This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “Act”) and sets out the steps the Company has taken to ensure that slavery, human trafficking and child labour is not taking place in our supply chains or in any part of our business.
Our Business
We help to give our customers the power to assess, predict and to plan so they may achieve their goals and navigate the world with confidence. Our expertise in data, analytics and technologies, means we give answers, we create coherence and clarity from complexity.
Every day, our data and analytics are helping people and businesses to achieve more; individuals to access the financial services they need; people to protect their identities and lives; and economies and societies to flourish.
smarter and quicker decisions
identity and standing
more people get the services they need
to our communities and society
We aim to have a positive effect on the communities in which we live and work. From teaching unemployed young people the interview skills they need to get a job, to helping charities expand so they can feed and shelter even more people, we’re using our expertise to make a difference.
At the same time, how we work is as important as what we do. We recognise that our work carries with it an enormous responsibility, and our guiding principle is to treat everyone fairly and their data with respect.
We’ve been around for more than 125 years, and we’re growing. We’re investing in the future, through new technologies, talented people and new innovative products – all to help create a better tomorrow.
Experian plc operates its business through its subsidiaries globally, the majority of which are wholly owned. A list of the regions in which we are operate can be found at https://www.experianplc.com/contact-us/region. We have a well-developed system of internal authorities, controls and policies within the Group. Experian plc and its subsidiaries employ approximately 17,000 people in 44 countries. The Group corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Carlos, Brazil.
Each year Experian Group companies spend c$1.5bn with external vendors on goods and services. The majority of this spend is on IT, professional services, data and marketing. Given the nature of Experian’s business we believe the risk of modern slavery in Experian’s supply chain is low compared with businesses operating in other sectors.
Our supply base is heavily weighted towards service based providers rather than the purchase of manufactured goods. Most of the manufactured goods that we do purchase are purchased from large multinational corporations who have their own supply chain principles and ethical standards in addition to agreeing to ours where appropriate.
The use of service provider contractors in our organisation is largely within our facilities support area, comprising security guards, caterers and cleaners. In addition, the Experian also uses IT contractors. We do not generally enter into individual arrangements for any of these roles and contract via reputable large facilities management and specialist IT resourcing companies respectively. We consider these areas to be a higher risk in our business and as such ensure deeper due diligence is undertaken during the procurement process (which may include desktop or onsite visits and observations of the workforce providing such services).
On the basis set out above, we believe the risk of modern slavery in our supply chain is low, however, we are not complacent and will continue to focus on improving our procedures and policies to ensure that there is no modern slavery in the Experian supply chain. This year we continued to work with the Slave Free Alliance https://www.slavefreealliance.org, a global movement working towards a slave-free supply chain on improving our own processes and creating a better tomorrow for those who may be subjected to modern slavery.
Experian does not tolerate any form of modern slavery or human trafficking whether internally or within our supply chain and the leadership team are aware of the risks of modern slavery.
Our employees:
Due Diligence
When starting a new relationship with a supplier, we:
With our existing suppliers, we randomly select a sample and assess their processes and procedures in place around several areas, including compliance with ethical standards (which includes modern slavery).
We have carried out a desktop assessment of our current suppliers in the UK and Ireland and selected those we believe are more exposed to potential modern slavery risks.
A questionnaire was sent that included a series of questions to ascertain the supplier’s knowledge, approach and policies relating to modern slavery risks in their business. This included reviewing their modern slavery statements and supporting policies where available. We then scored these responses. Where we had concerns with their responses and a low score was achieved, we followed up with either a face to face interview or telephone conference to discuss these further, and for a plan to alleviate and address our concerns.
Follow up calls or meetings are held with suppliers to ensure that they had delivered on their plans to address our concerns.
A global briefing note on modern slavery has been issued to all staff via our internal intranet. This highlights what modern slavery is, and how employees should report any suspicions and findings.
An updated briefing note will be distributed to all staff at least once annually.
All members of the global procurement team have attended face to face training on modern slavery. This explains the purpose of the Act, Experian’s approach and what members of the procurement team should do if they suspect or uncover any form of modern slavery in our supply chain.
This training will be provided to our global procurement team again in 2020.
Slave Free Alliance have undertaken a review of our approach to modern slavery within our business, including a review of our Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement, our internal processes and policies, and our supplier contract language. Following this review, which also included a face to face meeting in June 2019, we have developed a three year plan to review and build on our existing policies and processes with the aim to create a better tomorrow for individuals by helping to prevent and detect modern slavery.
Working with the Slave Free Alliance we’re continuing to raise awareness both amongst our employees and partners. We have installed six Freedom Walls in offices across the UK and Ireland which provide a constant visual reminder of the challenge modern slavery presents and our commitment to fighting it.
Our charitable partnership with Hope for Justice has enabled their advocacy team to support 300 victims of modern slavery to start to rebuild their lives. We will continue this partnership in the next 12 months to help a further 400 victims with issues ranging from access to housing, legal advice, counselling services, etc. We are also partnering with UN Universities to create a data sandbox designed to identify vulnerabilities in supply chains.
We have embarked on a pilot to rebuild the financial identities of victims of modern slavery, who have often been victims of financial abuse. We are streamlining the authentication process to take account of the particular circumstances of victims of modern slavery, supplying credit reports and investigating fraudulent accounts with relevant lenders.
All our standard procurement contract templates contain consistent ethical contractual obligations globally and we continue to require such clauses in both our procurement contracts and in supplier agreements.
During the year ended 31 March 2020, the Global Head of Internal Audit has confirmed that no calls were received concerning modern slavery in our supply chain to our global confidential helpline.
This statement is approved by the Experian Limited Board and signed on its behalf by:
Jose Luiz Rossi
Director
Experian Limited
Date: 18 May 2020