Feature
LEGISLATION
Spotlight on slavery A review of the UK’s Modern Slavery Act is set to bring in more detailed reporting and public scrutiny BY SARAH WINT
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n July this year, ITV News reported that the UK’s largest-ever UK modern slavery ring had been discovered and dismantled. More than 400 people had been forced to work for as little as 50p a day while the criminal gang masters earned a total of £2 million. The police spent three years investigating the well-organised criminal gang that was led by the Brzezinski family. It exploited the homeless, ex-prisoners and alcoholics, the report said. The ring lured its victims from Poland and then trafficked them to the UK with the promise of good money. When they arrived in Britain, those who had been misled found that they were housed in squalor and used as what a judge described as “commodities”. Judge Mary Stacey said their “degradation” of fellow human beings had been “totally unacceptable”, jailing the five ringleaders for between 11 and four-and-a-half years. She added: “Any lingering complacency after the 2007 bi-centenary celebrations of the abolition of the English Slave Trade Act was misplaced. The hard truth is that the practice continues, here in the UK, often hiding in plain sight.”
Risks involving unethical or illegal behaviour, in particular, are either overlooked or considered more remote than they should be
Complacency In his predictions for the top and abiding risks of 2019, Ray Flynn (CMIRM), an IRM board member and risk
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Enterprise Risk
