UK government new forced labour due diligence regulation for NHS procurement

On 5 June, the UK government published a summary of proposed regulations and guidance on ‘Tackling modern slavery in NHS procurement’. The proposed regulations would apply only in England.  Note that the UK government has not yet published the final versions, and our analysis is based on the initial regulations and implementation guidance documents.

Scope

The proposed regulations will cover any public body that is procuring goods or services for the NHS. This includes NHS England itself when it procures goods and services as well as foundations, local authorities and other health bodies.

Regulatory requirements

The proposed regulations will require companies to carry out due diligence including risk assessments, addressing risks and monitoring impacts. Based on our analysis, this is largely in line with international guidelines including OECD guidance and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), albeit with some critical omissions (see below).  

• Policy and management systems – Public bodies are required to include provisions in contracts to ensure suppliers adhere to prohibition of modern slavery and human trafficking. Suppliers are in turn required to cascade contract terms to sub-contractors. Suppliers are also required to identify direct business partners and sub-contractors and report them to the public bodies. 
• Risk assessments – Public bodies are required to carry out risk assessments whenever they procure goods for the NHS, this includes whenever a new contract is established, in order to identify the level of risk of modern slavery and human trafficking in their supply chains – low, medium or high. An NHS risk assessment tool will be published to help guide companies to calculate the level of modern slavery risk. Additional measures are also required in the context of a “dynamic market”. 
• Address and mitigate risks – Public bodies are required to take reasonable steps to address and mitigate identified risks. The guidance clarifies that reasonable steps should be based on assessment of risk, with low risk following standard procurement procedure, while medium and high risk requires additional steps throughout the procurement process. Reasonable steps may include ensuring that the supplier has a modern slavery and human trafficking statement under the Modern Slavery Act and completing the Modern Slavery Assessment Tool (MSAT). 
• Monitoring – Public bodies are required to regularly monitor suppliers’ compliance with the contract and the NHS is expected to regularly re-assess exposure to modern slavery risks.
• Omissions – There are some critical areas of due diligence which are not included in the proposed regulations, including grievance mechanisms, provision of remedy and stakeholder engagement.
• Penalties – There is no specific penalty under the proposed regulation, but infringements could result in judicial review. 

Legal basis

Based on our analysis, if confirmed, this would be the first human rights due diligence style regulation in the UK, with the exception of the Environment Act 2021, which includes some due diligence requirements to tackle illegally-produced ‘forest risk’ commodities in UK supply chains. This is currently pending secondary legislation for implementation.

There has been a movement to introduce CSDDD style human rights due diligence legislation in the UK but this has not progressed to date. In November 2023, Baroness Young of Hornsey introduced the Commercial Organisations and Public Authorities Duty (Human Rights and Environment) Bill, however this expired when the Parliament was dissolved in May 2024. As part of the Inquiry on the Employment Rights Bill, on 3 March, the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee urged the government to align with international standards by introducing mandatory human rights due diligence and considering import bans on goods made with forced labour.

Next steps

The Regulations and guidance will be finalised, and it is expected that they will come into force in 2026.

Forced labour risks within public procurement supply chains

The NHS has been subject to significant allegations of forced labour. An NHS Review, published on 5 June 2025, found 20% of the supply chain is at high risk of forced labour. 

In 2022, a case on behalf of a group of workers in Malaysia challenged the lawfulness of the UK government’s decision to approve a UK subsidiary (Supermax Healthcare Limited) of the Malaysian company Supermax as a supplier for disposable gloves for healthcare workers due to allegations of forced labour and exploitation. In December 2022, the parties reached a legal assessment which included an update to its requirements for selecting PPE suppliers and a requirement to conduct audits of the whole supply chain. 

More broadly, there has been a significant focus on risks of forced labour in public procurement in the UK in recent months. The Chinese manufacturer BYD is a long-term supplier of engine systems for Transport for London’s red buses and recent media reports indicate that Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region workers are linked to factories where these products are produced. 

In April 2025, the UK Government proposed a new amendment to the Great British Energy Act that would prohibit financial assistance to Great British Energy if there is credible evidence of modern slavery in its energy supply chain, particularly amid growing concerns about forced labour risks in solar panel and cobalt supply chains linked to regions such as Xinjiang and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.