Richard Scorer & Kim Harrison explain why anti-slavery legislation needs sharper teeth
It would be nice to think that slavery is a thing of the past but it is not. If slavery is defined to include “slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour, human trafficking and exploitation; including the sexual exploitation of both adults and children” (its definition within the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA 2015)) then there are thousands of slaves in the UK—around 13,000 according to the Home Office. It will only be defeated if its victims can hold the perpetrators to account in the courts. But are the legal remedies for modern slavery—particularly civil remedies—as effective as they need to be?
An obvious starting point for legal accountability is the Human Rights Act 1998, which expressly prohibits slavery in Art 4, but this needs to be underpinned by practical enforcement measures. Hence the introduction of MSA 2015, which consolidates and simplifies existing human trafficking and slavery offences and also increases the maximum sentence for slavery and human trafficking to life
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