This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes Red Carnation Hotels’, as part of The Travel Corporation, slavery and human trafficking statement for 2019.
Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. It takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person's liberty by another in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain. We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and we are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own business or in any of our supply chains.
We are also committed to ensuring there is transparency in our own business and in our approach to tackling modern slavery throughout our supply chains, consistent with our disclosure obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Company's structure
We are a worldwide travel group compromising of over 41 leading international travel and tourism companies and 30 award-winning brands. Our portfolio ranges from luxury hotels and boutique river cruises, to independent holiday packages and a variety of guided travel experiences. The Group has over 10,000 team members in 40 sales offices and operates in seventy countries.
Our supply chains
We have a long-standing relationship with a majority of our supply chains (both in the UK and other jurisdictions) which encompass, airlines, hotel chains, coach, restaurant and attractions companies.
Our policies on slavery and human trafficking
We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our Anti-slavery 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.
We have a number of other policies that are related to the prevention of modern slavery including Anti-Bribery Policy, Whistleblowing Policy and Equal Opportunities Policy.
Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking
We have in place systems to:
- Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains.
- Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains.
- Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains.
- Protect whistle blowers.
We thoroughly check supply chains to ensure the potential for slavery and human trafficking is significantly reduced, we tell the companies we do business with that we are not prepared to accept any form of exploitation. We ensure we know who is providing goods and services to us and we have mechanisms and processes in place to check, including risk assessing suppliers.
Supplier adherence to our values
We have zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking. To ensure all those in our supply chain and contractors comply with our values we have in place a supply chain compliance programme. We expect the same high standards from all of our contractors, suppliers and other business partners in relation to the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and as part of our contracting processes, we include specific prohibitions against the use of forced, compulsory or trafficked labour, or anyone held in slavery or servitude, whether adults or children, and we expect that our suppliers will hold their own suppliers to the same high standards.
Training
To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide training to our staff.
Further steps
Following a review of the effectiveness of the steps we have taken this year to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains we intend to take the following further steps to combat slavery and human trafficking: further strengthen and promote awareness amongst staff by providing annual reminders and seek to require our business partners to provide training to their staff and suppliers.