Modern Slavery Statement

Last updated: March 2021

Modern Slavery Statement

Last updated: March 2021

Statutory Statement

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our Group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 2016. All commercial organisations that supply goods or services and have a turnover of £36 million or more are required to produce a slavery and human trafficking statement and to publish it on their website.

Our Organisation

We are a supplier of electricity and gas to business customers in Great Britain, who may contract with BES Commercial Electricity Ltd and/or Business Energy Solutions Ltd (“the Group”). BES Utilities is the generic reference to the above two companies. The Group has over 400 employees and our business focuses on meeting the requirements of energy supply to small and medium-sized enterprises, meeting the requirements of energy supply to larger organisations and purchasing renewable electricity from generous in Great Britain.

Our Supply Chain

Our supply chains include:

• the procurement of electricity and gas; and
• the procurement of goods and services to support our business (e.g. metering equipment and the supply of metering services).

Our Policies

We have a number of policies in place which reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to prevent slavery and human trafficking from taking place anywhere in our supply chains. These include:

• Procurement Policy
• Recruitment Policy
• Employee Code of Conduct

Due Diligence

As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk we have due diligence procedures in place to check the policies and supply chains of our suppliers and any potential new suppliers.

We have in place systems to:

• carry out a risk assessment prior to any agreement taking place with a new supplier;
• identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains;
• mitigate the risk of slavery, human trafficking and bribery occurring in our supply chains;
• monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains;
• reassess any existing suppliers where there has been a significant change in their business; and
• protect whistleblowers.

Supplier adherence to our values

We have zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking and as a business, we only work with suppliers and contractors who are prepared to comply with our values.

Training

To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide training to our staff. We also require individuals working in our Procurement team to be members of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (MCIPS) and to maintain a current ethical procurement certification.

This statement has been approved by the Group’s Board of Directors and is made on behalf of the Group. A new statement will be published each year on the corporate website.

You can download & print this document here.

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