The non-profit organisation, which collects data on slavery statements, estimates 50.6 percent of U.K. companies have not yet done so.
"I should say when we say we think they're overdue, this is because we haven't found their statements and we have looked as hard as we can. That doesn't mean they don't exist," said Jaya Chakrabarti, CEO of TISCreport.
However, she added that her team has tried to contact every company it has identified as not having yet published a report.
“To this point in September, 2,868 have had 12 months or more and are now potentially overdue,” Chakrabarti said. “49.4 percent of those do have statements, so that means that 50.6 percent of companies who have not yet reported and are probably not aware they should be reporting at this point.”
Under the Modern Slavery Act, all companies with a U.K. footprint and an annual turnover of more than £36m are required to produce annual reports outlining what they are doing to identify and tackle modern slavery in their supply chains.
The figure was announced at an event held in Parliament to mark the first year of the TISCreport’s work and to report on its progress.
