Modern Slavery Statement

This published statement is in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Hawthorn Estates Ltd sets out the steps taken to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in its business and supply chains.  

Introduction

As a charted building company, ethics are critical to us. Hawthorn Estates believe that everyone can have a happy and productive work life if everyone pulls together and looks after each other. Building positive relationships with contractors, clients, and all who meet us starts from within. If our core workforce is happy, this feeds into a positive environment.

Modern slavery is an issue that exists in both developed and developing economies and across business sectors. Hawthorn Estates has zero-tolerance to slavery, servitude, forced labour and human trafficking (Modern Slavery) and is committed to conducting business with honesty and integrity and treating everyone with dignity and respect.

Our workforce is an inclusive and caring one; they are therefore in an advantageous position to spot signs that all is not what it should be. Furthermore, they are ready to help, support and report any difficulties confidentially to the appropriate person.

We aim to raise awareness of this problem amongst all our associates to help reduce the ability traffickers have and use people in the despicable way they do.

Supply Chain Risk Assessment

We conducted risk assessments of the supply chain we use according to the nature of the goods or services, their origins, and the extent of subcontracting. All the different businesses in our chain are small to medium businesses; as a result, all the companies know all their employees well.

From this angle, the risk of encountering anyone under slavery is small. However, our industry is construction and a sector that has been susceptible to infiltration by trafficking groups.

In addition, our vulnerability comes with imported goods that come to us through larger distribution companies (e.g. Amazon, Yodel). Monitoring this side of things is beyond us; however, continuing to use and give preference to smaller companies helps to minimize the risk of using slave labour in ignorance.

Due Diligence

The contractors and individuals who work alongside Hawthorn Estates Ltd make a point of getting to know them personally.

We believe in aligning ourselves with pleasant, friendly people, not attempting to train people to ‘pretend to be nice’. Once we find like-minded people, we stick with them. We thus know everyone who comes on-site and can trust them.

Evolving Approach

As we are only a small company, keeping a hand on the above aspects is relatively straightforward. However, as our business increases in size, it will become increasingly more challenging to ‘know everyone’.

Therefore, in the future, a more stringent process and the paper trail will need to be put in place; this will ensure that the colleagues we entrust to carry out the vital task of bringing new contractors and employees into the business are aware of and making sure that we keep our business free from modern slavery.

 

Sign: Emily Millar                    Position: Operations Director                         Date: 29.01.2021