Agenda item

            The Committee considered a report which outlined the impact of the “Transparency in Supply Chains” clause in the Modern Slavery Act 2015 which was designed to prevent organisations entering into contractual relationships with others engaged in or who had engaged in human trafficking or exploitation type offences.

            The Town Solicitor advised that the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) was described by the Home Office as aiming to “address slavery and trafficking in the 21st century by enhancing support and protection for victims, giving law enforcement the tools needed to target today’s slave drivers, ensuring perpetrators can be severely punished and also include a provision to encourage businesses to take action to ensure their supply chains are slavery-free”.

            Section 54 of the Act, which was introduced by the Government following a campaign by a coalition of interested groups and businesses, included provisions which required commercial organisations with a turnover of more that £36m to produce a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year setting out what they had done to ensure there was no modern slavery in its supply chains or any part of its business.

            The Town solicitor advised that the Modern Slavery Act applied to organisations if they:

·        Were a body corporate (under section 1(2) of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 the Council was deemed to be a “body corporate”);

·        Carried on a business, or part of a business, in the United Kingdom;

·        Supply goods or services, and

·        Had a total turnover of £36m or more.

Therefore the Act applied to Belfast City Council.

            He explained that, if an organisation failed to produce a slavery and human trafficking statement for a particular financial year, the Secretary of State might seek an injunction through the High Court.  If the organisation failed to comply with the injunction, it would be in contempt of a court order which was punishable by an unlimited fine.  However, failure to comply with the provision, or a statement that an organisation had taken no steps, might damage the reputation of the organisation.

            He explained further that the Council must publish a modern slavery transparency statement on a prominent place on its website homepage when publishing its annual accounts from the end of the 2015-16 financial year onwards.  The statement must be approved and signed by a director, member or a partner of the organisation.  The Act also created a duty to report any incidents of modern slavery which applied in England and Wales only.  That duty was expected to come into effect in Northern Ireland before the end of 2016 on the commencement of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2015.  The Department of Justice planned to issue guidance to accompany that Act. 

            Accordingly, he submitted for the Committee’s consideration the following modern slavery transparency statement:

Appendix 1

Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement 2015-6

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes Belfast City Council’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31st  March 2016.

Belfast City Council is the local authority for the Belfast area with responsibility for local planning, economic development, tourism, street cleaning, parks, leisure and waste management.

Our political governance structure is set out below:

Our supply chain consists of more than 7,700 suppliers mostly based in the UK and Ireland.

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or any part of our business. We will review existing corporate responsibility policies and consider whether they already address the issues that are required by the Act and if not, consider what additional policies we may need. For example, we may need to review the Whistleblowing Policy to reference the Modern Slavery Act. 

We have identified the following areas of our supply chain as having a higher risk in relation to modern slavery:

• waste management
• food

Starting from 1st April 2017, all our new suppliers for new or extended contracts will be required to self-certify whether the Modern Slavery Act applies to them and that they meet the requirements of the Act.

We will, subject to resource availability in the Corporate Procurement Unit, introduce a process of carrying out random checks on new suppliers to ensure that:

• they have a Transparency Statement
• the council is satisfied at the level of assurance provided that no modern slavery exists in their supply chain

We will communicate this policy to our staff to make them aware of the issue and the council’s obligations.

The Northern Ireland Department of Justice is expected, in Autumn 2016, to announce guidance on the new duty to report incidences of modern slavery. This may require further training and guidance being issued to staff.

            The Committee approved the Council’s draft Modern Slavery Transparency Statement.