CCS has been playing an active role in developing the Government’s strategy and policies to tackle modern slavery in government supply chains since 2016
Published 25 November 2021
Last updated 26 November 2021
Crown Commercial Service has published its first annual modern slavery statement – setting out the positive steps the UK’s largest public procurement organisation has taken to identify, prevent and mitigate the risks of modern slavery in its own operations and supply chains.
The statement covers 5 key reporting areas including CCS’s approach to risk management, policy implementation and training. The statement also provides details of CCS’s longer-term commitments to tackling modern slavery and preventing other labour abuses from occurring in its supply chains.
It covers the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, and is available now through the Home Office’s Modern Slavery Statement Registry.
Simon Tse, CEO of Crown Commercial Service said:
We are committed to doing everything in our power to reassure the general public and our customers that public spending on goods and services is not funding modern slavery and human rights abuses.
Managing modern slavery risk effectively is a huge challenge that will require vigilance, as we seek to build back fairer.
The statement explains where CCS judges the risk of modern slavery to be highest, and actions taken to manage that risk. It also sets out our future goals and plans to tackle modern slavery in our supply chains.
Developing a consistent approach to modern slavery
CCS has been playing an active role in developing the Government’s strategy and policies to tackle modern slavery in government supply chains since 2016.
The organisation jointly developed these policies with the Home Office and Cabinet Office, in consultation with the cross-government Modern Slavery and Procurement Implementation Group.
CCS is also taking steps to ensure that suppliers who fall in scope of Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act and have an annual turnover of at least £36 million, are publishing an annually updated modern slavery statement on their website, through our contract compliance and supplier management processes.
In the past year, the organisation has worked alongside researchers from the University of Liverpool, looking at the impact of Covid-19 on modern slavery risk management.
Find out more
To find out more about how you can help to stamp out modern slavery in supply chains, visit the Responsible Buying Decisions pages.