Our commitment  

According to the United Nations, around 30 million people are currently in the slave trade. These are people from around the world, with India, China and Pakistan currently housing the highest numbers of people in slave labour.

However, the idea of modern slavery covers several areas – not simply those born into discrimination and a class-based slavery system. In fact, modern slavery also covers other areas, such as bonded labour, forced migrant labour, child labour and more. The slave trade even takes place in more developed, wealthy countries, such as right here at home, in the United Kingdom and in Europe.

At one end of the chain, modern slavery looks like a migrant worker being forced into labour for fear of losing their passport, or a child being tasked to work in a dangerous factory. However, the links that tie our global economy together mean that modern slavery has an altogether different image, too.

Without a doubt, modern slavery is a global concern – one that is not confined to a specific geographical space or a certain social class, but one that is pervasive. That is why governments rightly have worked to introduce new legislation that extends their power to combat traffickers, seize offenders’ assets and control their movements.

We are committed to preventing acts of modern slavery and human trafficking from occurring within our business and supply chain.

Within our business, we have in place an Anti-Slavery policy setting out our commitment to combat modern slavery, together with an Anti-Corruption and Bribery Policy.

In order to provide our services, we work with a range of suppliers, primarily within the United Kingdom. We endeavour to make sure our suppliers are aware of our policies, and request that they adhere to the same high standards and practices where appropriate.

We have an uncompromising, zero tolerance approach to slavery or human trafficking. Where we identify it, we will take robust and decisive action to put it right. Beyond that, where somebody in our supply chain causes a risk that we consider to be unacceptable, we will expect it to be put right.

While we do not primarily operate in high risk sectors or locations, we regularly evaluate the nature and extent of its exposure to the risk of modern slavery occurring in our supply chain and will investigate any potential risks as appropriate.

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our Anti-slavery Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains.