Modern Slavery Act 2015

Last updated

Modern Slavery Act 2015
Act of Parliament
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (variant 1, 1952-2022).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title An Act to make provision about slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour and about human trafficking, including provision for the protection of victims; to make provision for an Independent Anti-slavery Commissioner; and for connected purposes.
Citation 2015 c. 30
Introduced by Theresa May
Dates
Royal assent 26 March 2015
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Text of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 (c. 30) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is designed to combat modern slavery in the UK and consolidates previous offences relating to trafficking and slavery. The act extends essentially to England and Wales, but some provisions (for example, relating to modern slavery statements and cross-border pursuit) apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Contents

The bill was introduced to the House of Commons in draft form in October 2013 by James Brokenshire, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Crime and Security. The bill's sponsors in the Home Office were Theresa May and Lord Bates. It received Royal Assent and became law on 26 March 2015. [1]

James Brokenshire was quoted as saying that the act would "send the strongest possible message to criminals that if you are involved in this disgusting trade in human beings, you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted and you will be locked up". [2]

Provisions

The act contains a number of provisions: [3] [4]

The provision in section 45 which gives a statutory defence to criminal prosecution for slavery or trafficking victim is not available in a number of more serious offences set out in Schedule 4. If it comes to light after conviction, it is possible for the Court of Appeal to quash a conviction of a defendant who has been the victim of trafficking. [5] [6] [7]

Amendments to the bill

Supply chain

The draft bill included no measures to counter the use of slave labour abroad as the Home Office believed that asking businesses to audit and report on modern slavery in their supply chains would be an "additional burden". However, campaigning resulted in a supply chain clause being added to the bills so that "big business will be forced to make public its efforts to stop the use of slave labour by its suppliers". [8] Consultation regarding the reporting requirements of the supply chain clause took place in February and March 2015. [9]

From 29 October 2015 the Transparency in Supply Chain Provisions require businesses to publish an annual statement if they have an annual turnover above a threshold (£36 million). [10] The statement must confirm the steps taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in the business (or in any supply chain) or declare that no steps to confirm the existence of slavery or trafficking have been taken. It is expected that few businesses would take the latter option as it may place their ethical position into question and affect their reputation. There are, however, no legally binding requirements to conduct due diligence on supply chains and there are no criminal or financial penalties for non-compliance. [11]

On 21 March 2016 the Home Office held a Transparency in Supply Chains (TISC) event where an independent civil society modern slavery register, the TISC Report, was announced in order to provide a publicly searchable, accessible registry for companies to share their statements. At the point of launch, on 1 April 2016, it was partnered with, amongst others, the Welsh Government, the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and Business West. On 31 January 2017 it had 10,153 companies with statements held within its open data register, making it the largest modern slavery statement register globally. [12]

In 2019 the UK Government committed to publishing a Modern Slavery Statement of its own, reflecting the requirements imposed on larger businesses under section 54 of the 2015 Act. The statement was published on 26 March 2020. [13]

Prostitution

In November 2014 Fiona Mactaggart MP added an amendment to the bill concerning prostitution, aimed at criminalising the purchase of sex. [14] [15] In the bill's debate in the House of Commons, John McDonnell MP argued against the amendment. He highlighted the lack of evidence for any correlation between the Swedish sex purchase ban and a reduction in numbers of sex workers or their clients, and cited findings "that not only do such measures not work, they actually cause harm". McDonnell quoted Reverend Andrew Dotchin, a founding member of the Safety First Coalition: "I strongly oppose clauses on prostitution in the Modern Slavery Bill, which would make the purchase of sex illegal. Criminalising clients does not stop prostitution, nor does it stop the criminalisation of women. It drives prostitution further underground, making it more dangerous and stigmatising for women." [16] The amendment was subsequently dropped. [17]

Tied visas

In March 2015 an amendment was brought forward in the House of Lords concerning migrant workers who are brought to the UK by their employer using "tied visas". These workers are typically foreign domestic workers and they are not allowed to legally leave their job and find employment elsewhere. The system of tied visas, introduced in 2012, has been compared to the kafala system of employer-sponsored workers used in some Middle East countries. [18] The amendment would have given workers in the UK using tied visas the right to change employer, but it was rejected by the House of Commons. [19]

Criticism of the bill

Experts in the issue were sceptical of the bill, believing that it had many shortcomings. [20] Parosha Chandran, a human rights barrister and United Nations expert on trafficking, claimed that "the bill is very poor on victim protection". Anthony Steen, who advised on the legislation and chairs the Human Trafficking Foundation, claimed that the bill failed to focus on the needs of victims of trafficking in the UK. "The bill is wholly and exclusively about law enforcement – but it shouldn’t be enforcement-based, it should be victim-based", he said.

