Modern Slavery Training for Employees: UK Requirements

Modern slavery training teaches staff to recognise the signs of slavery, servitude, forced labour and human trafficking in your own business and your supply chains, and what to do if they suspect it. No UK law requires every employer to provide it. However, organisations with a turnover of £36 million or more must publish an annual modern slavery statement, the Modern Slavery Act lists training as one of the areas that statement may cover, and Home Office statutory guidance sets out what to disclose about it. Public sector buyers also check suppliers’ statements, including training, when they award contracts.

This guide explains who has to report, what the guidance expects from training, who needs what, what to cover and the records to keep.

What is modern slavery?

Modern slavery is an umbrella term for slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking. Under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the main offences carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

It is often hidden. Home Office guidance on identifying victims lists general indicators, including people who:

• do not hold their own passport or identity documents, because someone else keeps them
• receive little or no pay, or have no access to their earnings
• believe they are bound by a debt, for example for travel or recruitment fees
• work excessively long hours with no days off
• seem controlled, or let others speak for them
• live in poor or substandard accommodation.

The Home Office guidance on supply chains warns that recruitment fees charged to migrant workers can lead to debt bondage, and that audits can miss forced labour when workers are coached or records are faked.

Who has to publish a modern slavery statement?

Under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, a company or partnership must publish a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year if it carries on business in the UK, supplies goods or services and has a total turnover of £36 million or more, including its subsidiaries. Charities that meet the test are included.

The statement must set out the steps taken during the year to make sure slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in the organisation’s business or supply chains, or say that no steps were taken. It must be approved by the board, signed by a director and linked from a prominent place on the homepage. The statutory guidance says to publish it within six months of the financial year end.

The government has announced future changes to the reporting rules, but they are not yet in force, so statements are still made under the current requirements.

Is modern slavery training a legal requirement?

Not by name. Section 54 lists six areas a statement may cover, and one of them is “the training about slavery and human trafficking available to its staff”. The Home Office statutory guidance, Transparency in supply chains: a practical guide, was replaced with an updated version in March 2025. Its training section asks organisations to disclose:

• the content, objectives and outcomes of training, with numbers trained, for the whole organisation, frontline staff, HR, executives, procurement staff and suppliers
• that modern slavery training is part of the ongoing training programme
• at a more advanced level, how often training happens, how it is tailored to roles such as procurement, HR and legal, and to the risks in your sector, and how it is reviewed.

Leaving training out of your statement is lawful, but customers, investors and public sector buyers read these statements.

Public sector buyers add another layer. Under PPN 009, central government departments, their agencies, non-departmental public bodies and NHS bodies must make sure their commercial and procurement staff receive appropriate modern slavery training. They can check a bidder’s modern slavery statement, including the training section, as a condition of taking part in a procurement. The guidance’s example award questions ask suppliers about training for staff who manage the supply chain, and its suggested contract measures include annual training for commercial and frontline staff and training new staff within six months of joining. Certain modern slavery offences are also mandatory grounds for excluding a supplier.

Who needs modern slavery training?

The statutory guidance says training should be targeted where it has most effect and tailored to people’s responsibilities and risk exposure.

Who	What they need
All staff	What modern slavery is, the basic signs and how to report a concern. The guidance says even staff who rarely meet these situations benefit from this.
Frontline staff who may meet victims	The signs in more depth, how to report safely and what the organisation will do next.
HR and recruitment	Agency and labour provider checks, recruitment fees, right to work checks and how exploitation can enter through recruitment.
Procurement and supply chain managers	How modern slavery can occur in the supply chains they manage, risk assessment, supplier due diligence and how purchasing practices affect working conditions.
Senior leaders and the board	The risks, their approval of the statement and the measures used to track progress.
Workers at higher risk of exploitation	Their rights, how to report safely and what support is available.
Suppliers	Your expectations and how to raise concerns, where the risk justifies it.

A training needs analysis helps you decide the depth of training for each group, using your modern slavery risk assessment as the starting point.

What should modern slavery training cover?

• What it is. Slavery, servitude, forced labour and human trafficking, with examples from your own sector.
• The signs. The indicators above, applied to your own sites, contractors and suppliers.
• Supply chain risks. Where your highest risks are, recruitment fees and debt bondage, and why a clean audit is not proof that all is well.
• Your policy. What you expect of staff and suppliers, and what happens when a concern is raised.
• Reporting. Your internal routes, the whistleblowing protection for people who raise concerns, and the Modern Slavery Helpline on 0800 0121 700, which the guidance says staff should know about.
• A short assessment. It checks understanding and gives you the numbers your statement needs.

The Home Office publishes a modern slavery training resource page listing free materials, mainly aimed at the public sector, and many charities offer training. These work best alongside training on your own policy and your own supply chain risks.

Online or face to face?

E-learning suits the awareness training everyone needs. It reaches every site and shift, can be translated for workers whose first language is not English, and records who completed it, which is exactly what the statement asks you to report. Scenario-based modules let procurement and HR staff practise spotting warning signs in supplier and recruitment decisions.

Live sessions suit senior leaders, procurement teams in high-risk sectors and anyone handling a suspected case.

How often should modern slavery training be done?

The law sets no interval. The statutory guidance gives training within 90 days of joining as an example measure, and the public procurement guidance suggests annual training for commercial and frontline staff as a contract measure. We suggest training at induction, an annual refresher for procurement, HR and frontline roles, and an update whenever your risk assessment changes, such as when you enter a new market or take on a new category of supplier.

For the other training UK employers must or should provide, see our guide to mandatory training for employees in the UK.

How Capytech helps

FastTrack turns your modern slavery policy, supply chain risk assessment and scenarios from your sector into an interactive custom e-learning module with a knowledge check, built from your documents in days. Updates are turned round in 48 hours, so the training changes when your risks do.

The Capytech course library has around 9,000 short courses, including a series on human trafficking awareness and prevention. These explain the issue in general terms, so we add a short UK module built from your own policy and reporting routes.

The Capytech LMS gives you the figures your statement asks for: who completed which training, by role and site, and when. Its compliance matrix shows who is valid, due or overdue, and certificates carry renewal dates so refreshers happen on time.

Frequently asked questions