UK Parliament’s Modern Slavery Programme
The UK Parliament is committed to tackling modern slavery and human trafficking. We've adopted a proactive approach to mitigating modern slavery and all forms of corruption and bribery associated with these criminal acts.
Modern slavery is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide spectrum of crime, including human trafficking, slavery, servitude, and forced labour.
Modern slavery refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot leave due to coercion, use of force, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means.
It's the illegal exploitation of people for personal or commercial gain and is a violation of fundamental human rights.
Parliament’s Modern Slavery Programme was implemented to drive forward our commitment to tackling modern slavery. This will help ensure our organisation and practices are fair and inclusive, and that the wellbeing of our staff, contractors and colleagues is central to all our work.
The programme focuses on a range of development areas, including updating procurement processes, training and awareness raising, and due diligence activity to mitigate any risks in our supply chains.
Modern Slavery Statement
Our Modern Slavery Statement details the steps taken by the UK Parliament to understand all potential modern slavery risks related to our business and to implement steps to prevent slavery and human trafficking between 1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024.
The statement demonstrates our commitment to maximising transparency, by giving the public a full understanding of the steps we've taken to prevent modern slavery in our supply chains. We recognise that we still have some way to go, however we will not stop until we are confident that vulnerable people are protected from exploitation and are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.
This is the UK Parliament’s fourth Modern Slavery Statement. We'll build on our statements year on year.
We welcome constructive feedback on our statement and the work we're carrying out. If you would like to share feedback, please email socialsustainability@parliament.uk.
To see previous statements, read:
- Read UK Parliament's Modern Slavery Statement 2022/2023 (pdf, 590KB)
- Read UK Parliament's Modern Slavery Statement 2021/2022 (pdf, 729KB)
- Read UK Parliament’s Modern Slavery Statement 2020/2021 (pdf, 383KB)
Modern Slavery Policy
The prevention, detection and reporting of modern slavery in Parliament’s supply chains is the responsibility of all those working for us or on our behalf.
The UK Parliament Modern Slavery Policy provides a framework to ensure:
- All members of the Parliamentary community understand and are aware of their responsibilities in relation to modern slavery
- The development of a strategic approach to identifying and tackling any modern slavery within Parliament’s supply chains
- The implementation of robust, transparent and proportionate governance and assurance processes
- Reporting of instances (or concerns) of modern slavery
This policy applies to all persons working for Parliament or on behalf of Parliament, in any capacity, including employees at all levels, directors, officers, agency workers, seconded workers, volunteers, agents and contractors.