Modern Slavery Statements and Service Industry Supply Chains: A Commentary on the Leading Hotel and Retail Companies in the UK

Abstract

There are concerns that many UK businesses are exposed to slavery in their international supply chains, and here some of the UK’s service industries seem particularly exposed, because of their global sourcing of goods, labour, and services. However, modern slavery in the service industries’ supply chains, has attracted little or no attention in the academic literature, and as such, this represents a gap in the current literature. This exploratory paper looks to make a small contribution to addressing that gap by illustrating, and offering a commentary on, one of the ways in which the leading hotel and retail companies in the UK have publicly addressed modern slavery in their supply chains, by reviewing their modern slavery statements. The commentary includes an outline of modern slavery and modern slavery statements, a description of the frame of reference and method of enquiry, a short literature review, an exploratory review of the modern slavery statements developed by the UK’s leading hotel companies and retailers, discussions of some of the academic and corporate implications raised by the review, and some suggestions for future research agendas.