Monday, 18 September 2017

The world's only open data anti-slavery register* TISCreport.org will be reporting from their database of 80,000 organisations on the number that are in either full or partial compliance globally with the Modern Slavery Act Section 54, and, how many of those are UK organisations.

The TISCreport register holds information on the largest proportion of companies affected by the legislation** and CEO Jaya Chakrabarti MBE will report on what percentage of those companies have achieved some level of compliance with the Act, drilling down to engagement by sector.

The TISCreport dynamic dataset is continually being updated and expanding. It is a certified, free to join and access open data register, built to Government Digital Service (GDS) standards. By building it to be compatible with Government systems and data formats, on solid GDS data registers and using Companies House (SIC) industry codes***, it enables an in-depth drill down of the data against shared supply chains by dashboard.

The briefing will be attended key senior officials from a number of influential government departments, large corporates, professional & business membership bodies, MPs, Peers and researchers/special advisors from all major parties keen to hear expert recommendations arising from the figures.

The Presentation

Justine Currell from the UK Anti-Slavery Helpline and also the author of the Home Office guidances notes for section 54 of the MSA** will open to set the scene and show the scale of the issue in the UK.

Dr Sue Hurrell and Stephen Chapman, Anti Slavery Coordinator from Welsh Government followed plan to show how Welsh Government are using the MSA as an essential component of their strategy to drive ethical employment practices****.

Emma Scott, Representation Manager from CIPS will report on the survey of their members on awareness of the MSA and finally Jaya Chakrabarti of TISCreport will present on data and findings from their data set.

Following the presentation, there will be a panel discussion chaired by Paul Gerrard, Director of Group Policy and Campaigns, Co-op Group, to discuss next steps.

Full biographies can be found here:
https://tiscreport.org/tiscreport-westminster-event-2017-spe...

Says Jaya Chakrabarti, CEO, “We have worked hard to design a system that can deliver up-to-date analysis from continually updating information and thus deliver as complete a snapshot as possible on the state of Modern Slavery Act Compliance. With six months to go before all the MSA statements are finally due in for 2015-16, we have a real opportunity to influence the depth and quality of statement submissions going forward. We’re very excited to be presenting almost live data being generated by the system on the day. ”

The Welsh Government Ethical Employment in Supply Chains Code of Practice interlocks neatly into the Modern Slavery Act but requires Modern Slavery statements for all Welsh public bodies and strongly encourages statements from all Welsh Suppliers***. TISCreport is the only register administering commitment to the Code, and held a roundtable with Welsh Government last month that successfully secured partnership with significant Business membership bodies.

With in excess of 300k suppliers to Welsh Government currently flooding into TISCreport this month, the critical mass in order to drive change through supply chains is about to be reached. There are approximately six months left for all of the due 2015-16 statements to be submitted or published via TISCreport or otherwise. The TISCreport team is enormously optimistic that the insights from the body of data amassed combined with the buying leverage being exercised by Welsh Government, will ensure that the positive impact of both the Act and the Code of Practice will start to be seen in the months and years to come.

* https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2015/10/13/the-characteristics-of-a-...
** http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/section/54/enact...
*** http://resources.companieshouse.gov.uk/sic/
**** http://gov.wales/docs/dpsp/publications/valuewales/170502-et...

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About Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply

The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) is the leading international body
representing purchasing and supply management professionals. It is the worldwide centre
of excellence on purchasing and supply management issues. CIPS has a global community of
118,000 in 150 different countries, including senior business people, high-ranking civil
servants and leading academics. The activities of purchasing and supply chain professionals
have a major impact on the profitability and efficiency of all types of organisation and CIPS
offers corporate solutions packages to improve business profitability.
www.cips.org @CIPSnews.

