SSE PLC modern slavery statement summary (2024)

Organisation address

Inveralmond House,
200 Dunkeld Road,
Perth,
Perthshire,
PH1 3AQ

We asked the organisation a series of questions about its modern slavery statement. Its answers are published on this page as a statement summary.

This statement provides information for 5 of 6 recommended areas

What is a modern slavery statement?

UK law requires certain organisations to publish an annual modern slavery statement on their website, setting out the steps they are taking to address modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains. Read more in the government guidance on publishing modern slavery statements.

Link to full statement

Go to full modern slavery statement on organisation’s website

PDF version of the statement

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Modern Slavery Statement 2024.pdf

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About this statement summary

All answers relate to the financial year covered by the statement. The organisation is responsible for all the information it provided. Some of our questions are optional, so organisations may not have answered all of them. The statement summary does not replace the full modern slavery statement – below we provide a link to the full statement on the organisation’s website.

Contents

Organisations covered by the statement

SSE PLC modern slavery statement for 2024 is a group statement covering 148 organisations. See the full list of organisations covered by this statement

Legal requirement to publish

SSE PLC has confirmed it is required to publish a 2024 statement by law.

Statement period and sign-off details

The statement covers the following period:
1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024

The statement was signed off by:
Barry O'Regan (Chief Financial Officer)

It was approved by the board (or equivalent management body) on:
29 August 2024

Recommended areas covered by the statement

Government guidance encourages organisations to cover a range of areas in their modern slavery statements, setting out the steps they’re taking to address modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains. Read about the recommended areas in the statutory guidance.

We asked the organisation to tell us which areas its statement covers.

Areas recommended by government guidance	Organisation’s response
The organisation’s structure, business and supply chains	Covered
Policies	Covered
Risk assessment	Covered
Due diligence (steps to address risk)	Covered
Training about modern slavery	Covered
Goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of the organisation's actions and progress over time	Covered

The organisation’s sectors and turnover

Sectors

The organisation operates in the following sectors:

• Utilities: gas, water and electricity

Turnover

Its turnover in the financial accounting year of this statement was:

Over £500 million

If the organisation is a public body, this amount is based on the organisation’s budget for the year of the statement.

What does 'turnover' refer to in group statements?

If this is a group statement, this includes the total turnover for all the organisations covered by the statement.

Number of years producing statements

The organisation has been producing modern slavery statements for the following number of years:

More than 5 years

How does this work for group statements?

If the statement is for a group of organisations, this answer applies to the organisation with the longest history of producing statements.

Policies (optional)

We asked the organisation whether its policies include the following provisions in relation to its domestic and international supply chains, as well as its own operations.

Policy provisions we asked about	Organisation’s response
Freedom of workers to terminate employment	Not included
Freedom of movement	Included
Freedom of association	Included
Prohibits any threat of violence, harassment and intimidation	Included
Prohibits the use of worker-paid recruitment fees	Included
Prohibits compulsory overtime	Included
Prohibits child labour	Included
Prohibits discrimination	Included
Prohibits confiscation of workers' original identification documents	Not included
Provides access to remedy, compensation and justice for victims of modern slavery	Not included
Other	Not included

Training (optional)

We asked the organisation whether it provided training on modern slavery, and who it was for.

What counts as training?

We explained that by ‘training’ we meant anything designed to increase knowledge and skills around identifying, addressing or preventing modern slavery risks. This could range from formal training courses to broader awareness-raising activities such as workshops or webinars.

We asked who the training was for	Organisation’s response
Your whole organisation	Yes
Your front line staff	No
Human resources	No
Executive-level staff	No
Procurement staff	Yes
Your suppliers	No
The wider community	No
Other	Project Managers and Health and Safety professionals

Monitoring working conditions (optional)

Engaging with others

We asked the organisation to tell us who it engaged with to help monitor working conditions across its operations and supply chains.

We asked who the organisation engaged with	Organisation’s response
Your suppliers	Yes
Trade unions or worker representative groups	No
Civil society organisations	No
Professional auditors	Yes
Workers within your organisation	Yes
Workers within your supply chain	No
Central or local government	No
Law enforcement, such as police, GLAA and other local labour market inspectorates	No
Businesses in your industry or sector	Yes

Social audits

We asked the organisation to tell us about any social audits it used to look for signs of modern slavery.

What are social audits?

A social audit is a review of an organisation’s working practices from the point of view of social responsibility, and should include an evaluation of working conditions in the organisation’s operations and supply chains. By their nature, audits of supplier workplaces represent a snapshot in time.

Organisation’s response

The organisation told us it did not carry out any social audits during the period of the statement.

