LGA Submission to the Home Office Transparency in Supply Chains Consultation

The LGA welcomes this consultation and many of the recommendations in the Independent Review.

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Key messages

  • The LGA is supportive of the recommendation in the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA) for large public sector organisations with budgets over the £36m threshold to be included within the scope of the Act’s requirements on transparency in supply chains (TISC)
  • While the MSA does not currently oblige councils to take action on modern slavery in their supply chains, over 100 councils have voluntarily embraced ‘ethical procurement’ alongside social value by producing their own modern slavery statements. This sits alongside councils’ wider work to disrupt modern slavery in their areas and provide support to victims.
  • Local government has the opportunity to use its extensive buying power to help mitigate the risks of modern slavery occurring in its supply chains by adopting new processes and procedures, in both procurement and supplier/contract management, and it is right that councils - and other public authorities - should do so.  
  • We already work closely with the TISC Report registry and have our own local government council transparency statement portal on our website.
  • The LGA is in favour of specifying the areas to include within modern slavery statements, which would provide clarity on the information required and help set out what roles and procedures organisations should be undertaking.  
  • However,  carrying out the policies and practices outlined in the proposed six reporting areas will place a significant burden on the time and resources of already over-stretched councils and must therefore be subject to new burden funding. Sufficient training and guidance should be provided, for free, to councils and the public sector if changes are made to include them within scope of section 54 of the MSA. 

Download the full submission

LGA Submission to the Home Office Transparency in Supply Chains Consultation