In April this year, we carried out a review of the Modern Slavery Statements of our top 20 suppliers based on our spend and commodity risk categorisation.

The next phase of our project involved following up to make sure the suppliers acted on our recommendations, again with a focus on only the mandatory elements of their statement.

Our findings show that whilst some of the suppliers acted on our recommendations, many still do not have a compliant Modern Slavery statement. We hope these suppliers will get there very soon and we will continue to work with them if they need any support.

Don Bowman, LUPC’s Director, says: Addressing modern slavery risks, as part of our wider responsible procurement strategy, is a topic of huge importance to LUPC; we were the first public body to produce a Modern Slavery Statement. It is evident that there is much work to be done to highlight the importance of this legislation and improve the quality of statements of our suppliers. We will continue to assist our suppliers to meet the minimum required by law and to improve the quality of their statements and the work that is carried out to support these to deliver meaningful risk management of their supply chains.

We are in the process of working on our seventh annual statement but our most recent Modern Slavery Statement is on our website. Our aim is to continue to be a leader in this area as we strive to ensure the frameworks we deliver for our members cause no harm to others.

If you have any questions, please contact Marisol Bernal on m.bernal@lupc.ac.uk