Modern slavery and human trafficking statement 2024-25

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 July 2025.

Organisational structure

We are a leading UK University in the higher education sector, with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research, strong links with business and industry and unrivalled sporting achievement. We have approximately 19,300 students and 3,900 staff. In 2024-25, we had a total income of £397.8 million and total expenditure of £390.9 million. 

We are governed by Council and Senate. University Executive Board (UEB), chaired by The Vice Chancellor and President, Professor Nick Jennings, is the executive decision-making group of the University. We have 9 academic schools which work in partnership with professional service functions.

Our supply chains

Our procurement spend in 2024-25 was £170.1 million. We have undertaken a high-level risk assessment of our contracts, identifying where supply chains extend into sectors and territories that are high risk in terms of the potential presence of modern slavery. The high-risk sub-categories identified account for over 70% of our spend and include: estates/construction, IT & telecommunications, catering supplies and services, specialist cleaning services, taxis, laboratory supplies (gloves), and personal protective equipment/workwear/sports kit/promotional leisurewear.

Our policies on slavery and human trafficking

Our University Strategy, workplace policies and procedures demonstrate our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships. We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery in our supply chains, or in any part of our business. Our HR policies and procedures reflect UK employment law. 

Our Whistleblowing Policy provides guidance to staff, students, members of its Council and other members of the University on the procedure for the disclosure of information which, in that person’s reasonable belief, is in the public interest and tends to show one or more types of malpractice, impropriety or dangers as specified in the Policy. 

Our Procurement Regulations, updated in line with the Procurement Act 2023, require compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.  

Our Sustainable Procurement Guidance Policy explicitly references the Modern Slavery Act 2015, with modern slavery and human trafficking included within the pre-procurement risk assessment tool. The guidance note prompts consideration of and the appropriateness of using labour standards (including ILO core conventions) as conditions of participation. 

Our Ethical Investment Policy includes a commitment to make investments in an ethically responsible manner.

Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking

The Procurement Act 2023, effective since February 2025, requires contracting authorities to address modern slavery risks throughout the procurement process. In response to the Act and recent policy updates (PPN 009/2025 and PPN 02/23), we have revised our procurement procedures to promote best practice. This includes enhanced due diligence, such as online checks for any history of modern slavery offences. Evidence of involvement, even without a conviction, may result in discretionary exclusion unless effective remedial action is demonstrated. 

The risk of modern slavery within the supply chain is also flagged and mitigated within the Procurement Strategy checklist/template, pre-qualification/tender documents and our Standard Terms and Conditions. Our standard tender documents include modern slavery questions enquiring as to bidders’ supply chain risk mapping, contract workforce protections, evidence of modern slavery auditing, follow-up and collaborative action with NGOs and others. Our library of tender questions, to be used where appropriate, covers bidders’ use of recruitment agencies and recruitment fee breakdowns, including confirmation and evidence that the employer pays these fees. 

Our contract summary template, completed by the Procurement Team once a contract is awarded, focusing contract managers on the key contract deliverables, performance measures and risks etc., includes modern slavery. We continue to use a number of tools for checking the performance of our suppliers in protecting workers’ rights, including BetterWork for our apparel contracts and Know the Chain for our IT contracts and have a dedicated contract management role to ensure a continued dialogue with suppliers to the University.

As a  founding member of Electronics Watch (EW), an organisation that works to monitor working conditions in factories producing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) goods bought by European public sector members,  we are able to build EW labour standards clauses into our contracts for IT hardware, and receive compliance reports from EW monitoring organisations on factories which manufacture products ultimately supplied to the University.

Our pre-qualification/tender documents for Estates procurement signpost the training and resources available from StrongerTogether to help with identifying, and responding to, signs of modern slavery.

We continue to engage with other universities and higher education purchasing consortia, including the North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC), the British Universities Finance Directors’ Group (BUFDG) and the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC), where we aim to share our experiences of managing modern slavery risks and collaborate with others in the sector to agree how best our combined resource may be used. 

Supplier adherence to our values

We have zero tolerance to modern slavery. As well as taking mitigating measures through the procurement/contract management process (including adding appropriate conditions of participation/tender questions and standard contract clauses), we have expressed this policy, explained the Modern Slavery Act and the related measures we have added to our processes, at local supplier events.

Training

The Procurement team have received Modern Slavery training from NetPositive Futures and the Ethical Trading Initiative. All staff involved in procurement are made aware of the risks and indicators of modern slavery in our supply chains, along with the mitigating measures detailed above, as part of our rolling in-house Procurement training. In addition colleagues across the University, involved at various stages of the procurement Lifecyle, receive a quarterly update which routinely reinforces the consideration of Modern Slavery in purchasing decisions.

Our effectiveness in combating slavery and human trafficking

Social Value Portal

For appropriate high value (£100k+) contracts, we employ Social Value Portal (SVP) to gain quantifiable social value commitments from tenders, to which the successful tender is then held through validation and reporting. Deployed in partnership with two other Leicestershire based universities, two of the validated social value commitments/measures relate to modern slavery:

1. No. of full time equivalent employees (FTE) hired on the contract that are survivors of modern slavery
2. Initiatives taken throughout the local and global supply chain to strengthen the identification, monitoring and reduction of risks of modern slavery and unethical work practices occurring in relation to the contract (i.e. supply chain mapping, staff training, contract management)

Working as part of the East Midlands Social Value Task Force, we continue to support the integration of Social Value across all sectors, encouraging radical collaboration and partnership.

Living Wage Foundation

We are accredited by the Living Wage Foundation, which certifies that all staff are paid a real living wage. Non-University contracted workers that regularly work onsite are also expected to be paid the UK living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation, and we evaluate suppliers’ approach to Fair Work Practices, including the Living Wage, in line with statutory guidance. The Living Wage is mandated within in-scope contracts with annual reviews carried out to ensure that all suppliers are meeting this commitment. In 2024–25, we re-tendered our Library Security Services contract, and secured a living wage for all staff working on campus.

 

Richard Taylor

Chief Operating Officer
Loughborough University

On behalf of the Council of Loughborough University which approved this statement on 27 November 2025