Modern slavery statement

Modern Slavery Statement

SHROPSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST is committed to ensuring that there are no instances of modern slavery or human trafficking occurring within its global organisation or its supply chains. It has a strict zero tolerance approach.

SHROPSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST is focused on ethical and responsible business practice in our supply chains and will continue to review and improve in this area.

In keeping with SHROPSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST’s mission of fighting poverty, wherever possible we source goods and services locally. Our supplier base is broad and diverse and is comprised of organisations best able to meet our requirements.

We are committed to high levels of vigilance wherever we operate. If an existing supplier were to be suspected of having links to involvement in modern slavery, interaction with that supplier would immediately cease.

SHROPSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST’s supply chain activities are managed under the guidance and leadership of our central procurement function and in accordance with our Procurement Policy.

Our Procurement Policy requires all staff and volunteers, regardless of their role and for all procurement whatever the value, to follow the procurement principles of fairness, transparency, ethical behaviour, compliance and value for money.

The Policy also states ‘Procurement activity must not support organisations involved in criminal activity such as fraud, corruption, forced labour (modern slavery) and other human rights abuses.

The Procurement Policy demands that whoever is involved in procurement must also refer and adhere to our other relevant HR Policies:

We regularly reviewed and updated our Code of Conduct, our Safeguarding and Child Protection policy and our Data Protection policy within the year. Adherence to our Procurement policy is included within our routine internal audits.

For high value or high risk procurement, our prequalification questionnaire for tenders requires suppliers to declare whether they, or anyone in their organisation, has been involved in offences under the Modern Slavery Act (among many other criminal or illegal acts). Suppliers are also required to state if they use sub-contractors and whether they have processes in place to check whether any of the above circumstances apply to their subcontractors.

Before contracts are awarded due diligence checks are done on suppliers. The level of due diligence undertaken is related to the value of the procurement and the nature of the goods being purchased.

Due diligence is carried out at a senior  level and includes, but is not limited to, numerous sanctions lists checks (which contains names of individuals or organisations who are known to be involved in financing crime or terrorism), reference checks, and site visits where appropriate. In some instances donors may also require additional specific due diligence activities to be carried out.