01 November 2017 
Emma Keenan, Procurement Specialist
Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act deals with transparency in supply chains. It requires that any commercial organisation with a turnover of £36m or more, must publish a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year of the organisation. As a reminder, statements must be published as soon as is reasonably practicable after the organisation’s financial year end, and in any event within six months – so for the majority of Universities by the 31st January 2018 and every year thereafter.
This means unless you review your existing statement and publish an updated version by 31st January 2018, you will not be compliant with the act.
The annual review of your statement gives an opportunity to check and update the content setting out the steps your institution will take to prevent modern slavery in the business and its supply chains. Additionally, producing a regular annual statement will ensure you are able to build upon earlier experience and demonstrate action and transparency to the public, consumers and other stakeholders.
If you need any further information, guidance or training on this subject please do not hesitate to contact me.
