Modern Slavery Act 2015
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Search complete. 11 mentions across 4 episodes found for "Modern Slavery Act 2015".
Oct 7, 2026
Christy BakerGUEST
And so that means doing at least something.
Christy BakerGUEST
And I think there are some comparisons potentially with the way corporates have dealt with other sort of failure to prevent type offenses like the Bribery Act and the Modern Slavery Act.
Katherine FlowerHOST
Yeah, and I understand that you were closely involved in introducing programmes to address those in your role at First Group.
Katherine FlowerHOST
Can you just talk us through those and how that might help us now inform our approach to preventing third party harassment?
Christy BakerGUEST
I think you need to do something.
Christy BakerGUEST
You need to put something into those contracts first.
Christy BakerGUEST
So that might be specifically calling out this piece of legislation in the same way that lots of contracts nowadays do refer to the Bribery Act, for example, and Modern Slavery Act.
Christy BakerGUEST
So I think, again, there are parallels there.
Chris CoatesGUEST
So in Australia, the government has been considering a mandatory due diligence obligation for reporting entities for some time.
Chris CoatesGUEST
It was first a recommendation in two thousand twenty-three in the McMillan report, which was a statutory mandated review of the Modern Slavery Act.
Chris CoatesGUEST
That was then taken into account in the government response to those recommendations in twenty twenty-four.
Chris CoatesGUEST
And more recently, it was a recommendation of the Commonwealth Anti-Slavery Commissioner from earlier this year.
7 MINS LATER
Natalie GoodmanHOST
As part of the initiative, non-compliant companies receive engagement letters and are given the opportunity to improve before the AGM season, so they actively engage with target companies and the UK government to strengthen modern slavery strategies and guidance.
Chris CoatesGUEST
Turning briefly to one of the scarier topics, non-compliance and regulatory engagement and what we're seeing in Australia versus the UK.
Chris CoatesGUEST
Now, in Australia, the regulator, the Attorneys General Department, has been notifying reporting entities for non-compliance and failures to report under the Australian Modern Slavery Act.
Chris CoatesGUEST
We also know that the AGD has been using tax office data to locate instances where companies which are caught within the reporting threshold of the Australian Act and pinging them for failing to report or lodge statements with the register.
Moira Thompson OliverHOST
So the r- two r- main pieces of legislation.
Moira Thompson OliverHOST
In the UK we've got the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which commenced in March of that year, and Section 54 requires companies doing business in the UK with over £36 million in turnover to publish annual statements.
Moira Thompson OliverHOST
And the statement has to be approved by the board, signed by a director, and placed in a prominent place on the company's website.
Moira Thompson OliverHOST
But the only penalty for non-compliance is that the Secretary of State can bring an injunction requiring a company to report, but we've not actually seen that power used yet.
Moira Thompson OliverHOST
Thanks, Jasmine.
Moira Thompson OliverHOST
It's, it's quite notable that the proposed changes to both regimes have been announced within weeks of each other, and we'll come in in the next episode to talk about why we think that might be the case.
Moira Thompson OliverHOST
The UK was first out of the block with proposed amendments to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in the Immigration and Asylum Bill, and that was announced on the 30th of June this year and the amendments include mandatory reporting content.
Moira Thompson OliverHOST
At the moment in the current MSA, there's only recommended areas for reporting.
Duncan WhiteGUEST
Um, and I worked, uh, worked my way up to executive level, uh, in both acute and psychiatry, um, before joining, um, a, a private enterprise rescuing bankrupt nursing homes and turning around failing nursing homes before I embarked on a, a career with a, a City of London, uh, consultancy working, um, uh, in, uh, healthcare systems across the 10 countries, all four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, plus, uh, six overseas projects, and spent a couple of years in the Gulf.
Duncan WhiteGUEST
And, uh, on returning from the Gulf, I wasn't quite ready for retirement, so worked as a advisor in home care services to a, a trade association, and that took me into working groups with the Department of Health, Business, Enterprise, Innovation and Skills, working on things like implementing the Care Act and the Modern Slavery Act.
Duncan WhiteGUEST
And I worked also with the Care Quality Commission, Skills for Care, um, and various other project groups.
Duncan WhiteGUEST
That gave me a very great understanding, a very broad understanding of how, uh, the bureaucracy behind the healthcare system works.