The Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires every organisation carrying on a business in the UK with a total annual turnover of £36m or more will be required to produce a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year of the organisation.
At The Hoist People, our annual turnover does not yet fall within the mandatory requirements to provide this report.
However, we still have a moral and legal requirement to take whatever steps we can to ensure that there is no vestige of slavery or human trafficking within our supply chain.
During the last financial year, the steps we have taken to monitor this are:
- Within our own direct workforce, we have thorough background checks to ensure that our workers have a legal basis to live and work in the UK, and this is checked on an ongoing basis.
- We carefully screen existing and prospective vendors by use of a Supplier Questionnaire, and this includes a requirement to confirm compliance with the above Act.
- We have identified that none of our first-tier manufacturing partners are located within the five highest risk areas globally (according to the Global Slavery Index) however we understand that our supply chain is more complex.
- As an additional measure, we have a programme of periodic independent third-party supplier site audits which specifically look at aspects of Social Compliance and Welfare including slavery and human trafficking.
- Should we become aware of any such risk in our supply chain, our first approach would be to collaborate with the vendor in question. If this is not successful, we would immediate do about providing an alternative vendor.
- We will continue to develop measures to ensure ongoing compliance, reviewing periodically to take into account any new or increased risks.
Ben Hewison
Managing Director
February 2024
Last revision: 23/02/2024