Modern Slavery Act (2020)

Introduction from Frank Millar, Chief Executive Officer

Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) understands that modern slavery and human trafficking are all growing concerns and the risk is present in every country, whether industrialised, developed or in transition. CPI has a zero tolerance approach to modern slavery and human trafficking of any kind in our operations and supply chain. We should be alert to the potential risks, however, small they may be in our business.

Our business structure

CPI is a UK based technology innovation centre and the process arm of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. Established to support the UK process manufacturing industry, CPI collaborates with universities, SM Es and large corporates to help overcome innovation challenges and develop next generation products and processes. Operating across a broad range of technologies, we support our partners at every step of the way; from concept to market; business support to technology development; from scale up to supply chain intervention CPI is part of the CPI group of companies (Group), and the ultimate parent company is Centre for Process Innovation Limited. CPl’s head office is in England. The Group has over 300 employees and operates within the United Kingdom.

Our business

CPI is organised into 5 business units known as platforms: Biologics, Formulations, Graphene, Industrial Biorefinery and Biotechnology and Printable Electronics. These platforms are situated across 3 different sites in the North East, namely Darlington, Sedgefield and Wilton. Our activities mostly take place within the United Kingdom, although we do carry out some services within the United Kingdom for international clients.

Our supply chains

Our operations and procurement activities take place within the United Kingdom and our contractors and suppliers are predominately UK and EU based. We expect our supply chain to fully comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and be transparent, accountable and auditable.

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. Our Anti Slavery Policy reflects 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 any where in our supply chains.

Risk mitigation for slavery and human trafficking

CPI evaluates the nature and extent of its exposure to the risk of modern slavery occurring in its supply chain. As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk of modern slavery occurring across our business and in our supply chains we have:

1. Raised general organisational awareness by circulating an article to all staff explaining progress in preparing this statement and the risks of modern slavery;
2. Introduced into our procurement process a requirement for our suppliers to comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015;
3. Assigned a Modern Slavery Officer to ensure to monitor compliance with this statement and the Anti Slavery Policy;
4. Ensured that our general terms and conditions we use when procuring services ensure that our suppliers comply with all laws and rules which extends to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and other legislation that prevents modern slavery and human trafficking; and
5. Reviewed our pay scales to ensure that all employees are paid at least the relevant minimum wage and have the right to work in the United Kingdom.

In addition to the above procedures we have in place to mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking, we will to:

• Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains;
• Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains if they become apparent; and
• Protect whistle blowers.

Supplier adherence to our values

We have zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking. To ensure all those in our supply chain and contractors comply with our values we have in place a provision within our standard tender documentation to include the discretionary exclusion of any bidder who has been convicted of an offence under section 1, 2 or 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. In addition, all suppliers that sign up to our terms and conditions are required to comply with all laws which extends to the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

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 have highlighted the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking to our staff through publications on our intranet. Our procurement team who directly deals with our supply chains has also been trained by an external provider in respect of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and we will look to roll this training out across the business.

Further Steps

Although the Group’s standard terms and conditions provide compliance with all laws, we will seek to update the terms and conditions to specifically require compliance with Modern Slavery Act 2015. We will also look to train our staff in identifying modern slavery or human trafficking and include modern slavery within our induction process for all new employees. 

We will continue to review the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking at our Risk Assessment Review meetings and will report progress to the Group’s Senior Leadership Team and the Board. 

We will act promptly where an issue with compliance with this statement has been flagged or identified. 

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our Group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 2016/2017 and has been approved and endorsed by CPl’s Board of Directors.