Human rights group Liberty argued that the bill should have: [21]

Implementation of the act

One of the aims of the Home Affairs Select Committee's inquiry into prostitution legislation, which began in January 2016, was to examine the impact that the act had had on trafficking for the purposes of prostitution and whether further measures were needed to help those involved in prostitution to leave it. [22] Submissions to the inquiry published in June 2016 said that there had been 1,139 victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation in 2014. [23]

A review of the act in 2016 found that 289 offences were prosecuted under the act in 2015, and that there had been a 40% rise in the number of victims referred for support. In July 2016 the Anti-Slavery Commissioner suggested that the number of crimes being reported and investigated under the act was falling short of the real number of cases of human trafficking and modern slavery. In the same month prime minister Theresa May announced additional measures to assist the implementation of the act:

In 2017, figures published by the National Crime Agency indicated that there were over 300 current police operations investigating possible violations of the act, and that a total of 3,805 people had been reported as potential victims in 2016. [25] In September 2017 alone, nine people were jailed for offences under the act. [26]

In other countries

By 2018 legislation intended to reduce the impact of modern slavery on supply chains had been passed by seven of the G20 countries (including the UK). [27] In 2018 the Government of Australia introduced a Modern Slavery Bill to the Parliament of Australia, using the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Act 2015 as a model. [28] The bill was introduced following an Inquiry instigated, led and undertaken by the Foreign Affairs & Aid Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, chaired by then Australian MP Chris Crewther. [29] The Sub-Committee through its Inquiry looked into whether Australia should adopt a comparable Modern Slavery Act, gave in-principle support for the proposal in its August 2017 Interim Report, [30] and gave full support through the recommendations of its final report, "Hidden in Plain Sight", [29] in December 2017.

It was passed into law as the Modern Slavery Act 2018 in November 2018, with effect from 1 January 2019. The reporting threshold is annual revenue above A$100 million (equivalent to about US$70 million or £55 million), with strengths beyond the original UK Act including a legislated government-run central repository of statements, mandatory prescribed criteria for statements, government being required to report, a legislated three year review, and some compliance measures enabling the listing of entities who do not report, or do not report properly, by the Minister. [31]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in the United Kingdom</span>

In Great Britain, the act of engaging in sex as part of an exchange of various sexual services for money is legal, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, pimping and pandering, are illegal. In Northern Ireland, which previously had similar laws, paying for sex became illegal from 1 June 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Australia</span> History and nature of sex work (prostitution) in Australia

Prostitution or sex work in Australia is governed by state and territory laws, which vary considerably. Federal legislation also affects some aspects of sex work throughout Australia, and of Australian citizens abroad.

Prostitution in South Africa is illegal for both buying and selling sex, as well as related activities such as brothel keeping and pimping. However, it remains widespread. Law enforcement is poor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the 21st century</span> Contemporary slavery, also known as modern slavery or neo-slavery

Contemporary slavery, also sometimes known as modern slavery or neo-slavery, refers to institutional slavery that continues to occur in present-day society. Estimates of the number of enslaved people today range from around 38 million to 49.6 million, depending on the method used to form the estimate and the definition of slavery being used. The estimated number of enslaved people is debated, as there is no universally agreed definition of modern slavery; those in slavery are often difficult to identify, and adequate statistics are often not available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Europe</span>

The legality of prostitution in Europe varies by country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the United Kingdom</span>

