Skip to content
Modern Slavery Act 2018
Modern slavery and human trafficking statement
Introduction
Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. It takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person’s liberty by another in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain.
We are committed to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking.
Organisational structure
We are a provider of office solutions and services in the private and public sector. With the Head Office and Distribution Centre based in Ely, Cambridgeshire, ASL have 7 satellite offices throughout the UK.
We have a global annual turnover of £37.5m.
Our supply chains
The products and services we use are sourced from reputable suppliers operating within the UK, with manufacturing and supply from worldwide sources including Asia Pacific countries.
Our policies on slavery and human trafficking
We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business.
In light of the obligation to report on measures to ensure that all parts of our business and supply chain are slavery free, we have put in place a designated Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy.
Our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy demonstrates 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 supply chains. This policy is available on request.
Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking
As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk we have in place systems to:
- Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains.
- Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains.
- Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains.
- Protect whistle blowers.
- Follow a defined recruitment policy.
Supplier adherence to our values
- We have zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking. We work hard to ensure all those in our supply chain and contractors comply with our values. Some of the ways we do this include:
- Ensuring that strong legal contracts are in place with our main suppliers, in particular the manufacturers of equipment we sell.
- Continuous review of these contracts to ensure they are up-to-date and fit for purpose.
- Maintaining close relationships with our suppliers through regular face-to-face meetings and tele-conferences.
- Ensuring that relevant staff in our organisation are aware of our values and the importance of them. These include, but are not limited to, the entire senior management team.
- Recognising the importance of the policy, the responsibility for compliance is led by the ASL Board and any issues of non-compliance will be reviewed by the members of the Board.
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 training to our staff. We also require our business partners to provide awareness training to their staff and suppliers and providers.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes Automated Systems Group (ASL) slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 30th September 2022
