The Modern Slavery Act 2015

Simon Goacher and Peter Wake consider what the Modern Slavery Act 2015 will mean for the public sector.

From 1 November 2015, Section 52 of the recently-enacted Modern Slavery Act 2015 imposes an obligation on local authorities and police forces to notify the Secretary of State if they have reasonable grounds to believe a person may be a victim of human trafficking or slavery.

Background

In 2013, the Centre for Social Justice published a report into the severity of human trafficking and slavery in the UK. The analysis was startling with central government coming in for sharp criticism in respect of its lack of preventative action.

Fast forward two years and the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (“the Act”), which received Royal Assent on 26 March 2015, is starting to gain some traction. As its name suggests, the Act provides a definition of what constitutes slavery and human trafficking in the modern world and highlights that both are serious criminal offences.

Two of the Act’s more prominent sections have recently come into force and government guidance has been published to ensure organisations, both public and private, understand what is expected of them. Section 54 requires commercial organisations with a turnover of more than £36m to publish an annual “slavery and human trafficking statement”. Organisations are required to set out the steps they have taken to ensure that slavery is not taking place in any part of the business or supply chain. The Employment Team at Weightmans has produced an in depth analysis of the section 54 requirements.

For the wider public sector workforce, attention is drawn to section 52 of the Act which requires police, immigration and local authority staff to report all instances when they have reasonable grounds to believe a person may be a victim of slavery or human trafficking to the Secretary of State. Victims are entitled to remain anonymous and will not be obliged to accept support that they do not want.

A notification to the Home Secretary must include the information listed in Schedules 1 and 2 to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Duty to Notify) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/1743), where such information is in the possession or control of the public authority:

• Schedule 1 – includes information such as the name of the public authority making the notification, whether the suspected slavery or trafficking has been referred to the police, the type of conduct involved and whether the conduct involved the commission of an offence by the victim.
• Schedule 2 – this lists additional information that must be provided where the victim is either under the age of 18, or is over 18 and has consented to the disclosure of that information in the notification; this includes the victim's name and date of birth and the name of the perpetrator.

The Regulations are available here.

Comment

The Act has been broadly welcomed as an admirable attempt to tackle an important issue. The new legislation certainly seeks to enhance protection for victims and provides enabling powers to agencies. Of course, it is also an additional duty on public bodies as further budgetary cuts loom large. What is clear is that public bodies need to be aware of the Act and what is required of them.

Simon Goacher and Peter Wake are partners at Weightmans. Simon can be reached on 0151 243 9582 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., while Peter can be contacted on 0151 242 7953 or by email.