Modern Slavery Statements and UK Retail Supply Chains

Modern slavery is an insidious problem in many sectors of the global economy and is perceived to be a particular issue in the retail industry. However, modern slavery in retail supply chains has attracted little or no attention in the academic literature. This chapter looks to offer a small contribution to filling that gap in the research by illustrating and offering a commentary on how the UK’s leading retailers have publicly addressed modern slavery in their supply chains through their modern slavery statements. The commentary includes an outline of modern slavery and modern slavery statements, a description of the frame of reference and method of inquiry, a literature review, an exploratory review of the modern slavery statements developed by the UK’s ten leading retailers, a discussion of some of the academic and corporate implications raised by the review, and a conclusion that outlines some of the limitations of the work and suggestions for future research.