The Grocer – 20 July 2019

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to introduce a central register of
statements and tougher penal-
ties for non-compliance, as well
as extending the requirements
to government bodies and
departments.
The BRC “welcomes most of
the proposals”, which it hopes
will help “galvanise efforts both
at a government and business
level to take more and more
action on tackling slavery”, says
Andrews.

Victimisation

However, tougher transparency
measures alone are unlikely to
eliminate the problem in the
UK, experts agree.
Most British companies with
modern slavery in their supply
chains and operations aren’t
complicit. Rather, they are
themselves victims of “serious

monitoring, she says, and it

embeds a “culture of open com-

munication across its sites”. It

has established an anonymous

hotline and employee commit-

tees, while all agency workers

are surveyed to detect indica-

tors, and line leaders are trained

to spot signs of exploitation.

It shows just how challenging

it is for individual businesses to

stamp out the risk of slavery in

their supply chains.

Further progress in this area

will therefore depend on more

collaboration between busi-

nesses, authorities and NGOs,

experts agree. “There is no sil-

ver bullet, it’s going to take

lots of working together, lots

of training, empowering work-

ers,” says Andrews. “We are not

there yet, we’ve got a really long

way to go.”

organised crime”, says Stanton.

And the organised criminal

groups involved in human traf-

ficking know how to get around

anti-slavery policies, he warns.

“They will coach trafficked

people on what answers to give

if they are questioned by an

auditor,” Stanton says. “In some

cases the gangs have actually

infiltrated businesses includ-

ing the labour providers. They

have even put supervisors into

factories or warehouses, which

means trafficked labour are

always worried because some-

one is always watching.”

Victims of modern slavery

are also notoriously hard to find

because they often don’t iden-

tify as victims, and many have

been conditioned to fear the

police and authorities.

It means even companies

with stringent anti-slavery poli-

cies in place are being targeted.

Take fresh produce supplier G’s,

which owns Sandfields Farms –

one of several farms across the

Midlands allegedly targeted by

the gang jailed last week.

“At G’s, including Sandfields

Farms, we are committed to

working to the highest ethical

standards and only work with

fully accredited labour provid-

ers who work to the highest

GLAA industry standards,” says

Beverly Dixon, G’s Group HR

director. “We will thoroughly

investigate any alleged poten-

tial breach of these exacting

standards and will cooperate

fully with the relevant authori-

ties as appropriate.”

Over recent years, G’s has

invested heavily in ethi-

cal awareness training and