The United Kingdom (UK) is a destination country for men, women, and children primarily from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe who are subjected to human trafficking for the purposes of sexual slavery and forced labour, including domestic servitude. It is ranked as a "Tier 1" country by the US Department of State, which issues an annual report on human trafficking. "Tier 1" countries are those whose governments fully comply with The Trafficking Victims Protection Act's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The TVPA is a federal statute of the United States. It is believed that some victims, including minors from the UK, are also trafficked within the country. It is also believed that migrant workers are trafficked to the UK for forced labour in agriculture, construction, food processing, domestic servitude, and food service. Source countries for trafficking victims in the UK include the United Arab Emirates, Lithuania, Russia, Albania, Ukraine, Malaysia, Thailand, the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.), Nigeria, and Ghana. Precise details about the extent of human trafficking within the UK are not available, and many have questioned the validity of some of the more widely quoted figures. In 2020, the US State Department estimated that there were 13,000 trafficking victims in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking</span> Trade of humans for exploitation

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation.

The Government of the Republic of Korea does not meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government continues to make improvements but South Korea has been lowered to Tier 2. The government demonstrated serious and sustained efforts by identifying and providing services to a comparable number of victims relative to the previous reporting period, increasing inspections of entertainment businesses, and increasing efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. Although the government meets the minimum standards, it did not adequately address labor trafficking; the government investigated and prosecuted fewer cases, and penalized and deported trafficking victims due to inadequate identification efforts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Australia</span>

Human trafficking in Australia is illegal under Divisions 270 and 271 of the Criminal Code (Cth). In September 2005, Australia ratified the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, which supplemented the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Amendments to the Criminal Code were made in 2005 to implement the Protocol.

Human trafficking in Canada is prohibited by law, and is considered a criminal offence whether it occurs entirely within Canada or involves the "transporting of persons across Canadian borders. Public Safety Canada (PSC) defines human trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control, direction or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through sexual exploitation or forced labour. It is often described as a modern form of slavery."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the United States</span> Human trafficking as it relates to the United States

In the United States, human trafficking tends to occur around international travel hubs with large immigrant populations, notably in California, Texas, and Georgia. Those trafficked include young children, teenagers, men, and women; victims can be domestic citizens or foreign nationals.

Prostitution in Northern Ireland is governed by the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act 2015, which makes it illegal to pay for sex in Northern Ireland. Prior to the act coming into effect, prostitution in Northern Ireland was regulated by the same or similar laws to those in England and Wales, as it is elsewhere in the United Kingdom. At that time, prostitution in Northern Ireland was legal subject to a number of restraints which controlled certain activities associated with prostitution, such as soliciting, procuring, living on the proceeds of prostitution (pimping), exploitation of prostitutes, under-age prostitution, and keeping a brothel. However, devolution provided the opportunity for separate legislation in Northern Ireland.

Malaysia is a destination and a source and transit country for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced prostitution and for men, women, and children who are in conditions of forced labour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in New Zealand</span>

Human trafficking is a crime in New Zealand under Section 98D of the Crimes Act 1961. In 2002, the New Zealand Government ratified the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, a protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC). New Zealand participates in efforts to combat human trafficking in the Asia-Pacific region, and has a leadership role in the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Human Trafficking and related Transnational Crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luis CdeBaca</span> United States diplomat

Luis C.deBaca is an American lawyer and diplomat who served in the Obama Administration as Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and as Director of the Department of Justice's Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in California</span> Overview of the situation of human trafficking in the U.S. state of California

Human trafficking in California is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor as it occurs in the state of California. Human trafficking, widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery, includes

"the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contemporary slavery in the United States</span>

Slavery is a system which requires workers to work against their will for little to no compensation. In modern-day terms, this practice is more widely referred to as human trafficking. Human trafficking is defined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation”. The practices of slavery and human trafficking are still prevalent in modern America with estimated 17,500 foreign nationals and 400,000 Americans being trafficked into and within the United States every year with 80% of those being women and children. Human trafficking in the United States can be divided into the two major categories of labor and sex trafficking, with sex trafficking accounting for a majority of cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in the United States</span>

Sex trafficking in the United States is a form of human trafficking which involves reproductive slavery or commercial sexual exploitation as it occurs in the United States. Sex trafficking includes the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or force into exploitative and slavery-like conditions. It is commonly associated with organized crime.

