MODERN SLAVERY ACT 2015

Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement for the financial year ended 31st January 2021.

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 ended 31st January 2021. It sets out the steps that Morleys Stores Ltd has taken and will continue to take to prevent modern day slavery or human trafficking from taking place within our business and supply chain. This statement relates to business activity during the financial year ended 31st January 2021.

GROUP STRUCTURE

We are a privately owned group of 8 Independent Department stores that have grown over the last 90 years through acquisition.

We employ just over 700 colleagues and our workforce includes central buying, finance and HR functions as well as our Department Store Teams.

Within Morleys Stores Ltd we also have Morleys of Bicester who are an educational furniture specialist business specialising supplying educational establishments. Bicester has its own MD and supporting structure and employs around 40 people in a number of areas including sales, buying and marketing as well as warehousing and distribution.

OUR POLICIES

We are committed to preventing exploitation and human trafficking from taking place in our business operations and supply chain, and our policies reflect our zero tolerance approach to modern day slavery.

Our internal policies include our Code of Conduct, which sets the standards for all employees in promoting honest and ethical behaviours, encouraging transparency in our business dealings. We have HR policies that supplement the Code of Conduct, include Bribery and Corruption Policy, Equal Opportunities Policy and our Whistleblowing Policy.

DUE DILIGENCE

We have appointed key personnel from the business to carry out a review and risk assessment of our suppliers and processes to assess the likelihood of modern slavery practices occurring and review the practices and policies they have in place as well as our agreements with them.

SUPPLY CHAIN

Suppliers must provide details of their organisation and their commitment and procedures they have in place to ensure their compliance with Modern Slavery Act 2015. We also expect our suppliers to share our commitment to the BSCI Code of Conduct which we will monitor as part of our due diligence.

TRAINING

We currently have training in place for all our employees as part of our induction program on all our policies and procedures including the ones highlighted in this statement. We will look at further Morleys Stores Ltd – Modern Slavery Statement April 2021 measures to educate our colleagues on identifying, reporting and eradicating any risks of modern slavery within our business.

ACTION FOR 2021-2022

We will continue to raise awareness of modern slavery across the business by ensuring posters are displayed in all employee staff areas.

We will continue to review and update our Terms and Conditions and standard contract precedents are updated to reflect what we need from our suppliers and business partners. We continue to oblige them to take the necessary steps to prevent modern slavery in their own business and supply chains.

We will continue our e-learning training platform to improve training compliance and understanding, enabling us to be more robust to re-assess and giving us greater flexibility in upgrading the training as legislation changes and improves.

We will action any findings from our due diligence work.

For reference please find a link below for the latest Government Modern Slavery Statement March 2021; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-government-modern-slavery-statement 

APPROVAL

This statement was approved by the board of Morleys Stores Group on April 2021.

I confirm that the information contained within this report is accurate.

Liz McGowan
HR & Retail Director