Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
Introduction
Strawberry Star Group Limited does not tolerate modern slavery or human trafficking in our organisation, companies, supply chains, and vendors. This statement sets out the steps taken to identify the areas within the business that may be exposed to these risks and how it ensures they are eliminated, as far as possible.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 by Strawberry Star Group and other relevant companies. The Act requires that businesses with a turnover of more than £36 million disclose information regarding their policies and actions over the financial year to eradicate modern human slavery and trafficking from their operations and supply chain. This is our yearly statement on slavery and human trafficking.
All the companies are integral to Strawberry Star’s business. Strawberry Star Group is a specialist provider of property investment and property management services to local and international investors in the London market, including Capital, Acquisitions, Development, Homes, Sales, Lettings and Management.
The Group’s head office and branch office are located at Sky Gardens, Nine Elms, London and at Hoola, Royal Docks, London. The Group and its companies employ over 75 members or staff.
Supply Chains
Our suppliers include services to assist our customers and businesses. These include:
- Suppliers of professional services, such as, IT, legal, insurance, human resources, immigration, accountancy, web hosting and maintenance, creative support, public relations, publishing and printing, postal delivery, door-to-door delivery, property marketing portals, advertising agencies, board and signage companies, and SEO specialists
- Channel partners, such as sales and lettings agents, mortgage advisers, accountants, community influencers, investment advisors, third-party consultants, financial services companies, corporate real estate companies, pension advisers, IT contractors, and franchises
- Catering and cleaning
- Office services (fitters, repairs, maintenance)
- Telecom providers
- Local authorities
- Charitable institutions
- Services that we procure to assist our customers and businesses include all the above across all sectors of property services.
Policy on Slavery and Human Trafficking
The Board of Directors has examined the risk of modern slavery within the Group and its companies. The Board of Directors considers the instance of modern slavery to be low. This assessment is based upon the nature of the business which is a service, based in and operating almost exclusively within London, UK. The Group’s standard practice is to check that prospective
Employees have the right to work in the UK.
Where we work with suppliers, these are generally organisations with strong reputations and good business practices. As an organisation with global best practices and high standards of corporate governance, we are committed to conducting our business with honesty and integrity by upholding transparency and ethics. We adopt and promote a culture of honesty and integrity within the Group and its companies, encouraging our staff to report any illegal activities, suspected wrong-doing or malpractice, including suspected slavery or trafficking issues, at the earliest.
Due Diligence
We vet parties who work with us and we expect them to adhere to our policy and principles, especially those related to Slavery and Human Trafficking. We are committed to ensuring that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our organisation or our supply chain. We continue to monitor our supply chain. In the event that we are aware of a modern slavery or trafficking issue within our supply chain we will make every effort to remedy the issue. Before we enter into a contract with a supplier, we issue them with our Supplier Code of Conduct or suitable Guidelines, as part of which they are made aware of our slavery and trafficking principles and our overall approach to environmental and social governance.
Like many companies striving to manage the challenges of complex supply chains and lack of transparency, we continue to develop more effective ways to uncover areas in our supply chains where the risks of modern slavery are greatest.
Internal Accountability & Training
We continue to strengthen our policy by reviewing and reinforcing the steps we take to vet both existing and new suppliers, adopting a risk-based approach, to reduce as far as possible the risk of slavery and human trafficking anywhere in our supply chains.
Through periodical training, we ensure that all of our staff understand the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking to our business and supply chains and that they are aware that such practices will not be tolerated.
Next Steps
Modern slavery is illegal in every country, but the signs are often very difficult to identify. We recognise that collaboration with clients, suppliers and NGOs will help strengthen our ability to mitigate that risk in an effective way. Our efforts to collaborate on modern slavery issues and share an open, transparent dialogue with our clients and similar businesses are progressing. We continue to look for other opportunities to partner with our clients and key suppliers to address risks in our supply chains and develop best practices for ongoing monitoring and remediation.
Our management representatives will participate in modern slavery forums. Our goals are to continue raising awareness, evolving best practices and enhancing consistency in our approach for our businesses facing the most risk, and to make eradicating modern slavery as much a part of our business as our sustainability efforts.
Approval
This statement was approved by the Boards of Strawberry Star Group Limited (Registration 11546874) and its subsidiary companies.
