5 Key Supply Chain Policies And Rules That Are Getting Stricter In 2025

Supply chains in 2025 are governed by increasingly strict rules and regulations. From emissions and ethics to anti-bribery policies, businesses must now ensure that formal supply chain policies are in place and actively enforced.

In this guide, Veriforce CHAS highlights five major policy areas where supply chain compliance is under increasing scrutiny. 

What’s New in 2025: From stricter machinery emissions standards in London to updated government guidance on modern slavery, 2025 is bringing tighter compliance requirements across UK supply chains. Here’s what your business needs to know.

1. Stricter Emissions Rules In Supply Chain Machinery Use

Air pollution is considered the top environmental risk to health in the UK, and local authorities monitoring this issue are increasingly focusing on the impact of non-road mobile machinery (NRMM).

From January 1st, 2025, emissions regulations for construction and demolition machinery in Greater London have become significantly tighter. All Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM) operating within Greater London, including the Central Activities Zone (CAZ) and Opportunity Areas, must now meet enhanced emissions standards. This change brings consistency across all London Low Emission Zones (LEZ), creating a unified emissions policy for plant and equipment.

All in-scope NRMM (engine outputs of 37–560kW) must now meet a minimum of EU Stage IV emissions standards. Generators are subject to stricter controls and must comply with the EU Stage V standard. These rules apply to a wide range of machinery used in construction and demolition.

2. New Circular Economy Rules Are Reshaping Supply Chain Policies

Environmental responsibility is already firmly on the construction industry’s agenda. In order to be awarded the Common Assessment Standard, a complete risk management solution adopted by the construction industry in 2025, contractors must have a documented policy and organisation for the management of construction-related environmental issues.

However, the circular economy, which involves eliminating waste and finding ways to use resources continually, is coming, and it will require a transformation in how the industry operates. Therefore, the sooner companies align their strategies with circular practices, the better and addressing this issue early could give organisations a competitive advantage.

For those who want to get ahead of the curve, Circulytics, a free digital measuring tool launched by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in January 2020, gives companies a fully comprehensive picture of their circularity across all operations and can help them build a circular economy implementation plan.

Related Reading: How To Build A Sustainable Procurement Policy For Your Business

3. Modern Slavery Rules And Reporting In Supply Chains

Modern slavery is a surprisingly big issue in the UK — a Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) Report suggests construction ranks second only to the sex industry as the sector most prone to exploitation.

On 24th March, 2025, the Home Office issued a significant update to its statutory guidance under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the first revision since the Act was introduced. While the legal requirements remain unchanged, the new guidance greatly expands on expectations for how organisations should meet the letter and the “spirit” of the law. 

The updated guidance offers more detailed expectations around how businesses should meet the spirit of the Modern Slavery Act. It provides practical steps for identifying and addressing risks, encourages alignment with global frameworks like the UN Guiding Principles and OECD guidance, and urges organisations to proactively disclose instances of modern slavery rather than focusing solely on policies.

If your organisation is part of a supply chain, it is likely that the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) 2015 affects you. Under the Act, certain companies and organisations are obliged to produce an annual modern slavery statement, which should confirm that they monitor the issue throughout their supply chain.

However, it can be a significant challenge to check the status of every worker within a supply chain, so it is easy for modern slavery to go unchecked. Modern slavery is also an issue covered by the Common Assessment Standard.

Related Reading: How to Avoid Modern Slavery in the Workplace

4. Anti-Bribery Rules That Should Be Built Into Your Supply Chain Policy

Anti-bribery procedures are essential to ethical business practice, but there is also a legal obligation to tackle this issue. Under the Bribery Act 2010, businesses are obliged to have “adequate procedures” in place to stop anyone associated with their business from bribing another person on their behalf, prompting organisations to look closely at their supply chains. 

Those who fail in their responsibilities to prevent bribery face unlimited fines and up to ten years in jail, and prosecutions are on the rise. In 2024, Gunvor SA was ordered to pay a penalty of £661 million to resolve corruption investigations by US and Swiss authorities. This fine, which includes a criminal penalty and the forfeiture of ill-got gains, was related to a scheme to bribe Ecuadorean government officials to secure oil contracts.

Specifying the new Common Assessment Standard (CAS), which covers bribery and corruption as part of its complete risk management assessment, can give employers confidence that contractors have anti-bribery measures in place.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published six principles for bribery prevention that are a useful focus for organisations of any size to follow for bribery prevention. These include: 

• Proportionate procedures
• Top-level commitment
• Risk-assessment
• Due diligence (including training)
• Monitoring and review.

Related Reading: What Is an Anti-Bribery And Corruption Risk Assessment?

5. Health And Safety Rules For Supply Chain Compliance

Since the introduction of the new sentencing guidelines for health and safety offences in February 2016, which set out to ensure that it wasn’t “cheaper to offend than to take the appropriate precautions,” fines for health and safety offences have skyrocketed. The average fine per conviction pre-guidelines in 2015/16 was £56,735, while the average fine per conviction in 2018/19 soared to £107,000. More recently, in 2023, the average fine for health and safety breaches rose once again to a staggering £145,000.

In 2023/24, there were 248 prosecution cases in the construction industry, with 92% resulting in a conviction.

Million-pound fines are now commonplace and, notably, since the introduction of the guidelines,  death no longer needs to occur for large fines over £1m to apply. What’s more, the risk of harm is now recognised as the offence, so increasingly large fines are being handed down without any actual harm taking place.

Anyone engaging contractors has health and safety responsibilities, both for the contractors and anyone else who could be affected by their activities. Therefore, a contractor assessment process needs to be in place.

Related Reading: How To Know If Your Supply Chain Is Sustainable

Companies can carry out contractor assessments themselves, but constantly changing rules and regulations make it a complicated and costly process, so it is rarely efficient or effective for them to do so. 

This is where third-party verification bodies such as Veriforce CHAS come in because clients can use their services free of charge to find fully certified contractors and keep a check on the health and safety status of their supply chain. 

Veriforce CHAS’s alert system, for example, notifies contractors when insurance policies and health and safety qualifications are about to expire and helps to ensure contractors’ qualifications are up-to-date. Health and Safety is also covered by the Common Assessment Standard.

Stay ahead of stricter supply chain rules. Join Veriforce CHAS and demonstrate your commitment to compliance.

Updated October 13th 2025