Modern Slavery Statement

Modern Slavery Act Statement

Introduction

The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the ‘Act’) requires businesses to state the actions they have taken to ensure modern slavery is not taking place in its operations and supply chains. We are fully committed to playing our part in eradicating modern slavery and firmly advocate for transparency and collaboration from our suppliers to eliminate the risk of modern slavery.

This statement confirms the steps we have in place to prevent modern slavery in our business operations and supply chains, and our commitment to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking.

Organisation structure

HORTIUM Limited (hereinafter referred to together as ‘HORTIUM’) was established in 2016. HORTIUM is Software company delivering service compliance and analytics for the cloud. We are committed to operating our business in an ethical, legal and responsible manner and have a zero-tolerance stance to forced, involuntary labour, human trafficking or any other forms of slavery.

Our business

We operate Hortium Software as a Service model for analytics solution. Our customers range from small business owners, too large corporations and all in between.

HORTIUM has offices in the United Kingdom. Our head office is based in London, United Kingdom. Our structure consists one office. We are a growing, customer-driven business, that values professionalism, collaboration, innovation and fairness. The area of our business that presents the greatest risk to modern slavery are our production sites

and associated suppliers, which we acknowledge and keep under regular review.

Our supply chains

We have over 5 suppliers on record, with our direct suppliers predominantly based in the United Kingdom, United States and Europe. HORTIUM’s suppliers include suppliers of IT and communications, property, office cleaning and stationery.

HORTIUM expects our contractors, suppliers and other business partners to uphold high standards in all business practices. We will be conducting periodic supplier audits to determine which parts of our business and supply chain are most at risk of modern slavery, so that efforts can be focused on those areas.

Our policies on slavery and human trafficking

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in our business. Our Anti-Slavery Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships, and to implementing and enforcing effective anti-slavery and human trafficking systems and controls in our supply chains.

Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking

As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk, we will be carrying out an internal supplier audit process designed to rate the risk of modern slavery and/or human trafficking, using factors such as geographical location, operations and size of the business. A rating awarded to a supplier (marking them as high, medium or low risk) then acts as a guideline for HORTIUM in terms of what additional steps are required to ensure we will continue to engage with the supplier or before engagement.

This audit process will enable us to identify, assess and monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains.

Research shows that 78% of HORTIUM suppliers are based in the UK and are therefore obliged by law to meet the national minimum wage requirements and comply with UK legislation on modern slavery and human trafficking. For the remainder of our supplier group the locations vary from, United States, Europe and Australia. To date, through proactive internal processes we have not witnessed or been alerted to any concerns over human trafficking or slavery activities within our supply chain group. Should anything be brought to our attention we will act immediately in accordance with our legal and moral obligations.

Systems will be in place 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

 

Supplier Relationship

To ensure we gain the correct information from our suppliers, contractual provisions will be put in place to confirm their adherence to the Modern Slavery policy and our right to audit their activities and (where practicable) relationships, both routinely and at times of reasonable suspicion.

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 will be providing training to those staff who work directly with our suppliers.

Our effectiveness in combating slavery and human trafficking

Our general recruitment process requires each potential employee to have a written contract of employment in line with UK employment law. We verify each employee’s eligibility to work in the UK and also provide them with access to our Employee Handbook where they can review their statutory rights and enhanced entitlements. Within the Employee Handbook, HORTIUM employees can also find our discrimination and grievance policies, should they ever need to raise a concern.

HORTIUM employees will be trained to identify, where possible to prevent, and report modern slavery in any part of our business or supply chains. The HORTIUM Executive Team has overall responsibility for ensuring compliance with our policy. In addition to this, managers at all levels are responsible for ensuring those reporting to them understand the risks associated and the HORTIUM policy on all matters relating to modern slavery.

The Future

Our goal is to consolidate and maintain our approach and commitment to preventing modern slavery and human trafficking. It is intended that this will include:

  • The continuation of training for HORTIUM staff to ensure that they have a complete understanding of what modern slavery is and their This will especially be prominent in departments such as Product Design, Operations Management, Materials & Logistic Management, People and the Talent Acquisition Team. HORTIUM considers these to be the departments with the highest potential risk of coming into contact with modern slavery. However, HORTIUM’s policies apply to all members of staff which are provided to them within the Employee Handbook upon starting at HORTIUM and further explained within induction.
  • Publishing the HORTIUM Anti-Slavery Statement and the Anti-Slavery Policy on our intranet so that all employees can easily access the documents
  • Developing a working team to review the practices and policies we currently have in place
    Continue to work closely with our suppliers to ensure continued meeting of obligations in respect of modern slavery and human trafficking
  • Ensuring the development of our system where any reports of concerns or risks relating to modern slavery and human trafficking are tracked and appropriately resolved or escalated in a timely manner

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement.

Subject to Hortium’s standard terms and conditions found at www.hortium.com

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to admin@hortium.com.
You can also reach us by phone at +44 207 748 0100
Our registered office is Penrose House, 67 Hightown Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX16 9BE, United Kingdom.