The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) at the University of Oxford marked the 10th anniversary of the Modern Slavery Act by convening a conference to discuss the state of policy and law addressing modern slavery in the UK.
The conference, titled ‘Ten years on from the Modern Slavery Act: Where next for modern slavery law and policy?’, took place on 5 March 2025 at The British Library in London. This landmark event brought together policymakers, researchers, practitioners and lived experience experts to assess the UK’s modern slavery response and outline priorities for the next decade.
ITV News anchor Julie Etchingham hosted a Q&A session with the Minister for Safeguarding Jess Phillips MP, the UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, opened the afternoon session with a speech, alongside discussion panels chaired by the former UK Anti-Slavery Commissioner Dame Sara Thornton, Chris Murray MP, Tony Vaughan MP, Sophie Otiende (Azadi Kenya, former CEO of the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery), Patricia Durr (ECPAT UK) and Jasmine O’Connor (former CEO of Anti-Slavery International). Discussions addressed pressing issues such as legal and policy reform, survivor support, exploitation in supply chains, exploitation of children, local responses and prevention strategies.
With the venue packed tight with well over 200 people, the Centre’s director Murray Hunt remarked: "it’s heartening to see so many people caring about this issue amongst the general madness around us."
The Minister for Safeguarding Jess Phillips MP
The Minister for Safeguarding Jess Phillips MP acknowledged that although the Modern Slavery Act has been a positive step ten years ago, much more remains to be done to address modern slavery by the Government, remarking: “we know we’re not where we need to be.”
She stressed that although her work comes amongst a very difficult policy environment and competing priorities, her commitment to address the issue remains unmoved. “The challenges ahead are significant but so is our resolve,” she said.
The Minister set out the pillars of her forthcoming action plan: developing the UK’s approach to prevention, reforming the identification system, tailoring victim support, and improving criminal justice outcomes.
She has stressed that almost half of the backlog of modern slavery cases in the National Referral Mechanism, has been cleared. The backlog is a significant problem for survivors, some of whom have to wait up to two years for a decisions confirming they are victims of modern slavery. The Minister added: “Together we must make the UK a place where modern slavery doesn’t have a foot hold.”
The Q&A led by the ITV News anchor Julie Etchingham drilled into the planned reforms from the Government’s action plan and discussed how the Minister’s work on modern slavery falls into the wider context of other policies affecting it, including the Government’s stance on immigration and the recent cuts to international aid.
Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner
The UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, opened the afternoon session. She acknowledged recent positive steps by the Government, such as repealing harmful provisions of the Illegal Migration Act and increasing modern slavery caseworkers. However, she stressed that merely undoing past harms is not progress but rather a return to a weak baseline and called the Government to adopt a cross-government strategy to tackle modern slavery. She also stressed the need to include survivor voices in policymaking and enhance the knowledge base on modern slavery.
Survivor inclusion
The meaningful and ethical inclusion of people with lived experience of modern slavery was one of the key themes of the conference. As the member of the PEC’s Lived Experience Advisory Panel, Jane Lasonder, said in her opening challenge speech: "Survivors aren't stories walking on legs, they need to be embedded at every level of work against modern slavery."
The members of the Centre’s Panel and the Lived Experience Engagement Team met with the Minister Jess Phillips in a private setting to discuss how the Government plans for survivor inclusion in creating its policies addressing modern slavery.
Commenting on the meeting with the Minister, Olessya Glasson, the Centre’s Lived Experience Engagement Manager, said: “It’s crucial that people affected by modern slavery have a say in creating responses to addressing this issue. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it also can make these response more effective as they can be based on direct experience and expertise of people who has experienced it.”
Panels and break-out sessions
The conference has discussed the state of law and policy on modern slavery in its panels and break out sessions assessing the state of modern slavery laws and policies ten years on from the Modern Slavery Act. The panels’ themes included:10 years since the Modern Slavery Act. What have we learned for the next ten years?
- Modern slavery in supply chains: where do we go from here?
- Ethical lived experience engagement
- Local and regional leadership
- How can we prevent children and young people from experiencing exploitation?
- How can we prevent modern slavery in policy and legislation?
We will publish the recordings from some of the panel discussions in the coming days, as well as a blog with key takeaways. In the meantime, you can see some more photos from the event on our social media, on LinkedIn, Bluesky and X, with more to come.
