Forced and prison labour in supply chains

Forced labour can sit several steps down a supply chain, in the cotton behind a uniform, the polysilicon in a solar panel or the cobalt in a laptop battery. Most organisations can't trace every input, but they can show they looked, asked the right questions and acted on what they found. That is what auditors, customers and the public increasingly expect.

What counts as forced labour

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines forced labour as work or service taken from someone under the threat of a penalty, which they have not offered to do voluntarily. It includes bonded labour and human trafficking for work. In the UK, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 covers slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour.

The ILO groups forced labour into three kinds: forced labour exploited by private businesses or individuals, forced commercial sexual exploitation, and state-imposed forced labour, where a government makes people work, for example through labour programmes aimed at particular groups or regions. State-imposed forced labour matters for due diligence because a supplier can't fix it by changing its own practices: the usual answer is to avoid the region or programme altogether.

Prison labour: when it's a problem

Work by prisoners isn't automatically forced labour. ILO Convention No. 29 allows work required as a result of a court conviction, but only where it is supervised by a public authority and the prisoner isn't hired to, or placed at the disposal of, private companies. So the questions that matter are:

• Is it voluntary? Schemes where prisoners choose to work and are paid fairly, such as the UK's release on temporary licence, are not forced labour, though suppliers should still declare them.
• Is it involuntary or imposed by a government? Then treat it as forced labour.
• Is it for a private company? Prison labour supplied to private businesses needs the prisoner's free consent and decent conditions.

Importing goods made in foreign prisons is also banned in the UK under the Foreign Prison-Made Goods Act 1897.

Your legal duties in the UK

• Modern slavery statements. Organisations that carry on business in the UK with total annual turnover of £36 million or more must publish a statement each year on the steps they have taken (section 54, Modern Slavery Act 2015).
• Public contracts. Under the Procurement Act 2023, modern slavery offences can exclude a supplier from public contracts, so public bodies need to check.
• Your customers' requirements. Larger customers often pass their own due diligence duties down to you through contracts and questionnaires, including the rules they face in other countries.

This guide isn't legal advice. Check your obligations with your legal or compliance team.

A proportionate approach

1. Find where the risk is

Risk depends on what you buy and where it comes from more than on the supplier's size. Labour-intensive goods and services (cleaning, security, catering, agency staff, logistics, garments, electronics, solar, construction materials) and countries with weak law enforcement carry more risk. The US Department of Labor publishes a list of goods produced with forced or child labour by country, which is a good starting point.

2. Ask suppliers the right questions

• Do you publish a modern slavery statement, and where?
• Do you have a policy banning forced, bonded, child and involuntary prison labour, and does it apply to your own suppliers?
• Is prison or detainee labour used anywhere in making what you supply to us? If so, is it voluntary and paid?
• Could any materials come from a region or programme linked to state-imposed forced labour?
• Are workers ever charged recruitment fees, or have their identity documents held?
• How far have you mapped your supply chain, and how do you audit it?
• Can workers raise concerns confidentially, and how would you put things right?

3. Look for warning signs

The ILO's indicators of forced labour include abuse of vulnerability, deception, restricted movement, isolation, violence, threats, identity documents being held, wages being withheld, debt bondage, abusive working and living conditions, and excessive overtime. Recruitment fees charged to workers are a common route into debt bondage.

4. Check what you're told

Compare answers with public information: the modern slavery statement registry, news reports, independent audits (such as SMETA, SA8000 or the RBA's audits for electronics) and certifications. Be wary of answers that don't fit what you know about the goods and countries involved.

5. Put it in the contract

Include a supplier code of conduct that bans forced and child labour, a duty to flow the same requirements down, a right to audit, a duty to tell you about problems, and what happens if forced labour is found.

6. Act, don't just record

If you find a problem, work with the supplier on a fix that puts the affected workers first, with an owner and a date. Ending the relationship straight away can leave workers worse off, but it may be right where the supplier won't change or the labour is state-imposed.

7. Keep monitoring

Repeat the checks on a schedule set by risk, and whenever something changes: a new product, a new country, news reports or a change of ownership.

Doing this in SupplierVault

SupplierVault asks every supplier to sign a code of conduct declaring no forced, child or involuntary prison labour. The optional modern slavery pack asks the questions above, including prison labour, state-imposed forced labour, recruitment fees and supply chain mapping. Each supplier gets a country risk rating with the goods on the US Department of Labor's list for that country, a one-click Modern Slavery registry check and an AI-assisted news search. Every answer and decision is saved as evidence. See everything we check, or try it in the live demo.