The government has published a new international reporting template in relation to modern slavery, forced labour and child labour.
In the UK, under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA) in-scope organisations are required to produce a slavery and human trafficking statement (MSA statement) each financial year, which sets out the steps they have taken to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of their business or in any of their supply chains. The MSA provides that the Secretary of State may publish guidance in relation to these requirements, and the latest version of the guidance was published in March 2025 (read more on our corporate notes blog here).
The new template covers the disclosure obligations for organisations in the UK, Austrailia and Canada and supports the creation of one report for all three jurisdictions.
The template groups the disclosure requirements in the three jurisdictions into seven sections, including structure and operations, policies and processes and training. For each section, the template then sets out:
- what the legislation in each jurisdiction requires;
- the information which organisations should disclose under the legislation (referred to a "Level 1" information); and
- the recommended information which organisations can disclose to demonstrate progress and leadership in transparency ("Level 2" information).
The Level 1 and Level 2 structure follows the approach in the March 2025 update of the UK guidance.
The template also sets out in annexes more details on the obligations under the regimes in the three jurisdictions, including how in-scope organisations can meet the reporting requirements in each jurisdiction.
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