Company Overview:
United Wholesale (Scotland) Limited is a family owned independent wholesale business operating primarily throughout Scotland.
Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking – our commitment:
We fully endorse the aims of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (“the Act”) and take a zero tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking within our business and across our supply chains. We are committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking within our business and in transactions with other businesses.
What do we mean by modern slavery and human trafficking:
By modern slavery, we mean holding another person in slavery or servitude, or requiring another person to perform forced or compulsory labour.
By human trafficking, we mean arranging or facilitating the travel of another person with a view to that person being exploited.
Our suppliers:
We purchase products from around the world. We are committed to acting ethically and expect all of our suppliers to make the same commitment. We conduct due diligence on our suppliers prior to working with them. We work only with suppliers that we have approved in advance. We monitor the conduct of suppliers during our relationship with them. We will address any failures by our suppliers to meet our standards on a case by case basis. Ultimately, we may cease business with any supplier found to have failed to comply with the Act.
Within our business:
- We have a suite of of compliance policies and procedures that demonstrate compliance with our legal obligations including: Employee Code of Conduct, Recruitment Policy, Equality & Diversity Policy, Anti-Bribery Policy and Corporate Social Responsibility. All of the policies and procedures are readily available to employees in the Employee Handbook and on notice-boards across the business.
- We provide training to our staff on the commitments we have made, including under the Act. The training explains the steps we require our staff to take to ensure compliance.
Reporting:
We encourage our staff to report any unlawful activity and/or any activity which may be in breach of policies and procedures through our whistleblowing procedure. This includes any circumstances which may give rise to a concern of slavery or human trafficking.
Actions Achieved:
Since publication of this Modern Slavery Statement, wehave undertaken the following steps:
- The introduction of an Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy including the internal publication of the policy to all employees and staff of the company.
- Implementation of a due diligence process to conduct checks on potential suppliers and to monitor the conduct of existing suppliers.
Next steps:
We will enhance staff awareness of the Act through the delivery of a compliance training programme. We have updated our due diligence framework by expanding the areas on which we require information from potential new supplier prior to taking a decision on whether to approve them. We have identified external experts to assist with our due diligence on potential new suppliers. We are working with them to design a new due diligence process to be implemented within the next 12 months.
Approval:
This Modern Slavery Statement is made in accordance with section 54(1) of the Act and has been approved by the United Wholesale (Scotland) Limited Board of Directors who will review and update it annually. They have ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the commitments made in this Statement are fulfilled.