Event: How effective is the UK law on transparency in supply chains?
Thursday, 4 March 2021, 4.30-6pm
Watch the video of the event below:
In 2015, the UK Government introduced the Modern Slavery Act, which requires large businesses to publish an annual statement detailing how they have addressed modern slavery in their supply chains.
Despite being heralded as ground-breaking, the Modern Slavery Act has been criticised for failing to bring about meaningful changes in corporate behaviour. Recognising the criticism, the Government recently announced several planned reforms, including a state-run central registry for the statements and financial penalties for organisations failing to comply with the Act’s requirements.
Nevertheless, the fundamental question remains: how effective has the Modern Slavery Act been in holding UK businesses accountable for preventing exploitation in their supply chains, and what can we do to make it more effective going forward?
An event hosted by the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, organised in collaboration with the Modern Slavery PEC and the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law will attempt to answer these questions.
We will have a panel of experts discussing the subject:
- Patricia Carrier, Project Manager, Modern Slavery Registry at Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
- Owain Johnstone, Policy Advisor at Ethical Trading Initiative
- Stuart Neely, Senior Associate, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP
- Steve New, Associate Professor at the Said Business School, University of Oxford and co-author of the Modern Slavery PEC report on the effectiveness of Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act
- Director of the Modern Slavery PEC and the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law Murray Hunt will chair the discussion.
The event will mark the launch of the Modern Slavery PEC’s report analysing the effectiveness of the Modern Slavery Act’s section 54, produced by the Bonavero Institute for Human Rights and the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.
Co-authors of the report, Lisa Hsin from the Bonavero Insitute of Human Rights and Irene Pietropaoli from the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, will present the key findings.
The report analyses how effective section 54 has been in holding UK businesses accountable for modern slavery in their supply chains. It specifies three levels of effectiveness to assess section 54 systematically, analyses the effectiveness of civil society monitoring; and looks at other models in areas such as bribery, health and safety or gender pay gap to assess if we could translate some solutions for modern slavery.
Please register directly via the Bonavero Institute website below.
