CCLA Investment Management’s inaugural Global Modern Slavery Benchmark assesses the 100 largest globally listed companies that provide goods or services within the UK and are therefore subject to the Modern Slavery Act.
Only 23 firms disclosed finding modern slavery last year, and just one company reported that survivors had been satisfied with the redress provided to them.
Sectors like financial services and energy – perceived to have a lower risk of forced labour – scored lowest in the benchmark, suggesting they have developed less robust practices for finding it, while historically higher-risk sectors like consumer staples and materials have become more proactive and scored higher.
The study also found a gap between intentions and actions, with 48 companies having disclosed their policies on responsible procurement, while just nine explained how they work in practice.
“This benchmark shows too many businesses focussed merely on policies and compliance rather than developing robust discovery and redress practices,” said Peter Hugh Smith, CCLA chief executive.
“Modern slavery is endemic, but companies can play a vital role in changing victims’ lives for the better. The true measure of a company is not whether there is forced labour within their supply chains, but how robustly they look for it, and what they do when they find it.”
It’s 10 years since the Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force, which requires businesses with £36m or more in global turnover to publish annual statements outlining steps taken to ensure their operations and supply chains are free from modern slavery.
Nearly 28 million people are still in conditions of forced labour worldwide, while G20 countries imported $468bn (£347bn) worth of goods at risk of modern slavery in 2021, according to international human rights group Walk Free.
Compliance with the Modern Slavery Act and conformance with Home Office guidance were the strongest scoring areas in CCLA’s benchmark.
However, there was significant disparity between the best performing companies – Cisco Systems, Costco, and Nestlé – and worst performing, with four firms scoring less than 12 out of a maximum of 62 points.
“The UK Modern Slavery Act was world-leading in 2015, but that was a decade ago now,” said Dame Sara Thornton, director for modern slavery at CCLA.
“As peer nations continue their progress to toughen legislation to combat modern slavery, notably the EU and the US, we are now falling behind, leaving the UK exposed to being seen as a dumping ground for goods tainted with forced labour.
“As a first step we would like to see the UK Modern Slavery Act require companies to disclose modern slavery when they find it. This would give investors and others good indications of how hard companies are looking for it and would focus accountability for providing redress to victims.”
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Chris Seekings is the Deputy Editor of IEMA’s Transform magazine, which is published biomonthly for IEMA members. Chris’s role involves writing sustainability-related news, features and interviews, as well as helping to plan and manage the magazine’s other day-to-day activities.