North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust’s Response to the Requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015
Definition of offences
Slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour
A person commits an offence if:
- The person holds another person in slavery or servitude and the circumstances are such that the person knows or ought to know that the other person is held in slavery or servitude, or;
- The person requires another person to perform forced or compulsory labour and the circumstances are such that the person knows or ought to know that the other person is being required to perform forced or compulsory labour.
Human trafficking
A person commits an offence if:
- The person arranges or facilitates the travel of another person (victim) with a view to being exploited.
- It is irrelevant whether the victim consents to travel and whether or not the victim is an adult or a child.
Exploitation
A person is exploited if one or more of the following issues are identified in relation to the victim:
- Slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour
- Sexual exploitation
- Removal of organs
- Securing services by force, threats and deception
- Securing services from children, young people and vulnerable persons
The trust’s statement of response:
Modern slavery is the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of children, women or men through the use of force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation.
It encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking, and forced labour. The trust has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery.
We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all business dealings, and to putting effective systems and controls in place to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within the business or our supply chain.
We adhere to the NHS employment checks standards and modern slavery guidance is embedded into trust safeguarding policies.
This statement is made pursuant to Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our organisation’s Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement for the financial year 2023-24.
