Slavery and human trafficking statement

Introduction

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 (“act”) was introduced to help eradicate slavery, forced labour and human trafficking in the operations and supply chains of companies. This statement is made pursuant to Section 54, Part 6 of the Act and includes information about the FrontendWebDeveloper London Limited (FWD.london), its own operations and supply chains, and how we are approaching the eradication of slavery and human trafficking within our business.

Our commitment

FWD.london is committed to preventing and mitigating exploitation, bribery and corruption. We will not accept modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking anywhere within our operations or supply chain. As part of our corporate social responsibility strategy, we have committed to undertaking a risk analysis of our supply chain to inform a plan to improve transparency and accountability in our supply chain. A working group has been constituted to further develop our approach to combatting modern slavery.

Our commitment is set out in further detail in our Modern Slavery policy (pdf).

FWD.london corporate structure

FWD.london is a sole private limited company.

What FWD.london does

FWD.london is a digital consultancy which provides digital services including: web development, UX design, service, user research and digital strategy.

The company’s clients span multiples some of which; government, e-commerce, media, marketing and non-profit.

Company operations

We directly employ 1 member of staff in the UK, with a combination of office-based and home-work. We are confident that our own operations are free of modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking.

Employees in the company work under terms and conditions that are in accordance with UK employment law.

Policies

We have a range of employment policies in place which ensure that our employees are fairly treated, supported, remunerated and understand the behaviour expected by the organisation. These are listed in our Modern Slavery policy (pdf) and are available on request.

Supply chains and risk areas

The suppliers we use to deliver our activities, and our own operations, are primarily UK based.

We occasional subcontract to suppliers within the digital industry. Our risk analysis of our supply chain will allow us a better understanding of supply contracts where there is a greater risk of exploitation.

We also create, negotiate and have access to a series of frameworks - umbrella agreements put in place with a group of suppliers who fit certain criteria and in accordance with the EU public contracts regulations 2015. These frameworks are available to our members, who rely on us to have completed modern slavery compliance checks on suppliers. We are exploring how we can improve our oversight of these suppliers.

Our Modern Slavery policy (pdf) describes supplier obligations in reporting breaches of the modern slavery regulations and the FWD.london whistleblowing policy explains how members of staff can also report breaches.

Due diligence

As part of our approach to maintaining a supply chain that is free of modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking, we require all commercial organisations bidding for FWD.london work to provide a copy or link to their anti-slavery statement.

Where such a statement does not exist (for example, where the bidder does not meet the Act’s criteria for a statement to be produced), we require a statement from the bidder confirming that it is committed to and acts according to the moral principles of the Act. Our own modern slavery policy is shared with suppliers during procurement processes.

Through our standard contract we require suppliers to report any breach or suspected breach of the Act associated with our contract to us immediately. We reserve our rights to terminate contracts with suppliers in the event that there is evidence of non-compliance with the Act. Opportunities to develop our approach further are being reviewed.

Training and awareness raising

Awareness raising amongst our employees is key to ensuring that risk areas are recognised and employees know what to do if they become aware of any concern associated with exploitation.

All staff are required to complete a mandatory modern slavery awareness training course on our training platform. The Modern Slavery policy and this statement are also actively shared with all staff to help colleagues understand their responsibility as individuals to report behaviour which they believe suggests a breach of the Act.

Our Whistleblowing Policy includes appropriate guidance for staff in reporting any suspicion of inappropriate or illegal behaviours.

Actions in the last reporting year

In the last reporting year, we have:

• N/A

Future plans

In the next financial year (to 31 March 2023), we will:

Work with our corporate social responsibility consultant to complete a risk analysis of our supply chain and create an action plan to improve transparency and accountability

Identify key performance measures regarding the mitigation of modern slavery in our supply chain

This statement will be made available on the FWD.london website via a prominent link from homepage, alongside our Modern Slavery policy. It will, in addition, be provided on request to all those organisations in receipt of the company’s services.