Grievance mechanisms

We asked the organisation how workers in its operations or supply chains could raise concerns or make complaints.

We asked if workers could raise concerns this way	Organisation’s response
Using anonymous whistleblowing services, such as a helpline or mobile phone app	Yes
Through trade unions or other worker representative groups	Yes

Other ways of monitoring working conditions

We asked the organisation whether it had any other ways of monitoring working conditions across its operations and supply chains:

Deep dive risk assessments using third-party human rights experts. External working groups that provide insight to industry risks and emerging risk areas.

Modern slavery risks (optional)

Identifying modern slavery risks is a vital step towards eradicating it. The government encourages organisations to be as open and transparent as possible, to improve understanding, collaboration and best practice around tackling this worldwide problem.

We asked the organisation to describe up to 3 priority risks it focused on during the period of the statement, including details of the affected workers, the activity involved, and the location.

Priority risks for this organisation (1 of 3)

Workers within facilities management services like catering, cleaning, security, and transport, as they are not recruited directly by SSE. (See page 10 of SSE's Statement for details).

Questions we asked about this risk	Organisation’s response
Where it was most likely to occur	Organisation’s response: Within your supply chains. Tier 2 suppliers Provide products and services to your organisation via your Tier 1 suppliers. Tier 3 suppliers and below Provide products and services to your organisation via your Tier 2 suppliers or the next higher level in the chain.
Who was it most likely to affect	Organisation’s response: Women Migrants Refugees
In which country	Organisation’s response: No details provided
Actions or plans to address this risk	Organisation’s response: SSE has a number of risk measures and due diligence measures in place to manage the risk to these groups. See pages 10-14 for information about risk assessments and due diligence measures. Recent work includes the development of a deep dive risk assessment, implementing additional due diligence for high-risk areas, remediation procedure, including human rights management requirements for on-site contractors, and training SSE SHE teams and employees to spot the signs of modern slavery.

Priority risks for this organisation (2 of 3)

Workers on construction sites and vessels including low paid workers, migrants, workers indirectly recruited, and those from high-risk countries. (See page 10 of SSE's Statement for details).

Questions we asked about this risk	Organisation’s response
Where it was most likely to occur	Organisation’s response: Within your supply chains. Tier 3 suppliers and below Provide products and services to your organisation via your Tier 2 suppliers or the next higher level in the chain.
Who was it most likely to affect	Organisation’s response: Migrants Refugees
In which country	Organisation’s response: No details provided
Actions or plans to address this risk	Organisation’s response: SSE have included a requirement in it's Living Wage clause, including in supplier contracts, that vessels workers must be paid a UK Real Living Wage whilst working on SSE sites. The risk mitigation and due diligence measures in place for Risk 1 also apply to this risk.

Priority risks for this organisation (3 of 3)

Rights holders in or linked to the supply chains of high-risk industries and in high-risk countries. This includes both workers and communities. (See page 10 of SSE's Statement for details).

Questions we asked about this risk	Organisation’s response
Where it was most likely to occur	Organisation’s response: Within your supply chains. Tier 3 suppliers and below Provide products and services to your organisation via your Tier 2 suppliers or the next higher level in the chain.
Who was it most likely to affect	Organisation’s response: Women Migrants Refugees Children Communities, religious minorities, indigenous peoples
In which country	Organisation’s response: No details provided
Actions or plans to address this risk	Organisation’s response: The risk mitigation and due diligence measures in place for Risk 1 also apply to this risk. SSE has a Modern Slavery Clause in supplier contracts, it sets requirements for Contractors through it's SHE documents, and works with experts and industry working groups to identify risks across the supply chain. It also has a number of supplier screening checks in place during tender process and on an ongoing basis when working with suppliers.

Indicators of forced labour (optional)

We asked the organisation whether its statement refers to finding any International Labour Organization (ILO) indicators of forced labour.

What are ILO indicators of forced labour?

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has produced a list of the most common signs of forced labour. They’re based on the definition of forced labour as ‘all work or service which is extracted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.’ More details and guidance are available on the ILO website, and in their publication ILO indicators of forced labour

Organisation’s response

The organisation told us its statement does not refer to finding any International Labour Organization (ILO) indicators of forced labour.

Demonstrating progress (optional)

We asked the organisation how its statement demonstrates progress over time in addressing modern slavery risks. They provided the following answer:

SSE has KPIs to monitor progress, see page 16 of it's Statement. These are continuously being monitored and developed to ensure they are appropriate and meaningful. It also benchmarks against the UN Guiding Principles, and the OECD Due Diligence guidance to ensure it is aligning to best practice and identifying and rectifying gaps within it's strategy to identify and address modern slavery. See pages 8 for details, and alignment is signposted across section 4 of the Statement.