Modern Slavery Act

This Statement is made pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 for the financial year ending 31 December 2022. This Statement sets out the steps that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and its subsidiaries have taken and are continuing to take to ensure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chains.

Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. RICS has a zerotolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all business dealings and to putting effective systems and controls in place to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within the business or our supply chain.

Our business

RICS is a global professional standards organisation working in Europe, Asia and the Americas with many and varied suppliers. RICS’ annual turnover is over the threshold for which the Modern Slavery Act applies.

Our policies

We operate several internal policies to ensure that we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner. These policies have been in force throughout the financial year and include:

• Anti-slavery policy. This policy sets out the organisation’s stance on modern slavery and explains how employees can identify any instances of this and where they can go for help.
• Recruitment policy. We continue to operate a robust recruitment policy, including conducting eligibility to work in the UK checks for all employees, to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against their will.
• Raising concerns policy. We operate a whistleblowing policy so that all employees know that they can raise concerns about how colleagues are being treated, or practices within our business or supply chain, without fear of reprisals.
• Procurement policy. We operate a procurement policy which maintains preferred suppliers lists and ensures appropriate due diligence is undertaken for all suppliers, including requiring that they abide by Modern Slavery and Anti Bribery and Corruption legislation.

Training

We regularly conduct training for our procurement/buying teams so that they understand the signs of modern slavery and what to do if they suspect that it is taking place within our supply chain.