Freedom of Information Act Request

Ref: FOI 21-22 03

Date issued: 24 May 2021

Subject: Tesco Modern Slavery Statement 2019-20

Question(s): 

Please could you provide information regarding Tesco Plc's Modern Slavery Statement 2019/20 which I have linked below

https://www.tescoplc.com/media/755909/tesco-modern-slavery-statement-_final-201920.pdf

The pertinent parts are
• A supervisor found to be providing accommodation to agency workers (a known risk factor for exploitation).
• Workers within a Tesco Distribution Centre found to have been encouraged to give gifts to management in return for preferential treatment.

Were there any prosecutions in connections with these matters?

At which court were any prosecutions brought?

Were either, or both, of these matters uncovered at Reading Distribution Centre?

Response:  

You have requested information from the GLAA regarding matters in a Tesco Modern Slavery statement. The statement correctly refers to its liaison with the GLAA on preventative initiatives (e.g. page 10 and 12). It points out that it will “continue to engage with UK police forces, the GLAA and other key stakeholders to ensure effective investigations and information sharing, where required.”, (page 24). On page 15 Tesco cite a case referred to the GLAA. However, this does not mean that all information may be appropriate to report to the GLAA. The specific examples which you seek information on comes in a section where Tesco reports that it “investigated a number of potential indicators of modern slavery within our own-operations”, (page 9). Neither of those situations may necessarily have identified modern slavery dependant on their initial findings. The report provides insufficient information to indicate particular cases that may have been referred to the GLAA; they may not have been relevant to the GLAA dependant on the outcome of their enquires. As this is a Tesco statement, you should address any further requests for information regarding the situations you are interested to them.
The GLAA does not hold information of the type you have requested.

A pdf version of this page can be found by clicking the link below:

FOI 21-22 03 Tesco Modern Slavery Statement 2019-20