Climate change and modern slavery in public procurement: Research Report

Existing links between modern slavery and climate change are becoming clearer as the need increases for a just transition to a low-carbon economy. Yet, how organisations attempt to address these risks, either separately or simultaneously, is not understood in depth. In particular, the role of public procurement, which can be a powerful method for driving responsible behaviours into public and private operations alike, remains conceptually understood but under-investigated.

We sought, through this project, to address this important knowledge gap by engaging with the public procurement ecosystem. We partnered with London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) and UK modern slavery charity Unseen UK to work with those organisations and, through LUPC, with public buyers and their suppliers and risk management data platforms. We ultimately conducted over 70 hours of interviews and focus groups with professionals and consultants, including those with lived experience of the issue at those organisations.

We developed recommendations for public purchasing through a study of: (i) the actions that public sector buyers are taking to manage the risks of modern slavery and climate change in their operations and supply chains; (ii) the actions that tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers to the public sector are taking to address these risks; (iii) the role of public sector purchasing consortia in managing modern slavery and climate change risks through public tendering and contract negotiations on behalf of public buyers; (iv) how and the extent to which the sustainability data platforms used by public buyers to assist in decision making and risk management work for their public sector clients. By studying the factors involved from a multi-party perspective, we intended to better understand the links between the efforts of the various stakeholders involved in responsible procurement in the public sector.

Through members of LUPC and consultants introduced to us by Unseen UK, who have lived experience of modern slavery, we were able to triangulate our findings in two focus groups. In this way, we gained valuable insights from different perspectives on the findings of the study and to enhance the recommendations we were developing.

Following publication of this report, we will publish a policy brief aimed at policymakers in relevant UK government departments and begin work on articles for academic journals.