Modern slavery – more than just compliance

Paul Callum heads our modern slavery team. Paul has a lifetime’s experience in law enforcement, where he played a leading role in protecting vulnerable adults from modern slavery. 

He is supported by Associate Consultant Mark Heath, a former Senior Investigating Officer with the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, and Partner Carolyn Brown, a specialist employment law solicitor. 

Paul and the team were commissioned by a UK housebuilder to identify and assess modern slavery risks in their supply chain. The client had already shown its commitment to eliminating modern slavery through its policies, statements and actions, but knew that its supply chain risk management needed to be more robust. 

Our team’s role included developing an ongoing review programme and supporting the in-house compliance team. We did this by conducting a series of site inspections and on-site interviews with selected subcontractors.

One of our key findings was that site supervisors often lacked the skills and knowledge to identify vulnerable workers and recognise the red flags of modern slavery. We provided training to front-line teams so that they know how to identify and support vulnerable groups of workers.