Modern Slavery Statement

Introduction

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) understands that modern slavery and human trafficking are growing concerns and the risk is present in every country, whether industrialised, developed or in transition. MTC has a zero tolerance approach to modern slavery and human trafficking of any kind in our operations and supply chain. The MTC has considers the risk of human trafficking occurring within our direct employee population, business operations and tier one supply chain to be low due to the following factors:

There is limited direct and supply chain operations in countries with a high prevalence of modern slavery;
The highly skilled nature of activities and roles reduces our exposure to temporary or low skilled agency employment;
The application of our group policies and processes, including procurement and recruitment processes.

Our supply chains

Our operations and procurement activities take place within the United Kingdom and our contractors and suppliers are predominately UK and EU based. We expect our supply chain to fully comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and be transparent, accountable and auditable.

Our policies on slavery and human trafficking

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our Modern Slavery Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our business.

Risk mitigation for slavery and human trafficking

As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk of modern slavery occurring across our business and in our supply chains we have:

Introduced into our procurement process a requirement for our suppliers to comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015;
Ensured that our general terms and conditions we use when procuring services ensure that our suppliers comply with all laws and rules which extends to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and other legislation that prevents modern slavery and human trafficking; and
Reviewed our pay scales to ensure that all employees are paid at least the relevant minimum wage and have the right to work in the United Kingdom.

In addition to the above procedures we have in place we will:

Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains;
Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains if they become apparent; and
Protect whistle blowers.

Supplier adherence to our values

We have zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking. To ensure all those in our supply chain and contractors comply with our values we have in place a provision within our standard tender documentation to include the discretionary exclusion of any bidder who has been convicted of an offence under section 1, 2 or 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. In addition, all suppliers that sign up to our terms and conditions are required to comply with all laws which extends to the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

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 highlighted the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking to our staff on joining the business. Our procurement team who directly deals with our supply chains has also been trained in respect of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and we will look to roll this training out across the business.

Further Steps

Although the Group’s standard terms and conditions provide compliance with all laws, we will seek to update the terms and conditions to specifically require compliance with Modern Slavery Act 2015. We will also look to train our staff in identifying modern slavery or human trafficking and include modern slavery within our induction process for all new employees.

We will act promptly where an issue with compliance with this statement has been flagged or identified.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our Group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 2021/2022 and has been approved and endorsed by MTC’s Board of Directors.

Victoria Sanderson
Director - Human Resources
The Manufacturing Technology Centre Limited
Date: June 2022