Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
MODERN SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING STATEMENT
Modern slavery is a crime and a gross violation of fundamental human rights. It takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which, deprive a person's liberty in order for another person to exploit them for personal or commercial gain. With a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery, we are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships, as well as implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own business or in any of our supply chains.
Our business
SOCOTEC UK is the UK’s leading provider of testing, inspection and compliance services with comprehensive solutions in the infrastructure, environment, building and real estate and advisory sectors.
We are a network of industry leading experts who empower ambitious businesses at every stage of the asset lifecycle. With more than 2000 employees, working with over 5000 clients, everything we do is for the benefit of our clients. Our partnership approach to providing technical expertise is valued and appreciated by our customers. With over 70 UK locations, we are truly nationwide, providing technical support and consultancy to customers throughout the United Kingdom.
Our policies
We are committed to ensuring there is transparency within our own business, as well as in our approach to tackling modern slavery throughout our supply chains, consistent with our disclosure obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We expect the same high standards from all of our contractors, suppliers and other business partners.
At a global level, the SOCOTEC Group complies with the principles of: Of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the eight fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), particularly regarding forced labour or child labour; and the principles of the UN Global Compact.
As part of our contracting & procurement processes, we include specific prohibitions against the use of forced, compulsory or trafficked labour, or anyone held in slavery or servitude, whether they are adults or children. We expect that our suppliers will hold their own suppliers to the same high standards.
We operate a number of internal policies to ensure that we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner. These include:
1. Modern Slavery Human Trafficking Policy. This policy sets out the organisation’s stance on modern slavery and explains how employees can identify any instances of this and where they can go for help.
2. Recruitment Policy. We operate a robust recruitment policy, which includes checking that employees are eligible to work in the UK to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against their will.
3. Code of Ethics. Within the code of ethics we advise employees on the whistleblowing mechanism so that all employees know that they can raise concerns about how colleagues are being treated, or practices within our business or supply chain, without fear of reprisals
Training & Education
We provide training to our staff to ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery trafficking in our supply chains and our business through both the Induction process, through our e learning platform and from the annual communication to staff of the Company Code of Ethics.
Assessment of effectiveness in preventing modern slavery
We recognise that modern slavery risk continues to evolve, and we will develop our approach in the coming year to ensure that we continue to strengthen our position in the UK.
During the year, we will develop further training modules for all staff to raise awareness of the issues around Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking and make this available to all staff.
As part of the Human resources activity, we will conduct an annual audit of right to work document and ensure that any matters arising are dealt with immediately and through the appropriate channels.
This statement for the financial year ending April 2024 is made pursuant to s.54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the steps that SOCOTEC UK has taken and is continuing to take to ensure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain.
Signed: Lisa Massey, Human Resources Director
Date: October 2024