You may well have heard the term and watched news reports of instances of Modern Slavery right across the UK and the rest of the World but what does it mean for us and what can we all do to ensure it doesn’t go on in our business or our supply chain.

Modern slavery covers slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. We have a Policy which lays out the steps we take to hopefully ensure it doesn’t happen here but we must all remain aware it exists and determined it must be stopped. Our application process through to actually employing someone is as detailed and rigorous as we possibly can be but we do need help from staff, suppliers and the general public to help stop it in every way we can.

We operate a ‘whistle blowing’ policy so anyone can report anything from a ‘feeling’ about someone or a rumour through to proof it’s happening, without there being any reprisal. We can get help from the authorities and there are also help lines available for advice. So if you know or have heard something, please do something about it.

So what could the signs be? Well, anything suspicious. It could be someone living somewhere else than they told you, it could be a colleague complaining that someone takes their money from them or they aren’t allowed to have any freedom other than going to work. Maybe they get collected and dropped off and won’t tell you who the people doing it are? It could be anything that makes you think that something is wrong.

If you think something is just not right, please let us know.

08000 121 700 is the Modern Slavery helpline number.