Modern Slavery Policy
Modern Slavery Policy at Scottish Water
Scottish Water is strongly opposed to modern slavery in all its forms and has a zero tolerance approach to inaction and coverup of any issues. We also have a responsibility to understand the risks within our own business and supply chain, and to ensure ongoing management of those risks.
As part of this commitment, we have a number of policies and practices in place to ensure we engage our employees and procure goods and services in a responsible and sustainable way.
The latest Modern Slavery Statement is Scottish Water’s 8th, responding to the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Our Modern Slavery Statement is published on our website to clearly and openly state our position on responsible working practices.
Since it published its first Modern Slavery Statement in 2016, Scottish Water has aimed to be increasingly transparent about its approach to modern slavery whilst also ensuring this approach continues to develop.
What is Modern Slavery
The definition of modern slavery is broad and includes forced labour, servitude, slavery, human trafficking, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, descent-based slavery and child labour
Scottish Water actively encourages feedback on the content of this Modern Slavery Statement from its stakeholders. Please get in touch by Email. This statement was approved by the Scottish Water Board of Directors on 31st August 2023.
Supply Chain Integrity
Scottish Water is committed to an ethical supply chain. We want to work with suppliers who ‘do the right thing’ – who take issues of sustainability, human rights, and ethical practices seriously.
In practice, this means that we expect every link in our supply chain, from those we deal with directly right through to those who supply the raw materials for our goods, to not only comply with the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code and the legal requirements of all countries they do business in but to also go beyond this.
That means, taking a stand for workers’ rights and safety, promoting and encouraging diversity and inclusion, considering the sustainability of sourcing practices and requirements, and ensuring business is conducted in a fair, transparent, and honest manner.
Fair Work First
Scottish Water is a proponent of the Scottish Government’s ‘Fair Work First’ principle.
This is an initiative that aims to raise employee standards within Scotland.
It means commitments on:
- Appropriate channels for effective voice
- Investment in workforce
- Zero hours contracts
- Gender pay gap and diversity
- Real Living Wage
- Flexible and family-friendly working practices
- Fire and rehire practices
More information on the Fair Work First principle can be found here
Supply Chain Ethical Oversight
The ethical integrity of the Scottish Water supply chain is the responsibility of everyone involved in procuring goods and services for our company. But we also have a dedicated team embedded into our procurement function to make sure we are holding ourselves and our suppliers to account in this critical area of commitment.Joe Rowan is Scottish Water's Modern Slavery Compliance Officer and leads the dedicated team. If you have any questions at all regarding the ethical integrity of Scottish Water's supply chain, our modern slavery commitments, or indeed our plans for future years in this area, please reach out to us via our Procurement Helpline.
