Under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, certain organisations are responsible for publishing their modern slavery statements each year by the end of September. Whether or not your client will need to do this is dependent on a number of factors, which are explained in detail below.
The Act dictates that organisations with an annual turnover of at least £36million must publish updated modern slavery statements within 6 months of their financial year-end. This means that for those with a standard financial year, running from March to April, the deadline to publish these statements falls at the end of September each year. Completed statements should be published on your client’s website and confirm the steps taken to ensure slavery is not taking place in their organisation or supply chains. Those organisations with a different financial year end will have to publish their updated statement within 6 months of the end of their financial year. This means they will not have a September deadline, but a corresponding deadline that falls sometime within the coming months.
Keeping the statement up to date will help maintain a positive reputation amongst customers and the general public. Showing that steps are taken to eradicate modern slavery will reaffirm the notion that your client runs a transparent and conscientious organisation, which is particularly important if they work in industries such as construction and agriculture which are more commonly associated with this form of labour abuse. An enhanced reputation usually goes hand in hand with increased profitability, therefore taking time to complete the statement could be economically