S
LAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING STATEMENT

Artic Building Services Limited are committed to running our business responsibly.  We strive to maintain high ethical principles and to respect human life. As part of our mission statement, we undertake all elements of our work safely, responsibly and sustainably.

In this statement we describe our business and supply chain and how we operate. We explain our current practices and the plans we must enhance these in light of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Artic  Building  Services  Limited  is  a  privately  owned  limited  company  within  the  Facilities Management industry, currently employing more than 100 members of staff.

Employees of the company, either at interview stage or as part of the induction process, will be asked to produce their passport or other photographic proof of identity, plus work permits for the UK, if relevant. This ensures that we are satisfied that the employee has the legal right to live and work in the UK.  We will never demand deposits from our workers or hold on to their identity papers.

Employees are made aware of the company’s Mission Statement and Values, which include Respectfulness, Honesty and Fairness, and we expect them to support these values, not only at work, but also in their private lives.

As an organisation, we have a chain of immediate suppliers, many of whom in turn have their suppliers, making our total supply chain very large and complex.

As a supplier of services within the industry, the organisation subcontracts some of its work out to  subcontractors,  who  are  assessed,  prior  to  being  issued with  a  purchase  order.   The principal method of assessing our subcontractors is to see if they are registered with Constructionline, a government backed organisation, used for procurement of suppliers and subcontractors across the nation. Constructionline assesses the organisation’s health & safety and all other areas of compliance, including requesting sight of their Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement, if they have one.  If a company is registered with Constructionline, works to similar values of our own and pass a financial assessment then they are deemed to be approved for Artic Building Services supply chain.

Should a company not be registered with Constructionline, Artic Building Services will issue an evaluation  form  for  satisfactory  completion,  prior  to placing an  order.   This  form  will  ask whether the company has  a Slavery  and Human Trafficking  Statement  in place and to be given a copy of the statement.  We look to ensure, as far as possible, that our supply chain accords with legislation.

Furthermore, Artic Building Services will never subcontract any work out to any subcontractor who is not registered under the government’s Construction Industry Scheme.

With  these  initial  checks,  we  believe  that  we  are  working  with  ethical  and  likeminded companies.

The Future

We recognise that the steps we currently take are small and that some of our suppliers and subcontractors  may not act in as ethical a way  as Artic Building Services  does.   We also recognise that the Construction Industry is a high risk area for slavery and human trafficking and so we must be extra vigilant in assessing our subcontractors.

We therefore needed to invest time and resources on deeper evaluation of our suppliers and subcontractors,  and  their  supply  chain,  to  identify  the  highest risk  companies  and  take appropriate action with them.  This additional evaluation is under way and resources are in place within the organisation to achieve this.

Staff training for our direct employees will be essential in the coming year, to enable them to understand what human trafficking is, how to recognise it and explain how they can report any concerns, in total confidence.

We will begin to look at the effectiveness  of these measures  currently in place and those planned for the future and develop ways in which this can be measured.

All progress will be reported in our next annual statement.

This statement covers 1st May 2022 to 30th April 2023 and has been approved by the Board of Directors.

Paul Lucas
Managing Director

Colin Trowell
Managing Director