Positions and key issues

British Safety Council is committed to the prevention of all forms of modern slavery, human trafficking, indentured servitude, and child labour, wherever they may be found around the world.  

Workers cannot thrive when they are not free and we work towards a future where all workers, at home and around the globe, are free from the wide-reaching and well-documented harms of modern slavery.  

As the largest growing area of international crime, modern slavery impacts an estimated 50 million people each year, with over 122,000 people caught in modern slavery in the UK alone. As a crime it preys upon the most vulnerable, seizing on political instability, economic hardship, and a rapidly changing climate to generate an estimated $150bn of illegal profits each year.  

British Safety Council has previously called for the creation of a Modern Slavery Act to combat this pernicious international issue and we continue to call on the UK Government to introduce targeted domestic legislation and encourage global allies and partners to make the same commitments.  

United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 8.7 seeks “immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking, and secure the prohibition and elimination of all forms of child labour as an essential step to achieving decent work for all…”  

As part of the UN’s Decade of Action, we encourage all organisations, wherever they may be located, to review the recommendations of Target 8.7 and play their part in bringing to an end this moral stain on our society.  

Further information and resources can be found in the below article from British Safety Council’s Director of Education and Membership, Dr Julie Riggs: A call to arms to tackle a modern day human tragedy | British Safety Council 

Retail workers must be able to undertake their roles free from the fear of intimidation, harassment, and violence, each of which has been on the increase throughout 2022 and 2023.   

Many retailers have been forced to take proactive steps to protect their staff, such as introducing body-worn cameras and increasing their training offerings to cover self-defence and de-escalation techniques. This has had a financial impact that businesses have had to absorb [a heightened burden due to the economic context] and invariably has had a detrimental impact on the health, safety, and wellbeing of retail workers.  

To present an effective challenge against this rise in harassment, intimidation, and violent assaults the Government must commit to ensuring that law enforcement bodies have the necessary funding and powers that they need to tackle the rising trends of antisocial behaviour and serious violent crime faced by retail workers.