Modern Slavery Act

This statement sets out key actions taken FY2023 of Ideal Standard UK Ltd (“Ideal Standard” or “we”) and its subsidiaries to prevent slavery or human trafficking in its business and the supply chains.

Ideal Standard manufactures, imports and distributes ceramics, bathroom fittings and associated accessories. We recognise our responsibility to take a robust approach and intend to prevent slavery and human trafficking in our corporate activities, and to ensure that our supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking in accordance with Modern Slavery Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk).

We manufacture, import and distribute bathroom fittings and associated accessories.  We are part of the Ideal Standard International Group (the Group) and our ultimate parent company is Ideal Standard International NV which has its head office in Belgium.  The Group operates in over 30 countries worldwide and employs some 10,000 people.  In the UK, the Company employs circa 1000 employees. 

Our global supply chains include local, national and international partners and we shall not knowingly do business with parties that violate applicable laws and regulations, including local, environmental and employment laws.

We have controls, policies & other measures in place to identify and assess potential risks in our operational activities and supply chain, mitigate these risks and protect whistle-blowers. These measures include:

• Operating a standard procurement process under which suppliers demonstrate compliance according to the Ideal Standard protocols.
• Conducting a supplier audit as part of the onboarding of any new supplier.

We operate the following policies on ISI group level that describe our approach to identify modern slavery risks and steps to be taken to prevent slavery and human trafficking in our operations:

• Recruitment policy: We use only specified, reputable employment agencies to source labour and always verify the practices of any new agency it is using before accepting workers from that agency.
• Whistleblowing policy: encourages all our employees, customers and other business partners to report any concerns about actual or potential misconduct within ISI. This includes actions breaching human rights (e.g., any circumstances that may give rise to an enhanced risk of slavery or human trafficking). Our whistleblowing procedure is designed to make it easy for reporters to make disclosures, without fear of retaliation.
• Code of Conduct & Ethics: makes clear to our employees what behaviour is expected of them when representing ISI. It strives to maintain the highest standards of employee conduct and ethical behaviour wherever we operate and manage our supply chain.
• Supplier Code of Conduct: requires suppliers to adhere to the highest standards of ethics. Suppliers are required to provide safe and healthy working conditions, to create a work environment in which employees and business partners feel valued and respected for their contributions, and to act ethically and to comply with the law in their use of labour. We are regularly in contact with suppliers to ensure that they meet the standards of the code and improve their employee's work conditions.

We undertake due diligence when recruiting new employees, agency workers or considering taking on new suppliers, and we regularly review our existing suppliers. Our due diligence and reviews include:

• ensuring all permanent, temporary and agency workers are eligible to work in the UK and that required documentation is validated
• conducting in person audits of our key suppliers or assessments through our staff, which have an important focus on slavery and human trafficking where general risks are identified;
• taking steps to improve substandard suppliers' practices, including providing suggestions to suppliers and requiring them to implement action plans, and;
• invoking sanctions against suppliers that fail to improve their performance in line with an action plan or seriously violate our supplier code of conduct, including the termination of the business relationship.

We require all new employees to be briefed about the possible risk of human trafficking and modern slavery. All existing employees in the supply chains have been trained on the risks of human trafficking and modern slavery.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)

Whilst we do not have specific key performance indicators in place, any instance would be expected to amount to a breach of our employment practices, group policies and/or supplier standards and terms and condition, compliance of which are reviewed and monitored on a regular basis.