MORGAN SINDALL GROUP PLC modern slavery statement summary (2021)

Organisation address

Kent House,
14 - 17 Market Place,
London,
W1W 8AJ

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 all 6 recommended topics

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 (optional)

There is no PDF version of this statement.

PDF statements were first introduced to the registry for the 2023 statement year.

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

MORGAN SINDALL GROUP PLC modern slavery statement for 2021 is a group statement covering 8 organisations. See the full list of organisations covered by this statement

Legal requirement to publish

MORGAN SINDALL GROUP PLC has confirmed it is required to publish a 2021 statement by law.

Statement period and sign-off details

The statement covers the following period:
1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020

The statement was signed off by:
John Morgan (Chief Executive)

It was approved by the board (or equivalent management body) on:
2 August 2021

Recommended topics covered by the statement

Government guidance encourages organisations to cover a range of topics 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 topics in the statutory guidance.

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

Topics 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:

• Construction, civil engineering and building products

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:

1 to 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	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	Included
Provides access to remedy, compensation and justice for victims of modern slavery	Included
Other	All employees provided with employment contract prior to deployment; not required to lodge deposits or security payments; all paid at least minimum wage; migrant workers given same employment contract terms as other recruits.

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	No
Your front line staff	Yes
Human resources	No
Executive-level staff	No
Procurement staff	No
Your suppliers	Yes
The wider community	No
Other	Modern Slavery e-learning was last extended across the Group in 2016, with refresher training in 2021. All new starters complete the module, and all site workers receive training in the form of a 'toolbox talk' when starting on a project.

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	No
Workers within your organisation	Yes
Workers within your supply chain	Yes
Central or local government	No
Law enforcement, such as police, GLAA and other local labour market inspectorates	Yes
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	No

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:

Pilot study of supply chain with direct worker engagement specialist, &Wider Introduced Sedex to help audit supply chain Diversity and inclusion survey across the Group, with workshops

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)

Use of low-skilled or migrant labour within our supply chain (we operate in the UK and Switzerland). Includes labour for for waste management, security, cleaning, demolition, road works.

Questions we asked about this risk	Organisation’s response
Where it was most likely to occur	Organisation’s response: Within your supply chains. Tier 1 suppliers Provide their products and services directly to your organisation.
Who was it most likely to affect	Organisation’s response: Migrants Unskilled labour
In which country	Organisation’s response: Switzerland United Kingdom
Actions or plans to address this risk	Organisation’s response: In-house labour desk run by specialist recruitment agencies. Manages relationships/contracts with workers; checks they have the right to work in the UK and that contracts comply with UK law; pays workers direct. To prequalify to work with us, all subcontractors must comply with UK law; confirm that they and their supply chains check their employees’ right to work. We have distributed our Code of Conduct to our supply chain and require them to meet the standards set out in it.

Priority risks for this organisation (2 of 3)

Supply by subcontractors of materials sourced outside the EU. Includes materials for floor fittings, brick and blockwork, metalwork, steel, ironmongery and quarry products.

Questions we asked about this risk	Organisation’s response
Where it was most likely to occur	Organisation’s response: Within your supply chains. Tier 1 suppliers Provide their products and services directly to your organisation.
Who was it most likely to affect	Organisation’s response: Unknown, and dependent on the material purchased and where it was purchased from.
In which country	Organisation’s response: United Kingdom
Actions or plans to address this risk	Organisation’s response: We do not procure materials direct from overseas and deal only with UK suppliers who conduct their own modern slavery checks. During the pandemic, we have resisted sourcing masks from suppliers with inadequate procedures and have been on heightened alert for any subcontractors proposing ‘substitute materials’. Our Morgan Sindall Supply Chain Family of suppliers and manufacturers has helped us maintain existing supply channels. We have assisted our subcontractors in overcoming supply issues.

Priority risks for this organisation (3 of 3)

N/A

Questions we asked about this risk	Organisation’s response
Where it was most likely to occur	Organisation’s response: Organisation selected ‘Other’ and wrote: N/A
Who was it most likely to affect	Organisation’s response: N/A
In which country	Organisation’s response: United Kingdom
Actions or plans to address this risk	Organisation’s response: N/A

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

ILO indicators we asked about	Organisation’s response
Abuse of vulnerability	Yes
Deception	No
Restriction of movement	Yes
Isolation	No
Physical and sexual violence	Yes
Intimidation and threats	Yes
Retention of identity documents	Yes
Withholding of wages	Yes
Debt bondage	Yes
Abusive working and living conditions	Yes
Excessive overtime	Yes
Other	-

Actions taken in response to finding ILO indicators

We asked the organisation to tell us whether its statement refers to any actions it took after finding indicators of forced labour

Actions we asked about	Organisation’s response
Financial remediation, including repayment of recruitment fees	No
Change in policy	No
Change in training	No
Referring potential victims to government services	No
Supporting victims via NGO	No
Supporting investigations by relevant authorities	No
Other	No indications were found in 2020.

Demonstrating progress (optional)

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

We are included in the FTSE4Good Index, which rates companies on sustainability issues that include supporting human and labour rights and supply chain labour standards. We received no reports of incidences of modern slavery in 2020 within our own business or supply chain, and therefore no investigations or remedial actions were required.