Government must act to tackle child labour in supply chains, say MPs

• New report ‘Child Labour: strengthening the UK's approach to a persistent problem’, with recommendations to the UK government on domestic and global legal and policy reform
• Report launch in Parliament on Monday 5 June, 5.15pm

The Government’s Modern Slavery Strategy must be urgently updated to require companies to report specifically on child labour prevention, warns the conclusions of an inquiry by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Street Children, led by Sarah Champion MP.

The APPG’s report, published today, is the result of an inquiry into exploitative child labour, which was launched to understand what is driving growing numbers of children to work in dangerous and exploitative conditions globally, and what more the UK government can do to prevent it[1]

Supported by the Consortium for Street Children, and with evidence from the Child Labour: Action Research Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia programme (CLARISSA), UNICEF, International Labour Organisation, UN Global Compact Network UK, Fair Trade Africa and prominent global businesses,, the cross-party group of MPs leading the inquiry heard directly from children themselves, who support themselves and their families by engaging in the most hazardous or harmful types of employment.

The inquiry’s final report calls for the UK government to:

• Publish its updated Modern Slavery Strategy, originally due in 2021, as a matter of urgency, including details of its approach to tackle all forms of child labour.
• Amend section 54(4)(a) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to include child labour as a discreet category on which organisations must report.
• Amend the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 to make failure to comply with modern slavery statement reporting under section 54 of MSA 2015 a disqualification offence.

Sarah Champion MP, Chair of the APPG on Street Children, said: “The UK’s new Modern Slavery Strategy must improve transparency in the supply chains of businesses operating in the UK to tackle the drivers of child labour abroad. As the numbers of children in child labour increase, the Government must seize this opportunity to set the global standard and reframe efforts to tackle what amount to devastating violations of children’s human rights”

Danny Burns, Professorial Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies and Director of the Child Labour: Action Research Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia programme (CLARISSA), said: “To tackle the most harmful child labour, we must hear from the children affected to find workable solutions to their problems. Whether this is to provide better financial support to prevent them being driven to work in order to eat, ways they can combine education with work, or mitigating against the impacts of the harshest work regimes including long hours and dangerous work.”

As a result of the economic hardships ushered in by the Covid-19 pandemic, growing numbers of children across the world entered work to support themselves and their families, with many working Against this backdrop the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Street Children led an inquiry in 2022 into exploitative child labour, chaired by Sarah Champion MP.

The inquiry’s three live evidence sessions held over 12 months took care to include the views of working children, including testimony of the physical and psychological harms encountered whilst engaged in child labour. This evidence demonstrated that children are experts in their own experience and that finding ways to ensure meaningful child participation in the design of solutions to child labour is crucial for success.

Children who provided evidence included:

Working children in Bangladesh, who provided evidence as to the serious injuries suffered whilst working in leather factories in Dhaka, including burns to their faces and noses.

Meanwhile, children in Nepal testified to the value of their engagement in programmes seeking to tackle child labour, which asserts their agency and in turn gives them confidence to speak up on issues driving child labour, including the financial burden of education and familial addiction.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

• The report ‘Child Labour: strengthening the UK's approach to a persistent problem’ is launched at an event in Parliament on Monday 5 June 2023 at 5.15pm

Speakers at the event:

• Sarah Champion MP, chair of the International Development Committee and APPG on Street Children;
• Benafsha Delgado, UN Global Compact Network UK;
• Danny Burns, Director of the FCDO-funded Child Labour: Action Research Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia programme (CLARISSA); and
• Pia MacRae, CEO of the Consortium for Street Children.

Full recommendations:

1. Ensure the meaningful engagement of children in the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL) in programmes aimed at the elimination of the WFCL.
2. Allocate adequate resources to ensure meaningful children’s engagement in the Modern Slavery Strategy.
3. Ratify Optional Protocol 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on communications procedure and encourage other states to do so through diplomatic channels, to allow children to make reports directly to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, including in relation to child labour and the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
4. Amend section 54(4)(a) of the MSA 2015 to include child labour as a discreet category on which organisations must report.
5. Amend the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 to make failure to comply with modern slavery statement reporting under section 54 of MSA 2015 a disqualification offence.
6. Adopt section 54ZA of the Modern Slavery (Amendment) Bill to create an offence of supplying false information in relation to modern slavery statements if the person either knows or is reckless as to whether it is false or incomplete. The UK’s departure from the European Union requires the UK to set standards on child labour and presents an opportunity for greater bilateral cooperation on child labour internationally, including through free trade agreements.
7. Engage with trade partners to ensure efforts to tackle child labour feature in formal trade agreements, such as the prospective deals with the Republic of India and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
8. Publish its updated Modern Slavery Strategy, originally due in 2021, as a matter of urgency, including details of its approach to tackle all forms of child labour.
9. Publish its findings on the evidence received regarding supply chain due diligence for pension schemes.
10. Amend section 54 of MSA 2015: ▪ to encourage all businesses operating in the UK with supply chains overseas to submit modern slavery statements addressing slavery, trafficking and child labour, regardless of turnover; ▪ to make it mandatory for reporting organisations to upload their annual modern slavery statements to the modern slavery statement registry; ▪ to make it mandatory for reporting organisations to provide evidence for all assertions made in their modern slavery statements, including those regarding child labour; ▪ to make it mandatory for reporting organisations to report on all areas stipulated in section 54(5) of MSA 2015 with an additional focus on child labour; 126 and ▪ to make it mandatory for organisations to provide comprehensive lists of suppliers and details of any subcontractors so as to enable civil society and government to effectively audit supply chains.
11. Update the MSA 2015 and the Statutory Guidance to make it a requirement for organisations to report on the past, present and future steps taken/to be taken to tackle the causes of child labour and Worst Forms of Child Labour in communities touched by their supply chains.
12. Continue its participatory programming on child labour and the Worst Forms of Child Labour to understand and tackle root causes, including through engagement with private sector and SME initiatives to tackle child labour and the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
13. Invest in research and shared initiatives with international, regional and in-country actors to understand effective means of influencing domestic markets, particularly investing in strategies to work with large numbers of small businesses in informal economies.