THE response of McDonald’s to the discovery that trafficking and exploitation were taking place in one of its restaurants in Cambridgeshire has been “poor”, the director for modern slavery at CCLA, Dame Sara Thornton, wrote in The Times on Tuesday.

The company had “missed numerous opportunities to prevent harm”, she wrote, and there was “no record of them taking responsibility or expressing any kind of regret to a group of extremely vulnerable people” who were “living in fear, some homeless and most traumatised”.

There had also been “a lack of engagement with CCLA as an investor after we contacted them about rectifying damage done to the victims”. The working hours had included 30-hour shifts and 100-hour weeks.

The franchisees who had run the branch during the exploitation now had almost 50 branches between them, she wrote. CCLA, which began as the Church of England investment fund, is now the UK’s largest charity fund manager.

This week, a McDonald’s spokesperson said that “it was only through close co-operation with the police to assist in the comprehensive and lengthy criminal investigation that the franchisee was exposed to the full depth of these horrific, complex and sophisticated crimes . . . we have taken action to strengthen the ability of our people and systems to detect and deter potential risks.

“In addition, last year, we started our partnership with Unseen, a leading expert organisation that specialises in addressing modern slavery issues. . . We care deeply about the welfare of every single one of the 159,000 people.”