Our Anti-Slavery Policy
INTRODUCTION
This statement is made on behalf of Catering Equipment Services Limited (“CES”) pursuant to Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Action 2015 and comprises our slavery and human trafficking statement.
Slavery and human trafficking remains a hidden blight on our global society. We all have a responsibility to be alert to the risks, however small, in our business and in the wider supply chain. Our employees are alert to the risks and are expected to report their concerns and management are expected to act upon them. We are committed at all times to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking.
OUR BUSINESS
The principal activity of our business is the sale and service of commercial catering and refrigeration equipment. Our major customers include care homes, housing associations, facility management companies, Government departments and agencies, hotels, restaurants and sports clubs. Operating from premises situated in Belfast, CES is registered as a limited company, which is independently owned and run.
The business is classified as a micro enterprise.
OUR SUPPLY CHAINS
Our supply chains include the sourcing of commercial catering equipment and component parts predominately from UK based suppliers.
OUR POLICIES ON SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking present in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our Anti-slavery and Human Trafficking Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our business or supply chains.
DUE DILIGENCE PROCESSES FOR SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
As part of our continuous initiative to identify and mitigate against both industry risk and business transaction risk, we:
- Seek to develop and build long-standing relationships with local and national suppliers and make clear our expectations of appropriate business behaviour
- Have a policy of “knowing our customer” to ensure that we are contracting with reputable businesses in order to minimise the risk of inappropriate employment practices being carried out
- With regards to national or international supply chains, our point of contact is preferably with a UK company or branch and we expect these entities to have suitable anti-slavery and human trafficking policies and processes in place. We expect each entity in the supply chain to, at least, adopt ‘one-up’ due diligence on the next link in the chain. Due to the size of CES and the limited resources we have available, we recognise that it is not practical for us (and every other participant in the chain) to have a direct relationship with all links in the supply chain.
We have in place systems to encourage the reporting of concerns by CES staff and for the protection of whistle blowers.
SUPPLIER ADHERENCE TO OUR VALUES AND ETHICS
We have zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking. We expect all those in our supply chain as well as sub-contractors to comply with our values in all activities related to CES.
TRAINING
To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide periodic briefings to our staff.
This statement is made pursuant to Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the current financial year.