Under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, organisations that meet certain criteria are legally required to publish an annual modern slavery statement in a prominent place on their website. They are also encouraged to make statements from previous years available online.
In addition, organisations are strongly encouraged to publish their statements on the Modern slavery statement registry, as this will be mandatory in the future.
Currently, the legislation applies to commercial organisations that:
- are a body corporate or a partnership (described as an ‘organisation’ in this service), wherever incorporated
- carry on a business, or part of a business, in the UK
- supply goods or services
- have an annual turnover of £36 million or more
Many other organisations produce a modern slavery statement voluntarily. In the future, the requirement to publish a statement will be extended to public sector organisations with a budget of £36 million or more.