Part of Modern Slavery Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 3:30 pm ar 9 Medi 2014.
I beg to move amendment 124, in clause 24, page 19, line 3, after subsection (6) add—
‘(7) The Secretary of State shall publish statutory guidance on the measures that may be included in a slavery and trafficking risk order within one month of this Act receiving Royal Assent.”
Amendment 124 would simply make publishing statutory guidance a matter of course for the Minister following the passing of the Bill. Going back to a range of discussions on the draft Bill, it was suggested that guidance be brought forward on a statutory basis. Indeed, Ministers indicated in the response to the Joint Committee’s scrutiny that they would bring forward statutory guidance, but I am conscious of the fact that saying they will and actually doing so are different things. I want to get that commitment from the Minister that she will publish statutory guidance on the measures that may be included in the risk order within one month of the Bill receiving Royal Assent.
We have had explanatory notes to the Bill and to the clauses, and we have the commitments that have been given in the response to the pre-legislative scrutiny, but I felt it appropriate to give the Minister an opportunity to say that she will publish statutory guidance, what it will include, when she will publish it and anything else she wishes to enlighten the Committee about. That was the purpose of tabling the amendment.