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Defra Group strengthens modern slavery risk management with a group-wide maturity assessment and roadmap

Discover how Action Sustainability supported the Defra Group to establish a clear, group-wide baseline for modern slavery risk management and due diligence, strengthening governance, alignment with BS 25700 and PPN 02/23, and enabling a structured roadmap for improving maturity across operations, supply chains, and grants.

DEFRA case study

The Challenge

Defra group sought to capture an overarching position on modern slavery risk management and due diligence across its operations and supply chains.

Working closely with stakeholders from across the group, Action Sustainability acted as the enabler by conducting a baseline assessment against key standards and legislation (Modern Slavery Act 2015, BS25700, PPN 02/23).

This discovery project was aimed at identifying gaps, best practice, opportunities, and other observations, delivering recommendations at both group and individual levels across a range of areas (see The Action section).

The outputs intended to direct the Defra group in the development of an action plan, setting out a series of initiatives to strengthen the group’s maturity in managing modern slavery risks.

Our Approach

The project followed a structured discovery process to understand modern slavery risk management and due diligence across Defra group operations, supply chains, and grant funding.

Key steps included: 

  • Used BS 25700 Organisational Responses to Modern Slavery and PPN 02/23 Tackling Modern Slavery in Government Supply Chains, as the assessment framework.
  • Developed an assessment methodology focusing on leadership, governance, risk assessment, procurement, grants, recruitment, reporting and remediation.
  • Mapped stakeholders and engaged Defra group organisations and teams through single points of contact, workshops, and interviews.
  • Reviewed policies, processes, and documentation across operational, procurement and grant activities.
  • Applied a stepped approach: baseline data collection, gap analysis, maturity scoring and prioritisation.
  • Considered operational, supply chain, grant-related and international risk factors alongside governance and training needs.
  • Aligned the approach with Defra’s Sustainability Strategy and modern slavery goals to inform future planning.
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“The project delivered a structured methodology aligned with BS25700 and PPN02/23, which supported consistent assessment across multiple areas. Their subject matter expertise and commitment to the topic significantly enhanced awareness within our team and informed our approach to stakeholder engagement. Helen Carter successfully translated our requirements into a clear and practical methodology that was straightforward to apply and enabled a comprehensive assessment of modern slavery risk management and due diligence across multiple areas.

Regular updates were provided through workshops and reports, ensuring stakeholders remained informed and engaged throughout the process. The final reports were organised for ease of navigation and presented findings and recommendations in a way that supported decision-making. The group-level recommendations have been instrumental in enabling the Modern Slavery Steering Group (MSSG) to prioritise actions, leading to the development and launch of several tools.”

Paula Malthouse Project Manager – Defra group Sustainability Centre of Expertise

The Results & Impact​

The project delivered a baseline assessment of modern slavery risk management and due diligence for the Defra group across operations, supply chains, and grants. Using BS 25700 and PPN 02/23, the assessment produced gap analyses, maturity scores, and tailored recommendations for the Defra group, alongside a group-level maturity roadmap.

Key outputs included: 

  • Executive and Technical reports detailing findings and recommendations for the Defra group and individually for organisations and teams
  • Supporting peer review materials
  • Summary maturity roadmap

Benefits of the work included: 

  • Enabled collaboration across the Defra group with the creation of the Defra group Modern Slavery Steering Group (MSSG) throughout the project and continuing with follow-up initiatives to strengthen the group position.
  • Guided review and discussion on modern slavery risk management, enabling positive engagement on key topics and sharing examples of best practice.
  • Aligning to BS 25700 engaged stakeholders on a robust framework for managing modern slavery risks. It also aligns with the upcoming ISO 37200 standard (Managing the Risk of Modern slavery), expected in 2026, and therefore, aligning with BS 25700 now will help organisations prepare for future international standards.
  • The work informed initiatives aimed at supporting the Defra group and raising awareness, including:
  • Dedicated self-assessment tool, the Defra group Modern Slavery Toolkit. Aiding organisations and teams to self- assess and build action plans to strengthen maturity levels across areas aligned to the Defra group 2024 Modern Slavery Assessment methodology.
  • New e-learning learning resource on Civil Service Learning, accessible across Government: Modern Slavery: Know the Risks, Make a Difference.
  • Central awareness page on sharing guidance, tools, news articles and peer information on modern slavery, hosted from the Defra group Sustainability Hub.
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