Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement

Abbott Risk Consulting Ltd (ARC) is committed to ensuring that modern slavery and human trafficking do not take place within our business operations or supply chains. We recognize our responsibility to take a proactive approach to safeguard human rights and uphold the highest ethical standards throughout our business.

ARC will not support or deal with any business knowingly involved in modern day slavery or human trafficking and has not, to its knowledge, conducted any business with another organisation which has been found to be involved with modern slavery.

Our statement highlights our commitment to this in our dealings and relationships, including our own recruitment process and supply chain.

Organisational Structure and Supply Chain

ARC is a limited company registered in Scotland (SC234532) with a number of offices throughout the UK. We also have offices in Australia where we are registered as a foreign company (ABN 96 144 722 065).

ARC is a Safety, Engineering and Risk Management Consultancy providing professional services to high hazard industries including the Oil & Gas, Nuclear, Defence, Rail, Mining and Clean Energy sectors. We employ highly skilled professionals and work with similarly skilled sub-contractors and/or consultancies where project requirements demand additional support or expertise.

We serve a diverse range of clients globally and to fulfil our services, we work with a limited number of suppliers. Our supply chain includes: professional services and advisors (risk/safety professionals, insurers, lawyers and IT consultancy support), office support services (stationery, cleaning, IT equipment and software) and hospitality services (accommodation and corporate events).

Due Diligence

As an organisation providing professional services with a relatively short supply chain, we have assessed the overall risk of modern slavery within our business and supply chain to be low and documented this in our risk register.

However, we recognise that we do work with higher risk sectors (cleaning and hospitality) and we continuously strive to achieve the highest standards in our own business operations and therefore have the following policies/procedures/practices in place:

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy: Our policy states our position on modern slavery, forced, debt-bondaged and child labour and human trafficking.
Robust recruitment processes in line with UK/AUS employment laws including right to work document checks; contracts of employment and checks to ensure everyone employed is 16 and above. We do not hold employee's identity papers and only work with people who choose to work freely.
We are a certified Living Wage Employer and are working to ensure that our suppliers commit to the same standard.
Employee Agreement: Designed to be consistent with the regulatory and legal frameworks that governs our operations and sets out our core values, expectations and acceptable business behaviours.
Sub-Contractor Onboarding Processes: Our Subcontractor Agreement states that all sub-contractors must comply with ARC's policies and procedures, including our policy on modern slavery and human trafficking.
Supplier Due Diligence: We choose established suppliers and carry out basic due diligence and are developing a formal Sustainable Procurement Policy.
Audit and Compliance: We carry out informal checks and audits of our operations, including our supply chains to monitor compliance with our business policies.

Training and Communication

To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we communicate our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy to new starts at induction and all employees upon update.

We invest in educating our employees and have identified training for those in management roles who have direct contact and responsibility for procurement within ARC for completion in 2024. This will then be offered to all employees for their general awareness.

Reporting

Everyone has a responsibility to prevent, detect and report modern slavery should they encounter it.

If the issue is related to ARC or its supply chain, then it must be reported to our Human Resources Manager via hr@consultarc.com.

If a case of modern slavery is identified out-with ARC and as part of your daily interactions, it should be reported to the police immediately on 101 (UK) / 132-500 (AUS), OR, 999 (UK) / 000 (AUS) if the potential victims are in immediate danger.

Continuous Improvement

We are dedicated to continuous improvement throughout our business operations and that includes our efforts to combat modern slavery. We regularly review and update our policies, training programs, and due diligence processes to ensure they remain effective and aligned with best practice.

Approval

The information included in this statement refers to the financial year ending December 2023 and is made in accordance with section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It has been approved by the Board of Directors and signed by the Managing Director on behalf of the company.