functions including HR, procurement, compliance and legal. The Home Office has published guidance on what should be included in the statements.
In preparation for this new requirement, you should be considering which of the two types of statements you want to make, who will be responsible for compliance, what you are going to do in terms of due diligence on your supply chains, what should be done to ensure that you have adequate protection in supply contracts and what policies and training you are going to put in place.
The Modern Slavery Act and its subsidiary legislation will have other implications from a procurement perspective which will be covered in a separate briefing.