Modern Slavery and Supply Chains
Modern slavery encompasses the offences of slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking. The NHS has a significant role to play in combatting it, including through taking steps to ensure that NHS supply chains and business activities are free from ethical and labour standards abuses. Government relies on its suppliers for the delivery of many important public services and we expect the highest standards of business ethics from our suppliers and their agents.
	The Act introduces a duty on the Secretary of State to carry out a review into the risk of slavery and human trafficking taking place in NHS supply chains, and to lay a report before Parliament on its outcomes.
	The Act also requires the Secretary of State to make regulations setting out such provision as he thinks appropriate with a view to eradicating the use in the NHS in England of goods or services that are tainted by slavery or human trafficking. The regulations can, in particular, include steps that the NHS should be taking to assess the level of risk associated with their supply chains; provision in relation to procurement processes, including the basis on which the NHS should exclude suppliers from a tendering process; and measures that should be included in contracts.