Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement

The information in this statement is part of Analytical Expert Labs’ Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) policies and approved by our Chief Executive Officer (CEO). It details the policies, procedures, and actions to mitigate against the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking in our business or supply chains. It covers all business activities across the group, including Forensic Access, Analytical Services International, Forensic Testing Service and Certis Biolabs and is compliant with the modern Slavery Act 2015.

 

Introduction and Commitment

Modern slavery and human trafficking are violations of fundamental human rights. They may take various forms, including slavery, bonded, and forced labour, sex trafficking, child labour and domestic servitude. These criminal activities all deprive people of liberty to exploit them for personal or commercial gain and modern slavery is a criminal offence under the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, and the Analytical Expert Labs and its companies fully commits to following its guidance and laws.

The Act imposes obligations on organisations of a certain size which carry out business in the United Kingdom. Modern slavery can occur in various forms, including servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person’s liberty by another to exploit them for personal or commercial gain.

Analytical Expert Labs has adopted this policy with the aim of preventing opportunities for modern slavery occurring within its businesses and supply chains. Our standard operating procedures set out our arrangements as part of our corporate social responsibility.

This policy applies to:

• All employees, officers, and Directors of Analytical Expert Labs companies.
• Sales agents, vendors, contractors, representatives, advisors and other third parties acting on behalf of Analytical Expert Labs.
• Contractors and suppliers of goods and/or works or services to Analytical Expert Labs.

Analytical Expert Labs has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery, and we will take all necessary measures to identify and combat risks to our business.

We are committed to ethical principles with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own business or in any of our supply chains.

 

Companies in Analytical Expert Labs

Analytical Expert Labs is comprised of four complimentary companies who all operate and deliver products and services to organisations across the UK.

Together, we ensure balance of forensic science expertise in court, and second opinions for organisations.

 

Our People, Sectors, and Clients

Analytical Expert Labs employs over 200 highly skilled, highly professional people. Having an engaging and inspirational workforce is crucial to delivering the type of service critical to securing the outcomes our clients expect. Our staff engaging in any forensic work are all security cleared. We work closely with specialist recruitment agencies to ensure all potential staff are vetted undergo our rigorous due diligence assessment to ensure that they are recruiting in line with our policies and values, and that they apply our social values recruitment practices.

Employees within Analytical Expert Labs provide a wide range of scientific advice and guidance to defence solicitors and lawyers, police prosecution teams, local authorities and corporate clients. We provide forensic science expertise in court, and second opinions for police in legal cases and train people in the crucial work of criminal investigations.

 

Preventative Steps and Social Values

To prevent the occurrence of incidents of modern slavery within our own business and throughout our supply chain we carry out due diligence processes in relation to ensuring slavery and/or human trafficking does not take place in our organisation or supply chains, and we have a documented policy detailing measures and preventative steps.

Analytical Expert Labs identify, monitor, and assess those areas of our business and supply chain most at risk from modern slavery and implement initiatives to enhance risk management effectiveness. This incorporates anti-slavery and human trafficking obligations as part of our procurement agreements and contractual processes and, where appropriate, we carry out an audit and/or investigation of the activities of those contractors, suppliers or business partners deemed high risk.

New employees and all staff undergo training to ensure that our policies regarding the Act are embedded into the culture within which we operate, and we engage with our customers, suppliers, and contractors to make them aware of our Modern Slavery Policy and communicate with them our expectations of adherences to our requirements.

As an extension of our policies and adherence to the Act, we believe in diversity and inclusion and social values plays an important part of the culture of any company. Every organisation has aspects in daily working which are good, and not so good, but we do our best to create a positive working environment which encourages all of those that work with us to feel appreciated and supportive of their daily business activities and decisions they make.

We have invested time and effort to analyse our social and local economic value impact against individual contracts, and we are able to measure this using the National Themes Measures & Outcomes (TOM’s) methodology to quantify of our impact on jobs, innovation, diversity, the environment and personal development, and clients can obtain these independently produced reports against a predefined set of valued targets. This way both Certis BioLabs and our clients can see social value evidence as part of their contract delivery. We now encourage all new customers to use the TOM’s frameworks for monitoring our Social Value performance.

 

Governance and Policies

Our commitment to human rights and the modern slavery Act is monitored by our HR personnel and senior leadership team. Total accountability is held by the board of directors and business unit directors who are accountable for their business operations, with the company’s Chief Executive Officer having final sign-off of this Statement.

The following company policies support us in mitigating the risks of modern slavery in our business and supply chain and are available upon request. The policies are managed by HR and are embedded in our company-wide management framework.

 

Diversion and Inclusion Policy

Analytical Expert Labs has an Equality and Diversity Policy which outlines the Company’s commitment to achieving a working environment which provides an equal opportunity of working for all staff.

The company is committed to achieving a working environment which provides equality of opportunity and freedom from unlawful discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (including ethnic origin, colour, nationality and national origin), religion and or belief, sex and sexual orientation, believing that all employees and clients are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity.

 

Management Responsibility

It is the responsibility of all managers for ensuring that all those who report to them understand and comply with the Modern Slavery policy by allocating sufficient and appropriate resources to implement and ensure compliance with this policy including ongoing training and awareness. Their responsibility also includes operating and maintaining internal control systems to prevent the occurrence of modern slavery in our supply chains with employees responsible for conducting business in a manner such that the opportunity for any incidence of modern slavery is prevented and avoiding any activity that might lead to, or suggest, a breach of this policy.

 

Compliance and Code of Conduct

All staff are required to read, understand, and comply with the Modern Slavery policy and report any breaches of this policy either within the business or supply chains. Staff are reminded that there are systems in place to encourage the reporting of concerns and to protect against whistle blowing.

 

Supplier Expectations

Our policy details the principles of how we will conduct business in an honest and transparent manner and expect the same from our suppliers and partners. This includes our expectations for our suppliers to never use or support practices that involve the use of children or hold an individual group into the modern slavery Act. This includes labour exploitation in line with the Act.

We expect all our suppliers to communicate any issues of compliance with our expectations within 7 working days and expect all our suppliers to report any breaches through their own procedures.

 

Supporting Human Rights

Our Human Rights Policy details our labour and workplace rights. We are committed to providing fair working conditions for all our employees, this includes working hours, flexible working and hybrid working (where possible), terms and conditions of employment, remuneration, health and safety, holiday entitlements and benefits. Our employees’ pay will not be lower than that required by local law and the government’s specified minimum living wage.