A loophole in the slavery bill could allow companies to hide supply chain abuses
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Version 0 of 1. As a barrister who has been working at the highest levels on the global issues of slavery and trafficking for many years, I feel there is an urgent need to hold our corporations to account when they have subjected workers to enslavement either in the UK or overseas. At the moment, the UK parliament is discussing a modern slavery bill, which the government says will hold big business to account and force companies to keep their supply chains slave free. To do this, it has included a transparency in supply chain (Tisc) clause into the bill, which this week is being debated again in the Lords. This is a huge step forward in ensuring that companies become directly responsible in law for the condition of their supply chains. If passed, the Tisc clause will require large firms that do business in Britain to produce mandatory statements reporting on the steps they are taking to ensure any goods produced or services provided by workers are free of slavery and trafficking. It also, crucially, puts a legal responsibility on company directors to ensure this is happening. This is a critical development in accountability and should introduce into the law of England and Wales a culture of corporate accountability that has, so far, been absent. Yet a few days ago when I looked carefully at the wording of the Tisc clause, and after consulting a team of legal experts, I discovered there has been a startling omission, which could have far-reaching consequences for people trapped in conditions of forced and bonded labour and other forms of modern slavery around the world. The Tisc clause will require companies carrying out all or some of their business in the UK to report on steps they are taking to identify and prevent slavery in the goods and services produced, used or brought back to the UK. But, as it is currently drafted, it does not require companies in the UK to report on all the supply chains in their groups overseas, such as those of wholly owned subsidiaries abroad. In essence, this means the clause – in its current form – provides the perfect cover for companies that are not inclined to report, for example, on the conditions of workers overseas who are making goods and providing services not coming to the UK. So the Tisc clause will not prevent parent companies in the UK from profiting from any slave labour used in their supply chains abroad by non-UK subsidiaries. The message this is sending is that it is OK for British companies and other big businesses operating in the UK to pollute somebody else’s country with slave-tainted supply chains, it’s just not OK for them to pollute ours. One example that will chime with anyone who has been following the reporting of exploitation on World Cup construction sites in Qatar is that if this bill is passed in its current form, British construction companies with wholly owned subsidiaries in countries such as Qatar or Dubai will not have to include the supply chains of these businesses in their mandatory reporting statements. At the moment, it doesn’t seem that any of the big companies or charities supporting the Tisc clause have any idea of the limit on extra-territorial jurisdiction included in the modern slavery bill. Indeed, what has been extremely encouraging is the support and willingness of big companies in the UK, which have expressed genuine support for getting their supply chains slave free. Yet the clause will not seek to enforce that willingness in the way it is currently drafted. This leaves a dangerous loophole for companies that would prefer their overseas supply chains to remain out of sight. What is needed is an amendment that would require companies carrying out a business in the UK to report on all of the supply chains from which it profits and for which it is responsible. This would ensure clear accountability running through the supply chain wherever in the world that good or service is provided. That is what should be expected of the UK government and of British businesses. The introduction of the Tisc clause in the modern slavery bill represents a huge step forward in the development of corporate accountability. Yet we will never really begin to tackle modern slavery unless we ensure that the supply chains of all of our companies, whether doing business in the UK or overseas, are not tainted by trafficking, exploitation or abuse. |