A new taskforce to combat the scandal of slavery has been established in England. Card. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, chaired the first meeting of the working group which, “over the next months, will come up with proposals for combating slavery around the world”. The proposals will be presented at the Santa Marta Group’s anti-slavery conference that will be held at the Vatican in February. The website of the English Bishops reports that the members of the taskforce include experts from the worlds of business, law, philanthropy and the media, and is supported by two newspapers, “The Evening Standard” and “The Independent”. The latter have recently launched an “investigation into modern slavery in the UK” to shine a light on the forms and magnitude of this scourge as well as to show readers “what they can do” to raise awareness of the need to take specific action to fight the problem. “London is the centre of enterprise and prosperity, but there is also a dark underbelly”, Card. Nichols declared at the unveiling event. The members of the taskforce are Kevin Hyland, police inspector; Paul Polman, CEO of the multinational company Unilever; Yasmin Waljee, human rights lawyer; Julie Etchingham, journalist for ITV News; Monique Villa, from Thomson Reuters Foundation; Matt Baggott, president of the Christian Police Association; Jean Baderschneider, from the Global Fund to End Slavery; and John Studzinski, from The Blackstone Group.