International supply chains: compliance and engagement with the Modern Slavery Act

Abstract: The UK Modern Slavery Act aims to reduce and eradicate various forms of exploitation and is in this respect in line with the Sustainability Development Goal (SDG) 8.7. Section 54 of the act focusses on modern slavery in the international supply chain of organisations and obligates organisations to report on the actions they have taken to identify and address exploitation vulnerabilities. In order to understand how effective the current provisions in the act are, we analyse how businesses in the fashion and textile industry engage with the reporting requirements of Section 54. While we find increasing compliance with the act, a significant share of fashion and textile businesses have not reported on their actions or have only filed a statement once.

Keywords: Fashion, modern slavery, Section 54, SDG 8.7, supply chains.

Article posted to Journal of the British Academy, volume 7,
supplementary issue 1 (Tackling Modern Slavery: Problems and Possibilities).