Modern slavery is a violation of an individual’s basic human rights. As an SME Equinox Information Services is not covered by the Modern Slavery Act. However, Equinox IS recognises that as a commercial organisation it has a moral and social responsibility to take a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery in all forms. We undertake the following, which align with the Act:

• Open whistle-blowing culture
• Ensuring all prospective employees are legally entitled to work in the UK
• We do not work with any organisation, in the UK or abroad, which knowingly supports or is involved in slavery/servitude/compulsory labour
• Ensuring our procurement strategies and contract terms include references to modern slavery/human trafficking
• Ensuring that procurement/recruitment staff receive training on modern slavery/ethical employment practices

We are committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in our corporate activities and to ensuring that our supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking.

Organisational structure and supply chains

Equinox IS Ltd is a management consultancy business engaged in software engineering. The company is privately owned and limited by shareholding and operates in the UK with an affiliate entity in the EU.

In relation to Modern Slavery we consider:

• Our primary activities to be:
  • Professional consultancy on defining, building and operating software systems.
  • Software engineering personnel and teams
  • IT Engineering
• Our activities to be low risk as our staff and suppliers are highly skilled, very experienced and knowledgeable.
• The countries we operate in to be low risk.

Responsibility

Awareness is raised with all employees and suppliers through our newsletters and internal blog posts. Further awareness training is provided to all individuals involved directly in the above areas of responsibility.

Due diligence

We undertake due diligence when considering taking on new suppliers, and regularly review existing suppliers. This due diligence includes:

• evaluating the modern slavery risks of each new supplier as part of our onboarding process
• conducting supplier audits through Sedex where general risks are identified (see risks below)
• taking steps to improve substandard suppliers’ practices, including providing advice to suppliers through Sedex and requiring them to implement action plans