The current tools to enforce the Modern Slavery Act act are clumsy and vague; no law enforcement agency takes a proactive lead in enforcing compliance, thus we see many firms doing nothing beyond the bare minimum if anything at all. The public need a simple way to check compliance, but compliance needs to be tested by a sophisticated method that looks for evidence of action, rather than just the presence of a statement. If we expect companies to conduct meaningful audits of supply chains, then the government should be able to conduct a meaningful audit of modern slavery statements, and penalise those organisations that fail to meet the required standards. The financial penalties raised could help offset the cost of enforcement activity.
This article, published recently by Personnel Today, highlights some of the issues: click here