Sex trafficking in Japan is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the country. Japan is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nationality and Borders Act 2022</span> Act of the UK Parliament dealing with immigration and asylum

The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom proposed in July 2021 relating to immigration, asylum and the UK's modern slavery response. The Act also deals with British overseas territories citizenship and registration of stateless citizens. Amongst other elements, it proposes to introduce "designated places" or "offshore" asylum hubs for application of refugee and migrant asylum claims, potentially in another European country or an African country. Part 5 of the Act grants the Government new powers to limit who is considered a victim of modern slavery, with clauses limiting support in cases where survivors have not complied with State-set deadlines to disclose their abuse. Under Part 5, decision makers would also be asked to consider the survivors' criminal history before deeming them eligible for support.

References

  1. ↑ "Modern Slavery Act 2015". UK Parliament. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Wood, Helois (18 October 2013). "Old Bexley and Sidcup MP James Brokenshire announces plans to help end human trafficking". Newshopper.
  3. ↑ "Modern Slavery Bill 2014-15". UK Parliament. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  4. ↑ "Modern Slavery Bill 2014-15 - Commons Library Research Paper". UK Parliament. 7 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "Rooney gang slavery victim has theft conviction quashed". BBC News. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  6. ↑ R v O & Another [2011] EWCA Crim 2226
  7. ↑ R v AAD [2022] EWCA Crim 106 (3 February 2022), Court of Appeal (England and Wales)
  8. ↑ Michael Pollitt (16 October 2014). "Unfinished abolitionists: Britain returns to the frontline of the war on slavery". New Statesman.
  9. ↑ Jehan-Philippe Wood; Hari Jon (27 February 2015). "Update on the Modern Slavery Bill - consultation on the transparency in supply chains clause". www.lexology.com. Globe Business Publishing Ltd. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  10. ↑ The Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Transparency in Supply Chain) Regulations 2015, regulation 2
  11. ↑ Sharon Benning-Prince (31 July 2015). "A Guide to the Modern Slavery Act for Your Business". ContractStore Legal Business Blog. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  12. ↑ "World's largest anti-slavery register reaches 10k milestone, boosting the fight against exploitation" (Press release). TISC Report. 30 January 2017.
  13. ↑ UK Government, UK Government Modern Slavery Statement, published 26 March 2020, accessed 1 January 2021
  14. ↑ Julia O'Connell Davidson (4 November 2014). "Convenient conflations: modern slavery, trafficking, and prostitution". Open Democracy.
  15. ↑ Katie Nguyen (3 November 2014). "British parliament to debate whether paying for sex should be illegal". Thomson Reuters Foundation.
  16. ↑ "House of Commons". UK Parliament. 4 November 2014.
  17. ↑ Niki Adams (6 November 2014). "Listen to sex workers – we can explain what decriminalisation would mean". The Guardian.
  18. ↑ Sloan, Alastair (17 March 2015). "UK tied visa system 'turning domestic workers into modern-day slaves'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  19. ↑ Perraudin, Frances (17 March 2015). "Modern slavery bill amendment rejected by MPs". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  20. ↑ "Government's Modern Slavery Bill will 'fail victims and spare criminals'". The Independent. 14 December 2013.
  21. ↑ "Modern Slavery Bill must go further". Liberty. 9 March 2014.
  22. ↑ Nick Hudson (18 January 2016). "Decriminalise prostitution call as MPs look at shifting criminal blame". www.policeprofessional.com. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  23. ↑ Home Affairs Select Committee (16 June 2016). "Key facts". www.parliament.uk.
  24. ↑ "Theresa May pledges £33m boost for fight against slavery in Britain". The Guardian. 31 July 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  25. ↑ "Modern slavery and trafficking 'in every UK town and city'". BBC News. 10 August 2017.
  26. ↑ "Modern slavery is disturbingly common". The Economist . 20 September 2017.
  27. ↑ "UK could have up to 136,000 modern slaves, rights foundation claims". Sky News. 19 July 2018.
  28. ↑ Hutchens, Gareth; Doherty, Ben (28 June 2018). "Modern slavery bill welcomed, but no penalties for breaching act". The Guardian.
  29. 1 2 Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (December 2017). Hidden in Plain Sight: An inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia (Report). Canberra: Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.
  30. ↑ Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (August 2017). Modern slavery and global supply chains (PDF) (Report). Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 December 2019.
  31. ↑ "At last, Australia has a Modern Slavery Act. Here's what you'll need to know". The Conversation . 3 December 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.