Goods made using slave labour will be be withdrawn from sale in new crackdown

Businesses which trade goods made with slave labour will have to withdraw them from sale, the Government has said, revealing it will change the law to enforce the new ban. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he plans to introduce new legislation to introduce mandatory human rights due diligence for companies, which will require them to remove products made with forced labour and modern slavery. He outlined the move in a letter to the Commons Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) Committee, which has been calling for new business safeguards against modern slavery for nearly two years.

The new duty will apply to British businesses with a global turnover of more than £350 million, and non-UK businesses with a UK-generated turnover of more than £350 million. Those who do not comply with the new duty may be forced to withdraw products from sale which have come from forced labour or modern slavery, Mr Reynolds said. “We believe this package of measures strikes the right balance: safeguarding the competitiveness of responsible businesses, strengthening confidence in UK markets and helping to ensure that goods linked to forced labour do not reach UK consumers,” the Business Secretary said in his letter to the BIST committee.

The group of cross-party MPs has been calling for modern slavery protections to be strengthened since it heard evidence from Chinese-owned clothing company Shein in January 2025. In that session, the firm repeatedly declined to confirm whether its products contained cotton sourced from China, including Xinjiang, where it is believed that the Uighur minority are subject to forced labour. 'Outrage' Liam Byrne, chair of the BIST committee, said: “For too long, it has been an outrage that our great country which led the abolition of slavery has had weaker defences against forced labour imports than either the EU or the United States.

“Now, almost two years on from our hearings with Shein, when the firm repeatedly refused to confirm in Parliament whether its products contained cotton from China, including Xinjiang, we have a clear commitment to change the law.” Mr Byrne welcomed the Government’s commitment, adding: “Now we need a clear timetable, a regulator with the resources to enforce the rules, and meaningful consequences for companies that fail to comply.”