Wednesday 26 March 2025 marks ten years since the passing of the UK Modern Slavery Act. Modern slavery affects thousands of people coerced and exploited across the UK, from building sites, farms and even a McDonald’s restaurant, to sexual exploitation and drug crime.
Marking the occasion, Prof Alex Balch, Director of Research at the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre at the University of Oxford, said:
On the effectiveness of the Act:
“Ten years on, the Modern Slavery Act’s promise of justice remains unfulfilled. Thousands of people get exploited in severe conditions every year, facing threats, violence and intimidation.
“The high number of children being referred as potential victims, most of them UK nationals, continues to shock.
“Prosecution rates are shockingly low, allowing traffickers to act with impunity.
“Thousands of people referred every year suggests the UK has failed in its prevention efforts.
A way forward – prevention strategy:
“To truly tackle modern slavery, we need a clear strategy focused on prevention that focuses on addressing conditions that put people at risk of exploitation, such as poverty exclusion or lack of opportunities to provide for their families.
“This includes strengthening labour rights to prevent exploitation in workplaces, safeguarding children, especially those with special educational needs, from grooming and exploitation, or making sure that migrant workers can report workplace abuses safely without the fear of removal from the country.”
On exploitation in supply chains:
“Without penalties for non-compliance, transparency measures in supply chains have been little more than box-ticking exercises, failing to prevent exploitation.
“The UK needs to consider introducing stronger laws, including on human right due diligence or forced labour import bans, with penalties holding businesses to account for exploitative practices.”
What did the Modern Slavery Act 2015 introduce?
- The key measures of the Act were consolidating and clarifying offences gathered under the umbrella of modern slavery, from slavery and servitude, to trafficking and compulsory labour.
- It increased the penalties for these crimes, up to life imprisonment.
- Statutory defence for people forced to commit crimes as a result of their exploitation,
- Confiscation of traffickers’ assets
- Prevention orders to restrict activities of suspected perpetrators.
- Introduced a role of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to promote good practice.
- Requirement for UK businesses with a turnover of £36 million or more to publish an annual Modern Slavery Statement, detailing actions taken to prevent slavery in their supply chains.
- Strengthened some survivor support measures, including access to legal aid and compensation claims.
Ten years on: How did the work?
- Prosecutions: The main idea around these measures was to enable easier prosecution of traffickers. However, the prosecution rates remain very low. But prosecutions are still very low. Only 64 adult offenders were sentenced between 2017-2019 for over 22,000 potential victims of modern slavery identified in the same period. Fewer than 2% of people affected see their traffickers prosecuted.
- Awareness: The Act certainly raised the issue's profile in the last 10 years, which contributed to an increase of people referred to UK authorities as potential victims. In 2024, this was 19,125 in 2024, nearly six times as many as in 2015.
- Survivor support: The system responding to these cases, the National Referral Mechanism (NRM, which was introduced before the Act), is under severe pressure, with huge delays in decision-making and evidence of survivors struggling to access support services, from safe housing to mental health support or legal advice.
- Compensation: Very few survivors have access to compensation, with 133 applications for compensation through the scheme recorded between January 2021 and May 2024, despite at least 51,193 modern slavery cases being reported to the Home Office during this period.
- Statutory defence: There’s limited evidence on the use of statutory defence for people who were forced to commit crimes as a direct consequence of their trafficking, with anecdotal evidence pointing to its poor implementation. Evidence indicates that it is possible that there are more victims of trafficking in UK prisons than there are perpetrators.
- Lack of trust: Additionally, recent anti-immigration laws removed some protections for survivors, contributing to erosion of their trust in UK authorities. Nearly 6,000 (5,598) adults refused consent to enter the NRM in 2024.
- Transparency in supply chains measures have not been effective. The legislation had no teeth: there weren’t any penalties for businesses not reporting, or even for reporting they’ve done nothing.
Modern slavery in the UK: 2024 stats (source):
- 2024 saw a record high in the number of potential victims of modern slavery referred to the NRM – 19,125 people were referred.
- Nearly a third of all referrals were for children (31%; 5,999) and three quarters of all referrals (74%; 14,157) were male.
- The most common form of exploitation reported by potential victims was labour exploitation, accounting for nearly a third of all referrals (32%; 6,153) and up 8% from last year, to its highest ever level.
- The top three nationalities for potential victims were UK (23%), Albanian (13%) and Vietnamese (11%), though there was an overall drop of 39% in the number of Albanians referred to the NRM compared to last year (from 4,055 to 2,492).
