Crown Commercial Service modern slavery statement summary (2021)
Organisation address
151 Buckingham Palace Rd,
London,
United Kingdom,
SW1W 9SZ
London,
United Kingdom,
SW1W 9SZ
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 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 (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
- Legal requirement to publish
- Statement period and sign-off details
- Recommended areas covered by the statement
- The organisation’s sectors and turnover
- Number of years producing statements
- Policies
- Training
- Monitoring working conditions
- Modern slavery risks
- Finding indicators of modern slavery
- Demonstrating progress
Legal requirement to publish
Published voluntarily
Crown Commercial Service has confirmed it is not required to publish a 2021 statement by law.
Statement period and sign-off details
The statement covers the following period:
1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021
The statement was signed off by:
Simon Tse (Chief Executive and Accounting Officer)
It was approved by the board (or equivalent management body) on:
21 September 2021
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:
- Public sector
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:
This is the first time
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 |
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 | No |
| Your front line staff | Yes |
| Human resources | No |
| Executive-level staff | Yes |
| Procurement staff | Yes |
| Your suppliers | No |
| The wider community | No |
| Other |
CCS has also run modern slavery eLearning workshops for its customers.
|
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 | No |
| Central or local government | Yes |
| Law enforcement, such as police, GLAA and other local labour market inspectorates | No |
| Businesses in your industry or sector | No |
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:
Section 3: Risk Assessment and Due Diligence in our Modern Slavery Statement describes how CCS is using MSAT to identify modern slavery risk and monitor working conditions in our supply chains.
Modern slavery risks (optional)
Warning
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)
The UK construction sector is known to be vulnerable to modern slavery due to fragmented supply chains, low cost tendering and a reliance on low skilled temporary migrant labour.
| Questions we asked about this risk | Organisation’s response |
|---|---|
| Where it was most likely to occur |
Organisation’s response:
Within your supply chains.
|
| Who was it most likely to affect |
Organisation’s response:
|
| In which country | Organisation’s response: United Kingdom |
| Actions or plans to address this risk | Organisation’s response: We are adopting a whole procurement lifecycle approach to modern slavery prevention and risk management. We have strengthened our pre-tender due diligence and risk assessment processes, improved our contract clauses, used tools such as MSAT to increase supply chain transparency and carried out performance reviews with high risk suppliers to implement improvements post contract award. This work and our longer term goals are covered in sections 2-5 of the statement. |
Priority risks for this organisation (2 of 3)
The sourcing of raw materials (e.g. Cobalt from DRC) and manufacture of ICT components in overseas factories such as China and Malaysia are known to be at risk of debt bondage and child labour.
| Questions we asked about this risk | Organisation’s response |
|---|---|
| Where it was most likely to occur |
Organisation’s response:
Within your supply chains.
|
| Who was it most likely to affect |
Organisation’s response:
|
| In which country |
Organisation’s response:
|
| Actions or plans to address this risk | Organisation’s response: We are adopting a whole procurement lifecycle approach to modern slavery prevention and risk management. We have strengthened our pre-tender due diligence and risk assessment processes, improved our contract clauses, used tools such as MSAT to increase supply chain transparency and carried out performance reviews with high risk suppliers to implement improvements post contract award. This work and our longer term goals are covered in sections 2-5 of the statement. |
Priority risks for this organisation (3 of 3)
Facilities management is susceptible to debt bondage and labour abuses, particularly in security, cleaning and catering, where there is a heavy reliance on low skilled and temporary workers.
| Questions we asked about this risk | Organisation’s response |
|---|---|
| Where it was most likely to occur |
Organisation’s response:
Within your supply chains.
|
| Who was it most likely to affect |
Organisation’s response:
|
| In which country | Organisation’s response: United Kingdom |
| Actions or plans to address this risk | Organisation’s response: We are adopting a whole procurement lifecycle approach to modern slavery prevention and risk management. We have strengthened our pre-tender due diligence and risk assessment processes, improved our contract clauses, used tools such as MSAT to increase supply chain transparency and carried out performance reviews with high risk suppliers to implement improvements post contract award. This work and our longer term goals are covered in sections 2-5 of the statement. |
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:
Section 5 of our modern slavery statement includes some high level goals and KPIs for the next year, which we will be working towards next year. Specific measures and timescales will be defined at an individual contract level.