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Procurement
  1. Procurement
  2. Responsible Procurement
  3. Modern Slavery

Modern Slavery

What is Modern slavery?

Modern slavery is a crime and violation of fundamental human rights.  It takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person’s liberty by another in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain.

 

Modern Slavery Act 2015

The Modern Slavery Act is a piece of UK legislation designed to combat modern slavery and protect victims in the UK and consolidates previous offences relating to trafficking and slavery. The Act also recognises the important role that organisations can and should play in tackling slavery and human trafficking in their business relationships and supply chain.

 

Training

Procurement has made available a range of online courses via the HEPA (Higher Education Procurement Association) e-learning platform. Online training on Modern Slavery and Protecting Human Rights in the Supply Chain is available free of charge to all staff members.

Guidance on how to access the e-learning platform is available on

http://qm-web.finance.qmul.ac.uk/purchasing/training/

 

What is Queen Mary doing to mitigate the risk of Modern Slavery? 

The full details of initiatives taken in the financial year 2018-19  can be found within the statement, however to extract and highlight a few as per below:

 

1) Staff Recruitment

  • All Queen Mary’s directly-employed staff are on standardises terms and conditions, which include an explicit commitment to pay the London Living Wage as a minimum.
  • All recruitment agencies who supply Queen Mary with staff are contractually bond to pay London living wage and provide verification of the identity and right to work for their staff.
  • Our due diligence processes and legal agreements for academics partnerships include a commitment to comply with Modern Slavery Act.

 

 2) Supply Chain Monitoring

  • Queen Mary via the London Universities Purchasing Consortia has affiliated with Electronic Watch, which is an independent monitoring organisation that helps public sector buyers work together to protect labour right and improving working conditions for workers in their global supply chain. 

 

3) Actions taken to tackle Modern Slavery within tendering process

  • Suppliers are required to declare affiliation to professional bodies indicating willingness of the supplier to adhere to Modern Slavery Act.
  • Declaration by supplier to confirm compliance to the Act and requested to send a copy of their statement/ policy
  • Queen Mary standard Terms & Conditions includes Modern Slavery Clauses

 

 4) Actions taken to assist with tackling Modern Slavery with existing contracts

  • Development of a Modern Slavery Questionnaire.
  • Identified high impact supplier and sent the questionnaire for completion to assist with better understanding of the supply chain.
  • Terms & Conditions reviewed and now include Modern Slavery Clauses.
  • Formed a Sustainable Procurement Group, chaired by the Head of Procurement to identify, assess and drive sustainable initiatives.

 

Queen Mary Supply Chain: 

Queen Mary supply chain are managed via 3 main categories, which are:

  • Estates -  including projects and maintenance
  • Professional Services – IT Services
  • Professional Services – including facilities management and commercial services
  • Educational- including Scientific and Laboratory equipment and consumables

Construction, IT equipment, Cleaning, security services and temporary staffing have been identified as high risk areas of spend.

 

Queen Mary Modern Slavery Statement

Queen Mary is committed to preventing acts of modern slavery and human trafficking from occurring within its business and supply chain. Our Modern Slavery Statement sets out the steps taken by Queen Mary.

 

How to Report any Concerns?

Queen Mary encourages the reporting of concerns relating to Modern Slavery. Any concerns raised will be reviewed and investigated to resolve.

If you have any concerns please contact Procurement at finance-procurement@qmul.ac.uk.

 

Queen Mary's Public Interest Disclosure (Whistle-blowing) Procedure is available in the below link:

http://www.arcs.qmul.ac.uk/media/arcs/policyzone/ARC2017-34vi-QMUL-revised-whistleblowing-policy.pdf

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