A Bristol-based tech start-up is calling on the city’s businesses to lead the world in ending modern slavery.
Semantrica was launched as a social enterprise today by Bristol tech entrepreneur Jaya Chakrabarti MBE, pictured, and award-winning city charity Unseen, which has become a leading campaign group against human trafficking. 
The Semantrica website allows businesses to upload statements to comply with the new Modern Slavery Act.
With charitable donations and support from partners, it is setting up an anti-slavery hotline and using data provided to step up the battle against slavery. But Jaya, co-founder of Bristol digital agency Nameless, and Unseen founder and CEO Andrew Wallis OBE, want their home city to lead the world in ending the scourge of modern slavery.
It is estimated more than 35m people worldwide are held in slavery, with around 13,000 at least in the UK.
Jaya said: “It is important to us, given the history Bristol had with the Transatlantic slave trade, that we take the battle against modern slavery to the next level starting here in our city.
“We can’t change our past, we won’t forget our past, but we must also work for a future without slavery.”
When Jaya met culture minister Ed Vaizey he encouraged her get even more involved and be more ambitious in doing good on a larger scale.
“I felt inspired to raise my game on matters of social justice,” she said.
Shortly after her chat with Ed Vaizey, Jaya met Andrew through James Durie, CEO of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce and West of England Initiative, where she is a vice president.
“It took all of five minutes listening to Andrew for it all to click into place,” she said. “I was sold. This was what I was meant to do. Andrew and I made a pact then and there that we would work together to use our combined efforts and the combined power of UK businesses to end slavery.”
One of the Act’s clauses requires large businesses to report annually what they are doing to ensure that modern slavery does not exist in its supply chains and business practices.
Jaya and Andrew see this as the first step of many towards achieving that vision.
Jaya said: “We want to pilot with those businesses and the universities based here in the West to work out a way to evidence how companies are improving tackling modern slavery year on year.
“Wouldn’t it be great if one day soon consumers could know that the businesses they are purchasing from are fully committed to ensuring modern slavery can’t exist?
“By creating the central repository with the charitable aim of also financing the Modern Slavery Helpline and Resource Centre that Unseen have been selected to run, we will also create the means by which the public, investors and businesses can easily access in one place all the reports that companies are producing every year, telling us what they are doing to eradicate modern slavery from their business practices and supply chains.
“By focusing on the future Bristol may be able to finally move on from its slave trading past and by leading the way in tackling modern slavery be able to free itself and move forward.”
James Durie added: “Our business community is fully committed to pro-actively working on how we can help raise awareness of the abhorrent slavery which exists Today and we are working with Unseen, many other partners and of course the Modern Slavery Act to do all we can to eradicate it. With over 18,000 members in Bristol and across the South West we are determined that business will help to take the lead.”
Bristol City Council and its partners including UWE, Anti-Slavery International and the Fawcett Society ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings in 2008.
