On September 22, 2020, the government of the United Kingdom responded to the 2019 public consultation on the Modern Slavery Act, stating that it is "committing to an ambitious package of measures to strengthen and future-proof the Modern Slavery Act’s transparency legislation." Among other things, the UK government announced that it would set a single reporting deadline for all companies. The mandatory requirement will also be complemented by additional information on six different reporting areas: (1) organizational structure, business model, and supply chain relationships; (2) applicable policies; (3) due diligence and auditing process; (4) human trafficking risks and steps taken to assess and mitigate risk; (5) compliance effectiveness and KPIs; and (6) internal training. These areas will include the existing voluntary suggested areas.
The UK Government is currently considering how the reporting areas can be amended to include the additional themes. It is expected that the measures will already be covered by careful use of the existing voluntary reporting areas. The review therefore relates to the format of the areas and aims to clarify whether changes are necessary to avoid possible ambiguities.
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