2025 marks 10 years since the UK’s Modern Slavery Act (MSA) was passed. As someone who was already working in the sector, I saw first hand how Theresa May’s government used the very real horrors of slavery to drum up support for the bill.
By the time of passage, there was significant cross party support and policymakers were asserting that the MSA would lead the world by tackling exploitation through legislation. The strength of commitment to the issue furthermore suggested the act was only the beginning. The MSA was to be the starting point, not the high point, of work to address trafficking in the UK.
The reality turned out to be far different. Neither the MSA nor subsequent legislative or policy changes took serious steps to address the structural causes of slavery, as can be seen in ever increasing National Referral Mechanism identification figures. Nor did the measures in the bill include pathways into decent work. These would have helped avoid re-exploitation and lower rates of ‘lesser’ workplace exploitation, which are key precursors to what the government calls modern slavery.
