National World
Modern slavery and human trafficking statement. Financial year 2021
This statement sets out National World’s (Inc. JPIMedia.) actions to understand all potential modern slavery risks related to its business and to put in place steps that are aimed at ensuring that there is no slavery or human trafficking in its own business and its supply chains.
This statement relates to actions and activities during the current financial year.
National World is committed to operating all of its Group’s business activities to the highest standards of business ethics and integrity. We are committed to understanding more about modern slavery and ensuring there is no modern slavery concerns in our business or supply chain.
Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. It takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person's liberty by another in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain.
We are committed to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking.
In light of the obligation to report on measures to ensure that all parts of our business and supply chain are slavery free, we have put in place a designated Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy, to demonstrate our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our companies slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending on 31 December 2020, and for the forthcoming year of 2021.
Organisational structure and supply chains
National World, is one of the largest local and regional media organisations in the UK. We provide news and information services to communities through our extensive portfolio of publications and websites.
Our supply chain consists of:
- Freelance editorial suppliers based predominantly in the UK;
- Large and small technology suppliers.
- Awards and live events suppliers based predominantly in the UK and,
- Other suppliers of business services based predominantly in the UK
Supply chain risks
The Group’s suppliers are mostly based within the UK which has a developed culture of ethical business practice and strong labour regulation. We have therefore assessed the overall risk of the Group contracting with organisations that engage in slavery or human trafficking as relatively low. However, we have recognised that a risk in our supply chain exists where the Group contracts with technology suppliers based overseas.
Acts to address risks
We are undertaking the following activities on an ongoing basis to assess and address these risks:
- Conducting an internal risk assessment to identify which of the Group’s suppliers are most likely to manufacture goods or provide services in countries and/or sectors where modern forms of slavery are more likely to be prevalent;
- Consulting with those suppliers whom we have identified as presenting significant inherent risk in order to understand more about their own businesses, supply chains and the steps they have taken to reduce the risk of slavery and human trafficking;
- Reviewing the Group’s existing contractual arrangements and identifying ways these can be strengthened to further reduce the risk of slavery and human trafficking in our businesses and supply chains; and
- Providing anti-slavery training to key staff in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking
As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk we have in place systems to:
- Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains.
- Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains.
- Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains.
- Protect whistleblowers.
Supplier adherence to our values
We have zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking.
We have a dedicated compliance team, which consists of involvement from our Legal and Corporate Affairs and Human Resources departments.
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 our business partners to provide training to their staff and suppliers and providers.
As part of our effectiveness in combating slavery and human trafficking, we will appoint an agreed independent third party to conduct an annual external review or our compliance to relevant regulations.
Signed by
David Montgomery, Executive Chairman
10th February 2021.