“Pharmacy contractors asked for modern slavery compliance statements”

Author: The Pharmaceutical Journal (UK), Published on: 25 August 2017

Pharmacists have been asked by NHS England to submit statements detailing their compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Under section 54 of the Act, any business with an annual turnover of greater than £36 million must prepare and publish a mandatory ‘modern slavery’ statement explaining what they are doing to prevent modern slavery in their organisations and their supply chains. Smaller businesses are not subject to this requirement, but some pharmacists offering NHS commissioned services have received letters asking them to submit “compliance statements”... [The National Pharmacy Association’s] legal team and employment advisory business partner, Ellis Whittam, had both said it was advisable to comply with the request, even though there was no legal obligation to submit a statement... [T]he Act covers modern slavery taking place within an organisation and its supply chains, rather than among service users. But NHS England believes that frontline staff are in a position to identify potential victims amongst patients… In December 2016 the UK Work and Pensions Committee were told by a victim of modern slavery… that he had been taken to the police by a pharmacist after he had visited the pharmacy suffering from food poisoning and depression.