UK Parliament / Open data

Modern Slavery Bill

Proceeding contribution from Karen Bradley (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 4 November 2014. It occurred during Debate on bills on Modern Slavery Bill.

I will come, as I said, to how we envisage the measure working. My hon. Friend reflects exactly the balance that we are trying to achieve between getting on as quickly as possible and letting Parliament have its say to make sure that we reflect what Parliament wishes in this respect.

2 pm

The statutory guidance will only be guidance. We will not tell businesses what a disclosure must include, and we fully expect disclosures to differ from company to company, which is why the Bill does not specify what information a disclosure must contain. Businesses will be at different levels of maturity and will work in very different sectors, so what is applicable to one might not be applicable to others. We therefore believe that well-constructed guidance is the best approach.

In developing that provision, we looked carefully at the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act 2010, which is often cited as the first Act to address transparency issues. We recognised that any measure seeking to address the issue must create a level playing field, which is why we decided not to follow the amendment to the Companies Act 2006 proposed by the pre-legislative scrutiny Committee. The duty in that Act applies only to public limited companies. Our measure will require all companies over a certain size to disclose what they are doing to ensure that there is no slavery in their supply chains.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
587 c687 
Session
2014-15
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
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