This statement is made pursuant to section 54{1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 ("the Act") and constitutes the University of Liverpool's response to the requirements of the Act.
Download modern slavery statement 2023 pdf (0.2MB)
Organisational context
The University of Liverpool is a large research-intensive university with over 26,000 registered full and part time students, and over 7,000 staff. We are a global institution, and a major employer within the Liverpool City Region.
The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) is the University’s key executive committee chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tim Jones.
Sustainability is a cross-cutting theme within the new University Strategy, Liverpool2031 and our Climate Plan sets out our approach towards achieving a just and fair transition to net zero by 2035. The intentions set out in the Modern Slavery Statement are aligned to our vision for sustainability.
Policies and commitments
The University regularly reviews its policies and procedures to ensure adherence to its commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all of its business relationships, and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to minimise the risk of slavery and human trafficking taking place anywhere in the University’s supply chains.
A number of our existing policies can be considered to support fair working practices for our staff and suppliers, and ensure we buy ethically. These include but not limited to:
- HR Policies in relation to workplace rights/ Market conditions/ Pay
- Responsible Procurement Policy (Including Supplier Code of Conduct).
Supply chain and procurement
Our procurement activities cover a wide range of goods and services across diverse supply chains, including but not limited to:
- Construction and estates
- Catering
- Laboratories and medical
- Waste and recycling services
- Security services
- Furniture
- Textiles/ garments
- Information communication and technology equipment and services
- Travel services.
Goods and services are procured from suppliers across the globe and range from local SMEs though to large multi-national/global companies. The Procurement Team plays an active role in the utilisation and application of national university procurement consortium framework agreements. These contracts contain specific human rights protection and antitrafficking obligations on suppliers and leverage the expenditure of the entire sector.
Our Supplier Code of Conduct is an indication of 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 in our supply chains. This document is issued to high-risk suppliers via the tendering process; and will be introduced through the wider supply chain network to medium, and low risk suppliers. The risks associated with a particular category can be determined by a number of factors, including but not limited to:
- The prevalence of a low paid and seasonal workforce
- Supply chains operating in developing countries
- A heavy reliance on extracted materials, farming or agriculture
- High volume, low cost manufactured goods.
We actively review our standard contract terms and conditions to ensure compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Managing risk
The University’s Procurement Department is responsible for identifying, monitoring, and mitigating areas of potential risk, including the risk of slavery and human trafficking. Tender documents and contracts include our standards on protecting human rights in the supply chain to ensure suppliers are aware of our requirements. We have introduced the sector wide NETpositive Supplier Engagement tool, to record supplier sustainability activities, including actions taken by suppliers to identify and eliminate modern slavery in their supply chains.
We will build on the progress we have made so far and have signalled some of our planned areas of focus in this Statement. Listed below are specific actions for 2023-24 and beyond:
- Develop actions plans and categorisation methodology for our supply base, conduct a virtual audit of our top 20 suppliers to ensure compliance with Modern Day Slavery Act requirements.
- Review industry certifications / schemes which support ethical labour practices, which could be utilised in tenders / supplier engagement.
- Liaise with our approved contracted suppliers who demonstrate innovation and best practice in addressing Modern Slavery, to share knowledge and develop collaboration.
- Include Modern Day Slavery awareness into other engagement activities to raise the profile across the Institution.
- We will continue to increase the value of expenditure subject to additional checks, targeting higher-risk areas, and establish robust methodology for supplier tiering across our supply chain network.
- Raising awareness through training of staff involved in purchasing will continue throughout 2023/24 which we plan to deliver face to face and online.
Collaborative engagement actions
The University is a member of the North Western Universities Procurement Consortium (NWUPC), which in turn is part of a wider network of consortia covering higher education across the UK. Together, the purchasing consortia have agreed a shared Sustainability Policy to which all consortia are committed. This policy includes steps that form part of the supplier selection process for the major collaborative framework procurements that are conducted on behalf of consortium members, part of this selection process is aimed at ensuring that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place within the supply chain. Approximately c30% of the University's non-pay expenditure is channelled through such collaborative framework agreements.
The NWUPC is an affiliate member of Electronics Watch on behalf of its members. Electronics Watch is an independent monitoring organisation established with the purpose of protecting the rights of workers within supply chains. Their focus is on working with public sector organisations who purchase electronics and collaborating with them to have a positive impact on workers through the goods the public sector procures. As members of NWUPC we attend regular Responsible Procurement Group meetings.
Training
We have developed an online training module in order to raise awareness of these risks amongst all relevant staff across the University.
Supplier training is provided in partnership with NETpositive Futures on both Modern Slavery and Ethical Business Practice. Supplier engagement actions are seeing the University adopt the NETpositive Tool which allows the University to offer free bespoke sustainability action plans to our suppliers.
Reporting commitments and transparency
In line with our commitment to combat modern slavery, we place a strong emphasis on reporting commitments and transparency. We recognise the importance of openly sharing information regarding our efforts to address this issue within our organisation and supply chains. Our modern slavery statement serves as a platform to outline our strategies, policies, and actions aimed at eradicating modern slavery. We are dedicated to providing regular and comprehensive updates on our progress, ensuring that our stakeholders, including students, staff, partners, and the wider community, are well-informed about our ongoing initiatives in the fight against modern slavery. By promoting transparency in reporting, we demonstrate our unwavering dedication to accountability and the protection of human rights.
We will continue to upload our statement updates to our website, and throughout the next financial year we intend on preparing our statement submission to the following registries; Modern Slavery Statement Registry as well as the TISC Report Registry.
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