Introduction from the Vice-Chancellor
We are committed to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking. This Institution is committed to ethical conduct of all its activities and to making continuous improvements to its processes in that regard.
St George’s, University of London’s structure
We are the UK’s only university solely dedicated to medical and health sciences education, training and research co-located with St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust within St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South West London. We are a member institution of the University of London. We have a global annual turnover of £89.7million.
Our Institution
Our Institution is organised into 5 academic Institutes (Cardiovascular and Genomics Research Institute, Neurosciences and Cell Biology Research Institute, Institute of Infection and Immunity, Institute of Population Health and Institute of Medical and Biomedical Allied Education and Centre for Allied Health) supported by central Professional Services.
Our supply chains
Our procurement services are managed under contract by Kingston University. Our supply chains mainly fall within the following ‘top level' categories:
- Estates and facilities management (works, services and goods)
- ICT equipment and services
- Professional services
- Teaching materials
- Medical research
We are a member of the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) which has also published its own Modern Slavery Statement which details how they manage the modern slavery compliance for over 200 member institutions and organisations who procure through their frameworks which encompass nearly £230million spend across their framework agreements. We channel in excess of 30% of the value of our addressable spend through LUPC and agreements arranged by the other higher education purchasing consortia and public sector purchasing consortia. Full details of the LUPC’s modern slavery compliance is found here: lupc-mss-august-2022-jul-2023_final.pdf
The particular business and supply chains which may pose particular risks in terms of slavery are in facilities management, ICT and AV equipment, construction, and partnerships with overseas institutions in some jurisdictions. Our due diligence processes (below) minimise these risks, and our facilities management services are provided by an outsourced provider which is appointed via the LUPC and has therefore been scrutinised and complies with the LUPC requirements.
Our commitment to eradicating modern slavery
We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our Institution. Our ethos as a specialist medical and health sciences university teaching vocational courses which emphasise ethical conduct 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.
Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking
As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk we:
(a) Include a requirement for compliance with the Act in our due diligence process for the validation of new partners and include requirements for compliance with the Act in all our agreements with partners who supply our goods and services.
(b) Kingston University, which manages all our procurement for us, use a procurement tool where all new suppliers are requested to complete a questionnaire to confirm arrangements in place across supply chains. We also undertake much of our procurement via the LUPC which itself has publicly committed to tackling slavery and human rights abuses in its supply chains, and to acquiring goods and services for its members without causing harm to others. Full details of how the LUPC ensure compliance across their frameworks may be found on their website at https://www.lupc.ac.uk/modern-slavery
(c) The University also has a policy of not employing unpaid interns across its workforce although some students opt to volunteer to take part in activities in return for receiving the St George’s Skills and Recognition Award, an initiative intended to encourage students to broaden their horizons and get involved in activities such as acting as a year rep or peer tutor, attending career events or acting as a paid student ambassador or being active in a student society.
We have in place systems to:
(a) Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains
(b) Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains
(c) Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains
(d) Protect whistle blowers
Training
To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, the LUPC provide training to the Procurement team via an e-learning module on their website. Furthermore, the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) provide training to their members.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending July 2023.