Slavery and Human Trafficking statement 2018

Blake Morgan LLP provides legal services to clients in the UK and overseas, operating from 6 offices across London, South East England and Wales. As a law firm, we always work to the highest professional standards and comply with all laws, regulations and rules relevant to our business. We strive to be the firm of choice for our clients and for our employees. We aim to provide excellent conditions of employment, pay and benefits to every employee and to treat all employees, workers and suppliers with respect.

This statement sets out the steps that Blake Morgan LLP has taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking do not occur in our business or in our supply chains.

Assessment of risk

The nature of our business is such that our Board believes there is low risk, either within the firm or in the supply chains which support our business activities, of potential for involvement in, support for, or complicity in modern slavery and human trafficking. However, we continue to insist upon a high level of ethical conduct from all our colleagues and any supplier or other organisation with which we do business.

Although we believe the risk is low, we are not complacent.

Policies and Due Diligence

Our Corporate Responsibility Policy, Ethics Policy and Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy each make clear that we are committed to take all reasonable and practical steps to ensure that our high standards are implemented throughout the business and with all our suppliers and business partners. These policies are published on our intranet alongside our Whistleblowing Policy and are available on request.

Over the past year, Blake Morgan LLP has been working to improve all aspects of the procurement process to take full account of the requirements of the Act and also all of our regulatory, information security and data protection requirements.

Our supplier due diligence process includes:

• Risk assessing our suppliers into 2 tiers
• Enhanced due diligence of our tier 1 suppliers
• Audit of tier 1 suppliers
• A requirement on all tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers to provide confirmation of compliance to the requirements of the Act, and other regulatory and statutory requirements
• A requirement to confirm that they will comply with our Ethics Policy, which includes reference to the Act
• Annual review of tier 1 suppliers

We will not accept human trafficking in our business or supply chain and our choice of suppliers will be affected by the response given within the supplier due diligence process.

We expect our suppliers to conform to International Labour Organisation Standards.

In the coming year we will continue to implement further improvements in the procurement and audit processes.

Communication and Training

We will continue to communicate this statement to all our staff to ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business.

We will make reference to the Act in induction and other training to maintain awareness and appropriate due diligence.

Those directly involved in procurement across the firm have been required to confirm that they have read and understand our Slavery and Human Trafficking policy and statement so that these professionals understand and are able to address any potential modern slavery risks. The whole firm is trained at induction and every 2 years thereafter in relation to Anti-Bribery and Corruption.

Effectiveness Review

This statement has been approved by our Board, on behalf of the Members of the firm, and it relates to the financial year ending 30 April 2018. It also sets out initiatives which will take place in the current financial year. The Board will review and update this statement on an annual basis and approve all future plans aimed at compliance with the Act.

Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2018 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.

Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2017 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.

Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2016 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.