Modern Slavery Act Statement

Introduction

Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires any organisation operating in any sector, which supplies goods and services, and carries on a business or part of a business in the UK, with an annual turnover of £36 million or more, to publish an annual slavery and human trafficking statement. This statement constitutes Writtle group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the group’s financial year ending 31 December 2022.

Organisation’s Structure and Supply Chains

Writtle is an international marketing services group.  The group directly employs over 700 people across 11 operating companies in the UK, USA and Hong Kong.

The majority of our supply chain is considered low risk. Our creative and implementation companies supply chains consist largely of software and hardware providers, professional services, insurance and benefit providers, office facilities and maintenance service providers.  Our manufacturing businesses also engage agency labour and source raw materials, principally related to the provision of point of purchase retail displays.

Our Policies on Slavery and Human Trafficking

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chain or in any part of our business and we make our position on this very clear.  Our Anti-Slavery Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains.

Due Diligence Processes for Slavery and Human Trafficking

In order to identify and mitigate risk, we aim to:

  • build long-standing relationships with trusted suppliers and make clear our expectation of business behaviour.
  • have in place systems to encourage the reporting of concerns and the protection of whistle-blowers.
  • continually review and carry out due diligence on our supply chain paying attention to higher risk suppliers, who use low skilled workers or trade in raw materials outside the UK and EEA.

Supplier Adherence to Our Value and Ethics

We have a zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking.  We expect the same standards from all our contractors, suppliers and business partners and our supplier engagement and supplier due diligence procedures are designed to enforce this. Our standard supplier contracts require our suppliers to comply with the Modern Slavery Act.

Training

To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we have made training available to relevant members of staff. In addition, we have looked at other ways of reinforcing our key messaging about modern slavery and human trafficking within our manufacturing businesses. Use of posters will be introduced to make our messaging more visible and easily accessible to staff working in those businesses.

Effectiveness in Combating Slavery and Human Trafficking

We comply with all relevant UK employment laws and have internal policies in place to prevent slavery and human trafficking. We use the following key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure how effective we have been to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business or supply chains:

  • Aim to provide all relevant members of staff with appropriate training.
  • Aim to sign all suppliers up to our standard terms and code of conduct, including confirmation of compliance, and continually review high risk suppliers.
  • Use of labour monitoring and payroll systems.
  • Act swiftly and appropriately if we become aware of any instances of actual of suspected slavery or human trafficking affecting our business.

Further Steps

We will periodically review the effectiveness of our processes and systems and any changes will be reflected in future annual statements.

Robert Essex

Chairman