About Unseen/the UK Anti-Slavery Helpline

Unseen is a Bristol-based charity, founded in 2008, that operates across three main areas:
supporting survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery; equipping frontline staff with
the tools to correctly identify victims and take appropriate action; and influencing
governments at a strategic level to create long-lasting solutions to modern slavery. In 2015,
Unseen was awarded, Charity of the Year: with an income of less than £1 million, by Charity
Times Awards.
www.unseenuk.org @unseenorg Facebook: unseenuk phone: 0303 040 2888
info@unseenuk.org

About TISCreport

Partnerships

Thanks to its partnership with OpenCorporates.com, the world's largest open database of companies, it is now possible to easily trace company relationships from the UK to the world through mergers, acquisitions, groupings and supply. TISCreport partners include: CIPS (chartered institute of procurement and supply), ICC (International Chambers of Commerce), Business West, gov.wales and a growing number of corporate, academic and NGO supporters. The partners have made a public commitment with the Clinton Global Initiative.
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/clinton-global-initiative/...

Says Jaya Chakrabarti MBE, tiscreport CEO: “Our non-UK data set is also proving that openness and collaboration is alive and kicking in the private sector globally when it comes to ending the exploitation lurking in our supply chains. Our growing number of members and partners are all committed to the challenge.”

Background

Tiscreport is an open public database where anyone can easily search for company anti-slavery information. It also provides great resources to the registered organisations to help them actively improve and comply with the legislation through a range of accessible tools, including a supplier dashboard and a statement builder. It enables companies who have to comply with legislation to check through their suppliers to find out who else needs to comply, and also provides prompts to help them draft their own statements. It is the only open data anti-slavery register built to Government Digital Service (GDS) standards and built upon GDS registers.
https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2015/10/13/the-characteristics-of-a-...
https://registers.cloudapps.digital/using-registers/case-stu...

Says Stuart Gallemore, TISCreport CTO, “It’s been very important to us that the data we are collecting is fit for purpose, and provides a flexible framework for improvement to end slavery” he adds “Working in partnership with GDS experts, international NGOs and open data initiatives, we are gathering momentum at an incredible speed. If we continue to gather proactive partners at this rate, then we see our collective goal of driving a significant proportion of modern slavery out of our supply chains within 5 years as far more achievable.”

Other Activities

Tiscreport.org were recently invited to submit their headline data on business engagement with the Modern Slavery Act section 54 compliance requirements to the Human Rights Select Committee Select Committee, and was acknowledged by the UK Anti-Slavery Commissioner in his report to the Australian Government Enquiry into their own Modern Slavery Legislation (our own submission being 183).
http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence....
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Join...

TISCreport reports voluntarily to the Home Office and is working actively with both Local and Regional Governments to assist them with monitoring and encouraging compliance in their supply chains, developing an accessible dashboard so that procurement departments can easily access and review by sector, geography and by local authority.

Structure

Tiscreport.org was created and maintained entirely by Semantrica Ltd, an independent UK social enterprise. It is funded purely and transparently by commercial membership fees from organisations uploading reports to the tiscreport site and using data and analytic services. 50% of the proceeds of membership fees are donated to enabling frontline services combat modern slavery via Unseen, the charity running the UK anti-slavery helpline.
https://tiscreport.org/

The tiscreport registry has three tiers of governance:

The Governance board:
Gavin Starks (founder of the Open Data Institute), Stephen Hilton (former Futures Director of Bristol City Council), James Sinclair (King's College Policy Unit, Treble Partners), Kay Clark (Tru PR).
The Data Strategy Board:
University of West of England, Bristol University, Bath University, Cray, Verisk Maplecroft, chaired by Dr James Allan of Verisk Maplecroft,
The Business Advisory Panel:
CIPS, BSI, ICC, CIOB, CBI - and we are now approaching private sector industry exemplars, focusing on sectoral best practice.

Notes to Editors:

Please contact the press office to arrange interviews, a system demonstration or for further information on any of the topics in this release.

CONTACT
tiscreport
Press@tiscreport.org
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07967 190406
Twitter: @tiscreport