This House of Lords Library briefing provides background information in advance of the second reading of the Modern Slavery (Transparency in Supply Chains) Bill in the House of Lords on Friday 8 July 2016.
Modern Slavery (Transparency in Supply Chains) Bill [HL]: Briefing for Lords Stages (143 KB , PDF)
The Modern Slavery (Transparency in Supply Chains) Bill is a private member’s bill introduced on 23 May 2016 by Baroness Young of Hornsey. The second reading has been scheduled for 8 July 2016. The Bill seeks to amend the Modern Slavery Act 2015 so that public bodies would be required to include a yearly statement on slavery and human trafficking. Currently, the Act only requires Commercial organisations to issue such a statement. The Bill would also seek to amend the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 so that public contracting authorities would be prevented from using an economic operator that has no produced a slavery and human trafficking statement. This In Focus also examines the background to the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Modern Slavery (Transparency in Supply Chains) Bill [HL]: Briefing for Lords Stages (143 KB , PDF)
This bill seeks to implement the government’s commitments to modernise the asylum and immigration systems, establish a border security command and introduce enhanced powers and offences to tackle immigration crime and people smuggling gangs. It has completed its passage in the House of Commons and is scheduled to have its second reading in the House of Lords on 2 June 2025.
In October 2024, a House of Lords committee published a post-legislative review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The committee argued that the legislation was no longer world-leading. It suggested developments worldwide had led to the UK falling behind internationally and that recent immigration legislation had limited the act’s support infrastructure for victims. It called on government policy to recognise the difference between migrants coming to the UK willingly and victims of trafficking.
Integration and community cohesion have both been identified as important factors to enable people from different communities to live and work together. Like the previous Conservative government, the current Labour government has committed to policies intended to support integration in order to improve community cohesion. This briefing summarises how integration and community cohesion are conceptualised and measured and discusses the debate on effective integration strategies.
