Modern Slavery Act 2015 Policy and Statement
Systech International Policy
1. Systech International (Systech) is an International Group of specialist consultants to the Construction Industry.
2. Systech is committed to the highest level of ethical standards and sound governance arrangements and sets high standards of impartiality, integrity and objectivity in relation to the conduct of its activities.
3. Systech adopts zero tolerance to corruption and bribery and this policy is endorsed by the Group’s Board.
4. We fully support the government’s objectives to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking.
5. Our annual statement will provide information to supplement this policy, including details of our activities and supply chains and actions we are taking to support government.
6. We expect all organisations we engage with to influence their global supply chains by improving transparency and accountability; and in so doing we can support the eradication of the injustice and brutality of modern slavery and human trafficking.
Systech International
Slavery and human trafficking statement 2018/19
1. Systech International (Systech) is an International Group of specialist consultants to the Construction Industry. This statement is made for all member companies of the Group.
2. We engage with a large number of private sector organisations in the conduct of our commercial activity
3. Our activities are undertaken at arms-length and take place in a number of countries around the world. Our principle suppliers are providers of office space, travel service providers and sundry support services to our business.
4. Our clients are generally blue chip international Construction businesses.
Supply chain policy
1. Our procurement activities take place around the world but are overseen from the Group’s headquarters in the UK. The profile of procurement as set out above means that the risk profile in relation to modern slavery of our supply chain is assessed as being very low
2. We expect our Delivery Partners, organisations within our Frameworks and other companies we engage with to ensure their goods, materials and labour-related supply chains:
– Fully comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015; and are
– Transparent, accountable and auditable; and are
– Free from ethical ambiguities.
3. Through this statement we encourage Delivery Partners, organisations within our Frameworks and other companies we engage with to read and apply as appropriate ‘Advancing Responsible Business Practices in Land, Construction and Real Estate Use and Investment’, a joint publication between the United Nations Global Compact and the RICS.
4. Individuals with evidence of non-compliance with the Modern Slavery Act in connection with HCA supply chains are encouraged to report their concerns to senior management, to use the Group’s whistle blowing procedures or use the national reporting service.
Steps taken by Systech or underway
(a) Management responsibility and general awareness
We have:
– Agreed management responsibility for this policy and statement and received unanimous endorsement from our Executive Management Team and our Board.
We are:
– Raising general organisational awareness by circulating an article to all staff explaining the requirements of the Act.
(b) Risk assessment
We have:
– Undertaken an assessment to determine our risk exposure.
– Established that our primary risk is association with a Supplier or Client with an ambiguous or non-compliant supply chain.
– Included the Modern Slavery Act 2015 within our Risk Register to ensure the risk continues to be flagged, assessed and appropriately addressed.
(c) Risk mitigation
We are:
– amending client and supplier standard terms and conditions to include a clause for breach in the event that a client has been convicted of an offence under section 1, 2 or 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
– Requiring all existing staff and sub-contractors to undertake and successfully complete awareness training
– Requiring all new staff and sub-contractors to undertake and successfully complete awareness training
Steps to take
(a) Management responsibility and general awareness
We will:
– Report progress to our Executive Management Team and our Board.
– Raise awareness of this published statement
– Prepare the next annual statement.
(b) Risk assessment
We will:
– Commence a review exercise of this policy against our activities to establish whether the approach we have taken follows emerging best practice by:
— Assessing and interpreting any recent or emerging case law and best practice; and
— Benchmarking our activities against statements and action plans undertaken by similar private organisations.
— Re-evaluating the risk of non-compliance as part of our cyclical Compliance Risk Register assessment.
(c) Risk mitigation
We will:
– Act promptly where a compliance breach has been identified or flagged.
– Continue to feed-back lessons learnt into the compliance risk management process.
– Introduce contractual obligations for all staff and sub-contractors to undertake awareness training and comply with Company policy and procedures in relation to modern slavery issues.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes Systech’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 March 2019.
Signed:
MARK WOODWARD-SMITH
Director