Thank you to the many constituents getting in touch regarding modern slavery.
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 has
played a key role in transforming the UK’s response to modern slavery on a national
and international level. It provides police and law enforcement agencies with
the necessary powers and enhances protections for victims. The Act has helped
tackle the criminals behind this abhorrent crime. The UK is a world leader in
the fight against modern slavery.
In addition to the human cost of this crime,
Home Office research highlights the devastating economic and social costs of
modern slavery. It costs the UK up to £4.3 billion a year and each modern
slavery crime is second only to murder in terms of harm to its victims and
society.
The Modern Slavery Act must therefore be as
effective as possible and the Government commissioned an independent review of
the act. The Government accepted the majority of the review’s recommendations
and further information on this can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-independe….
The Government also ran a public
consultation on proposals to enhance transparency, increase compliance and
expand the law to cover the public sector. The legislation requires businesses
to publish statements outlining what action they are taking to tackle modern
slavery and forced labour in their supply chains in the UK and overseas.
The
Government has said it will introduce measures to strengthen the legislation
including:
- extending the reporting requirement to
public bodies with a budget of £36m or more;
- mandating the specific topics that reporting
must cover;
- requiring statements to be published on the new
Government digital reporting service;
- setting a single reporting deadline and taking
forwards options for penalties for non-compliance in line with the ongoing development
of the Single Enforcement Body for employment rights.
These measures require legislative change and will therefore be debated in Parliament.
Although the Government works hard to enforce the law
for victims and survivors, I do not believe it is necessary to create a blanket
policy of granting leave to remain for victims. It would not be helpful for
reducing the frequency of this crime and would not limit its economic impact.
Such a policy would instead create an
incentive for people to make false trafficking claims to obtain privileges in
the UK fraudulently. This would, in turn, have the effect of putting at risk
the support currently available for those who genuinely need help.
If you would like to discuss this
further or any other matter, then please do not hesitate to contact me.
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