Modern slavery and human traffiking

Inform Surveying Limited has zero tolerance for slavery and human trafficking, in our own business and in the businesses we work with.

We publish this statement voluntarily. Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires one from organisations with a turnover of £36 million or more, and we are well below that. We publish because clients ask, and because a firm whose surveyors spend their working lives on construction sites and in occupied buildings is better placed than most to notice when something is wrong.

Where the risk actually sits

We are a small practice of chartered building surveyors in Sheffield. Everyone who works for us is directly employed in the United Kingdom, paid through PAYE at or above the legal minimum, and has had their right to work checked. We do not manufacture anything, we do not import goods, and we do not engage labour through agencies or gangmasters. The risk of modern slavery inside our own business is low, and we would rather say so plainly than describe controls we have no need of.

Our suppliers are, for the most part, other professional firms, sub-consultants and specialist surveyors, and United Kingdom suppliers of office equipment, software and protective equipment. The risk there is low too.

The real risk in our sector sits in construction labour, and we meet it on other people’s sites rather than in our own supply chain. That is where our attention goes.

What we do about it

– We check the right to work of everyone we employ, and we keep proper payroll and working time records.
– We expect the contractors and sub-consultants we engage, and those we recommend to clients, to comply with the law on employment, pay, hours and right to work, and to hold to the same standards we do.
– Where we have reason to be concerned about a supplier or a contractor, we ask, and we are willing to stop working with them.
– Our surveyors are asked to be alert on site to signs of exploited or coerced labour, and to report anything that concerns them.

We keep this proportionate. A practice of our size adds nothing by running an audit programme it cannot resource, and we would rather our people knew what to look for and felt able to say something.

Reporting a concern

Anyone in the practice who suspects modern slavery or human trafficking, whether in our business or anywhere we encounter it in the course of our work, must report it to a director immediately. Concerns can also be raised under our whistleblowing policy, which protects anyone who raises one in good faith.

Anyone may also report a concern outside the practice, and nobody needs our permission to do so:

Modern Slavery Helpline
08000 121 700
modernslaveryhelpline.org

If a person is in immediate danger, call the police on 999.

Where a concern reaches us, we look into it. Where the circumstances warrant it we report the matter to the police, to the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, or to the Modern Slavery Helpline.

Review

We review this statement every year, and sooner if events require it.

Approved by the board of directors of Inform Surveying Limited.