Modern Slavery Statement
This statement is made pursuant to Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It outlines the steps taken by NEC Group [1] during the financial year ended on 31 March 2023 (“FY23”) as part of our commitment to uphold and implement high standards of governance and ethical behaviour across our business.
We are committed to ensuring that slavery is not taking place in any part of our operations or, to the maximum extent possible, in any of our supply chains and to acting ethically and with integrity in all of our business relationships.
Our business
NEC Group is the UK’s leading live events business operating in exhibitions, conferences, music, sports, family entertainment and hospitality.
Our vision is to be Europe’s most successful live events business, operating leading leisure, entertainment, and business destinations. We bring live to life.
Our venues include the NEC, ICC, Resorts World Arena, Utilita Arena Birmingham and the VOX Conference Centre. We also operate a national ticketing agency, The Ticket Factory, award winning caterer Amadeus and hospitality brand Amplify.
Our business is organised into three business units:
(i) Conventions & Exhibitions – which operates the NEC, ICC & VOX Conference Centre venues;
(ii) Arenas & Ticketing – which operates the Resorts World Arena and the Utilita Arena Birmingham venues and The Ticket Factory; and
(iii) Amadeus – which operates our catering business.
Our policies on slavery and human trafficking
We are committed to ensuring that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains or our business.
We also adhere to standards of responsible conduct and train employees to treat each other with respect, and to adhere to laws, regulations, and standards such as those referenced above.
Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking
We have a zero tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking. As part of the NEC Group’s due diligence process to identify and mitigate risks related to slavery and human trafficking, we put in place systems to:
(i) Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains;
(ii) Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains; and
(iii) Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains.
In addition, we have established policies and procedures in place to protect whistleblowers.
Supplier adherence to our values
We work with a large number of suppliers of goods and services, event organisers, concert promoters and operational support partners. To ensure that our supply chains comply with our policies, we continue to develop our supplier due diligence processes and require suppliers to provide compliance information as part of our tender and other purchasing processes.
Our purchasing arrangements require suppliers to comply generally with all applicable laws and statutory requirements. They also include contractual commitments relating to tackling the risk of bribery, corruption, and tax evasion in our supply chains.
We have a compliance team in relation to this policy, which consists of involvement from Procurement, Human Resources, Finance and Legal teams within NEC Group.
Our effectiveness in combating slavery and human trafficking
In line with our commitment to treat people fairly and to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our business, we are always looking to improve our processes and systems. In FY23, we have carried out the following action:
(i) We have received and reviewed 169 due diligence questionnaires from new suppliers as part of the new supplier risk assessment process that we introduced during the financial year ended 31 March 2022 (“FY22”). Of those 169 new suppliers, 22 were identified as potentially higher risk suppliers, in respect of which additional compliance checks and monitoring were put in place;
(ii) All new suppliers in FY23 have signed up to terms containing anti-slavery and human trafficking compliance obligations which were introduced following a review completed in FY22;
(iii) We have completed an annual review of our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy;
(iv) We have introduced a new ‘code of conduct’ as part of our new supplier request form, to bring together our key policies and values in respect of how we expect our suppliers to act in a fair and ethical way; and
(v) We have reviewed the benefits of a number of third party ‘supply chain risk management tools’ to assess whether the use of graph databases and AI-powered learning could further improve existing processes.
During the next financial year, we intend to take the following additional steps to combat slavery and human trafficking:
(i) We plan to monitor the success of the new ‘code of conduct’ and its inclusion as part of the wider new supplier request form, and to consider any appropriate revisions to the documentation and approach as may be identified whilst the new process is embedded in day to day procurement activity; and
(ii) We plan to continue beta testing in respect of a supply chain risk-management tool which forms part of a wider operational resilience solution.
Training
To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide training to our staff via our online training platform and monitor completion levels across the business on a monthly basis.
Board Approval
This statement was approved by the Board of Directors on 20 July 2023.
Paul Thandi
CEO, NEC Group
[1] References to NEC Group in this statement are to LHTCA New Holdco Limited (a Jersey company) and its subsidiary companies, including The National Exhibition Centre Limited (UK company registration number 979395).