EVRI LIMITED

Modern Slavery Statement 2022/23

Organisation structure and supply chain

This statement is made by Evri Limited. It is a statement made in accordance with Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and covers the financial year from 1 March 2022 to 28 February 2023. The statement also refers to activity we will be taking during our 2022/23 financial year.

Evri is the UK’s biggest dedicated parcel delivery company, delivering over 700 million parcels a year. We have a mission to be the most convenient way to send, receive and return parcels, without costing the earth. The roots of our business can be traced back to Yorkshire in 1974 and with exciting growth over the decades we now have a team of 8,000+ employees, 20,000+ couriers, 10,000+ out of home locations and a growing network of state-of-the-art hubs and depots.

Evri works with over 700 major retailers from small businesses to leading brands in the UK and across the world as we continue to expand our international and fulfilment offering. We also deliver for consumers through our www.evri.com website.

We engage a range of third-party suppliers to provide goods, services and labour to us (our “Suppliers”). These Suppliers include suppliers of fleet vehicles, parcel sortation equipment, mobile scanning hardware and software and cloud-based technology as well as customer service and warehouse workers and HGV drivers via agencies.

We also engage self-employed individuals to provide courier services on our behalf such as our final mile couriers, those who operate ParcelShops and/or provide delivery unit operational services (collectively, our “Service Providers”).

We are committed to the sustainable development of our business in a way that reconciles economic success with the social wellbeing of individuals that are employed by us or are involved in the provision of services to us.

We understand that slavery, human trafficking, servitude and forced labour (“Modern Slavery”) is a global and increasing challenge for governments and business.

Policies and Contractual Terms on Slavery and Human Trafficking

We recognise our responsibility to be aware of the risk of modern slavery within our own organisation and supply chain.

We introduced our Code of Conduct (“the Code”) in 2016 and launched an updated version in 2021

The Code acts as the cornerstone of our Social Compliance strategy which includes audits, complaints procedure and a whistleblowing process and is based on ethical, moral and legal principles providing a framework for all that we do.

Our Suppliers and Service Providers can expect us to comply with the law, observe ethical standards and act as a fair business partner. In turn, we expect our Suppliers and Service Providers to apply the same standards. We make an unambiguous commitment in the Code to treat our Service Providers and suppliers with dignity and respect.

The Code defines what modern slavery means and makes clear that it is prohibited in our operations and supply chain. Evri and our employees will not engage in, facilitate, or fail to report any activity that might lead to, or suggest, a breach of our Code in this respect. Likewise, our Suppliers and Service Providers must not engage in, facilitate, or fail to report any activity that might lead to, or suggest, a breach of those principles.

The Code includes a complaints procedure under which alleged breaches of the Code can be raised and will then be investigated.

We also have our modern slavery policy, updated in 2022, which is applicable across our entire business and sets out our commitment to ensuring transparency in our business and our approach to tackling modern slavery.

All new employees undergo all the legally required pre-employment checks to ensure identity is correct and that there is the full right to work in the UK and are all paid the National Living Wage or above, regardless of age.

Due diligence processes

To seek to prevent slavery and trafficking in our business and supply chains we send a copy of our Code of Conduct to any company applying to work with Evri through a formal tender process. The Code forms a part of the contract we have with Suppliers and our contracts include an obligation to comply with the Code.

We would eliminate from a tender process any company who does not share our values and who chooses not to sign up to the Code as part of a contract.

New third-party relationships are subject to specific questioning regarding compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the Code; and we have modified our procurement procedures to address the risk of slavery and trafficking.

Training on modern slavery and trafficking

All Evri employees are required to complete mandatory online training to ensure they are aware of modern slavery and know the signs to look out for in identifying it.

As well as the mandatory online training for all employees, we have worked with the Slave Free Alliance to develop more detailed and specific training for those employees within our operation who are engaging with self-employed Service Providers daily.

Performance in 2022/23:

  • Continued our membership of the Slave Free Alliance (SFA), a social enterprise and membership initiative, to provide advice and support for businesses working towards a slave free supply chain.
  • Updated our modern slavery and human trafficking policy, with support from the Slave Free Alliance and promoted the new policy throughout the business, demonstrating how seriously Evri takes this issue.
  • Developed a robust process for reporting modern slavery concerns, setting out how concerns will be handled internally and will be escalated to appropriate external agencies.
  • Trained over 150 line managers and supervisors on recognising the signs of modern slavery and how to deal with concerns during instructor-led training sessions.
  • Introduced new and updated modern slavery training.
  • Actively took part in 2022 Modern Slavery Awareness Week with a structured internal campaign.
  • Used specialist auditors to audit Evri sites for compliance with the Code of Conduct. Alongside this where a site is owned and run by a third-party contractor, we have commenced an audit process to assess the compliance of those sites with the Code. Any issues would be flagged as a matter of urgent priority to the relevant board level director to ensure action is taken immediately.
  • Slave Free Alliance carried out a full review of procurement ‘health check’ which was further reviewed in January 2023 to check we have robust processes in place. This covered a number of processes including, but not limited to: onboarding new suppliers, ensuring appropriate right to work checks are conducted by labour agencies, conducting checks to ensure suppliers are complying with our Code of Conduct.
  •  We have implemented Joinedup Agency Management System which now plays a pivotal role in combatting modern slavery by facilitating rigorous oversight of agency contracts, temporary colleagues, and supports audit activity.
  • Improved our Labour provider audit process with clearer structure. Online and physical audits are carried out to cover a number of areas, including but not limited to, Right to Work compliance verifying bank details and identifying cases of multiple occupants, in order to detect and prevent any potential exploitation or abuse in the workplace

During 2023/24 we plan to:

  • Provide specialist training and support to our internal modern slavery ‘Escalation Team’ through Slave Free Alliance to ensure our business can effectively coach, support and respond to any modern slavery concerns.
  • Work with Slave Free Alliance to further review our Labour Provider audit process and implement any recommendations to ensure this is a robust and meaningful process taking into consideration known changes in modern slavery trends.
  • Revisit our 2019 SLA audit and devise a new 3-year plan based on current and potential business activities which will include recommended actions from our procurement ‘health check’ earlier in 2023.
  • Further update our Code of Conduct policy to align with planned changes to our Whistleblowing Policy and processes as a further mechanism to allow our employees and to raise any concerns relating to modern slavery.
  • Continue with our Internal Audit process across our third-party Delivery Units to ensure compliance with our Code of Conduct.
  • Establish a cross functional modern slavery working group to continuously review and improve upon our practices to reduce the risk of Modern Slavery in our business and supply chain.
  • Training -more than e learning in higher risk areas, which includes learning tailored for operational staff based in sites most likely to have temporary labour which could pose a higher risk.
  • Ensure all Service Providers have completed a right to work check as part of their onboarding process.

This annual Modern Slavery Statement is hereby approved by the Executive Committee of Evri Limited.

Carl Lyon

COO

30 October 2023