Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2023/24

 

This constitutes the Modern Slavery Statement for the Royal Collection Trust (RCT) and its subsidiary company Royal Collection Enterprises Limited for the financial year ending on 31^st March 2024.

RCT is a registered charity.  It is responsible for custodial control and conservation of the Royal Collection, the Royal Archives and the Royal Photographs Collection, and for ensuring public access to and enjoyment and understanding of the Collection.  Income to support the charity’s work is generated from admitting the public to the Palaces and Galleries where the Collection is displayed, and from Retail activities.    

We are committed to ensuring that no form of modern slavery, coerced labour or human trafficking is present within its own organisation or its supply chains.  By virtue of the locations in which we work, we carry out extensive security checks which also ensure that all staff are eligible to work in the UK.  The main area of our activity relevant to this policy is the procurement of goods and services in support of our operations, and the supply chains for our Retail activity.

We aim to conduct our commercial activities in an ethically, environmentally and socially responsible manner. We do not knowingly engage with suppliers of goods or services whose activities contravene our expected standards, and we require all suppliers to adopt the same approach to the management of their suppliers, employees and workers, and in the way they conduct business with third parties. 
  
A number of policies help to support and underpin compliance with the Modern Slavery Act.  Our organisation’s Procurement Policy requires suppliers, via questionnaires and tender exercises, to confirm that they will comply with all applicable laws, regulations and codes, including the Modern Slavery Act. We seek assurance that suppliers are not complicit in any form of slavery, either directly or through their own supply chains, including the use of forced, compulsory or trafficked labour, or any adults or children held in slavery or servitude. 

Our Safeguarding Policy establishes individual and collective responsibility for safeguarding across the organisation and sets out a code of conduct as a guide and minimum standard for all employees.    It outlines the steps to be followed when responding to concerns that individuals are at risk.  Our Disclosure and Concern at Work policy clarifies the protection offered to ‘whistle-blowers’ under the Public Interest Disclosures Act, and our Employee Assistance Programme ‘Care First’ provides an additional, third-party route for staff to report concerns and seek confidential support and advice on these matters.

Training is provided to staff in relation to these Policies.  Our Internal Audit programme reviews compliance with and application of these Policies on a cyclical basis.  Our Operations Board is responsible for the management of risk.  Our Risk Register is updated and amended regularly and reviewed formally by the Board every six months.  Our Audit and Risk Assurance Committee oversees the risk management process, assessing the scope and effectiveness of systems to identify and manage risk.

We will continue to review our policies and procedures to identify, prevent and mitigate any risks of modern slavery or human trafficking.  A Suppliers Charter is being developed for implementation in summer 2024.  It is anticipated that this will be accompanied by a supplier questionnaire and lead to an audit process, adjusted to be proportionate to company size. The Charter will cover the standards that we will seek to promote with all our suppliers, including those outlined above.     

This statement was reviewed and approved by the Royal Collection Trust Management Board on 2 April 2024.

 

Tim Knox, Director of the Royal Collection