Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement

Introduction

This statement is made pursuant to Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

It relates to the financial year 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023. This statement covers the activities of The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals and its three wholly owned subsidiaries, PDSA Trading Limited, PDSA Property Services Limited, and PDSA PetAid Enterprises Limited.

This statement sets out PDSA’s commitment to identifying, reducing and eliminating slavery and human trafficking within its organisation and its supply chains.

We acknowledge our responsibility to comply with all principles of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Structure and Supply Chains

PDSA was founded in 1917 by Maria Dickin with the aim of improving the welfare of pets and alleviating poverty. Throughout the past 105 years, we have delivered veterinary support to those in need, as well as providing preventive and educational services.

We have a variety of supply chains that provide goods and services to support the delivery of our frontline services as well as enabling internal functions to deliver services within the organisation. The vast majority of our suppliers and contractors are based in the UK or the EU. We acknowledge that there may be modern slavery occurring in our supply chains that we are not aware of, and we are committed to continuously improving our processes and procedures to identify, reduce and eliminate this wherever possible.

Policies

PDSA has an Ethical Statement in place that covers a number of wider issues. It is shared with our contractors and they are required to follow it as part of our contracting process. This was reviewed and updated in 2021.

We have a number of policies that help us to reduce the risks that modern slavery may be part of our own organisation; these include policies covering recruitment, grievances, harassment and bullying, whistleblowing and safeguarding

Due Diligence Processes

Our Contracts & Procurement Team provide support and guidance to the organisation in relation to procurement activities. As such, our Supplier Questionnaire contains questions relating to the Modern Slavery Act and our New Supplier Request Form requires a statement to be confirmed that due diligence has been carried out in relation to modern slavery. When negotiating contracts we include clauses relating to modern slavery and PDSA’s Ethical Statement. Any Suppliers that our employees identify may be at risk of having modern slavery or human trafficking in their supply chains are flagged to the Modern Slavery Project Group for review and appropriate action taken.

Modern Slavery Project Group

We recognise that there is always more that we can be doing as an organisation to minimise the risk of modern slavery occurring in our supply chains.

In order to further develop our approach to modern slavery a Project Group has been established by the Executive Leadership Team. This Group is sponsored by the Director of Finance & Resources and led by the Contracts & Procurement Manager.

The Project Group has developed our approach across a number of areas including supply chain risk identification, risk categorisation, auditing methodology, and action plans.

The Project Group includes representatives from various disciplines including veterinary services, marketing, corporate partnerships, digital, data and security, internal audit, and retail & buying.

So far the Project Group has:

• Developed and implemented an audit methodology to identify suppliers at risk of modern slavery in their supply chains including:
  • Regular scheduled reviews
  • Assessment and categorisation of suppliers using a Risk Matrix, and
  • Agreeing appropriate action in line with the level of assigned risk, which may include the use of a Modern Slavery Questionnaire, Remedial Plan and / or action being taken to remove them from our approved supplier list.
• Reviewed our key current contracts and ensured they all contain relevant clauses in relation to modern slavery, where these need strengthening liaised with suppliers to do so;
• Liaised with current suppliers to understand their approaches to modern slavery;
• Introduced targeted modern slavery checks in our assessments of potential new suppliers;
• Established a route and process for reporting any suspected modern slavery case;
• Created an internal intranet page to provide our people with information on modern slavery and our related processes; and
• Updated our Ethical Statement to capture our stance on modern slavery and human trafficking.
• Built on improving awareness, education and engagement across the organisation; 
• Continued exploring the possibility of digitalising parts of our modern slavery process to
  streamline and improve the process;
• Registered our Modern Slavery Statement onto the Government’s voluntary Modern Slavery
  Statement Registry (modern-slavery-statement-registry.service.gov.uk).

During 2024, we will:

•  Continue to work toward digitalising our internal process where appropriate and feasible;
• Continue to build on improving awareness, education and engagement across the organisation;
• Keep up-to-date on progress with the Modern Slavery Bill (as announced in the 2022
  Queen’s speech) and other associated legislation, and adjust our approach as appropriate;
•  Update/amend any historic contracts that currently do not contain modern slavery clauses;
  and
• Review all suppliers by total spend as well as those in identified high risk areas, if not
  already done so.

Our Commitment

We recognise the impact that our procurement and purchasing activities, along with our corporate partnerships, can have on reducing modern slavery in the UK and around the world. We are committed to not only challenging ourselves to do better but also our suppliers, contractors and partners.

This Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement was approved by the Board of Trustees at its meeting on 8 March 2024.

Page last updated: 22 May 2024