Compliance guide

Modern Slavery Risk Assessment Template

A modern slavery risk assessment identifies where forced labour or exploitation could occur in your operations and supply chain. This guide gives you a simple template and scoring approach, and shows how the results feed your modern slavery statement.

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Why assess modern slavery risk?

A risk assessment is the backbone of credible modern slavery reporting. It shows customers, portals and regulators that you've genuinely looked at where risk sits, rather than simply asserting you have none. It also tells you where to focus your due diligence.

How to run the assessment

A practical five-step method any SME can follow.

  1. 1

    List your supply categories

    Break spend into categories (e.g. materials, labour hire, cleaning, electronics, freight).

  2. 2

    Flag inherent risk factors

    Consider geography, industry, workforce type (e.g. low-skilled or migrant labour) and whether work is outsourced.

  3. 3

    Score likelihood and impact

    Rate each category low / medium / high for the likelihood of modern slavery and the severity if it occurred.

  4. 4

    Prioritise

    Focus due diligence on the highest-scoring categories first.

  5. 5

    Decide actions

    For higher-risk categories, plan controls, supplier questionnaires, code of conduct sign-off, audits.

Risk scoring example

A simple worked example across a few common categories.

Supply categoryLikelihoodImpactPriority
Office supplies (domestic)LowLowLow
Labour hireMediumHighHigh
Imported electronicsHighHighHigh
Local professional servicesLowLowLow
Cleaning / facilitiesMediumMediumMedium

What to document

  • The categories assessed and the factors you considered.
  • Your likelihood/impact scores and how you reached them.
  • The priority categories and the actions planned for each.
  • Who completed the assessment and the date.
  • A review date (typically annual).
These outputs slot directly into the "risks" and "actions" sections of your modern slavery statement.

Turn your assessment into a compliant statement

ESG Complete builds a portal-ready Modern Slavery statement that incorporates your risk assessment, accepted by Felix, Avetta and CM3, usually within the hour.

Modern Slavery Statement

A standalone, portal-ready Modern Slavery Statement for vendors who only need this one document. (AU$159 inc GST)

Get started->

Sustainability Statement (CSR / ESG)

ESG, CSR and anti-slavery in one compliant PDF, built for supplier portals. (AU$499 inc GST)

Get started->

Frequently asked questions

Is this risk assessment template free?+
Yes. The method and scoring approach are free to use. For a tailored, portal-ready statement that incorporates your assessment, ESG Complete can help from AU$159.
How often should I assess modern slavery risk?+
At least annually, and whenever you take on a significant new supplier or enter a higher-risk category.
What makes a supply category higher risk?+
Common factors include sourcing from higher-risk countries, reliance on low-skilled or migrant labour, outsourced or sub-contracted work, and long or opaque supply chains.