This statement is made on behalf of Valeport (Holdings) Limited (the Company) and its subsidiary and associated business entities pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the Act) and outlines our position on modern slavery and human trafficking.
Our structure and supply chains
Valeport Group is a leading independent firm of manufacturers with customers worldwide. We operate solely from our premises in the UK, employing over 90 people, selling direct to end-users or via an established network of distributors across the Globe. We source our supply chain as necessary with the majority being within the UK.
Our commitment
Modern slavery is an international crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. The Company adopts a zero-tolerance approach towards such crimes and is working towards implementing systems and practices to ensure that any such breaches within the company or its supply chains can be identified and dealt with appropriately. Our directors take responsibility for implementing this policy statement and its objectives and will provide training and adequate communication throughout the company to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place within the Company or its supply chains. We are committed to building our business around strong ethical values. We take appropriate steps to identify, prevent and end all forms of modern slavery and trafficking in our business and its external supply chains.
Things we do to mitigate risk
Employment
We apply high standards in the recruitment, selection and employment of our people to ensure that:
All legal obligations are complied with in the recruitment and induction process;
We recruit, promote and develop our people on the grounds of merit and capability;
We periodically conduct an anonymous and confidential staff survey, including sections relating to values and culture;
We encourage the reporting of concerns and suggestions within the Company;
All staff and directors are expected to comply with our business principles, ethical values and our sustainable procurement policy as well as any relevant laws and professional codes of conduct applicable to us;
When appropriate, we will include employee training to help our staff understand the issue of modern slavery, and its impact.
Supply chain
We endeavour to build long term relationships with all key suppliers and clearly highlight to them our expectations of business-appropriate behaviour and the requirement to meet or exceed all requirements of the Act. We will not support or deal with any business knowingly involved in slavery or human trafficking. Within the next 24 months, we will endeavour to complete an analysis of our current suppliers to identify those where the risk may be enhanced either by the nature of the sector or territory where they operate. We will work with such suppliers to understand their own policies on modern slavery, and would terminate the agreement with any supplier where breaches of the Act are discovered.