SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING STATEMENT 2021
INTRODUCTION
Slavery is a violation of fundamental human rights and a crime. The British Standards Institution (“BSI”) has azero-tolerance approach to slavery which includes servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking.
We are committed to ensuring that no practices of modern slavery take place at BSI, whether directly or within
our supply chain. BSI published its first statement in 2017.
This Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement applies to BSI and its subsidiaries and therefore includes The
British Standards Institution (the parent company of the BSI Group), BSI Assurance UK Limited and BSI
Standards Limited which are the three UK companies required to report on compliance with the Modern Slavery
Act (2015). Details of all BSI companies can be found on the BSI website www.bsigroup.com.
This Statement summarizes the steps taken between 1 January and 31 December 2020 to prevent modern
slavery in our business and supply chains, and is made in accordance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act
2015 on behalf of the British Standards Institution, BSI Assurance UK Limited and BSI Standards Limited.
OUR BUSINESS AND SUPPLY CHAINS
BSI is the business standards company that enables organizations to turn standards of best practice into
habits of excellence, ‘inspiring trust for a more resilient world’. It was founded in 1901 and, reflecting its
public interest aims, was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1929. For over a century BSI has driven bestpractice in organizations around the world. Working with 84,000 clients across 195 countries, it is a truly
global business with skills and experience across all sectors including automotive, aerospace, built
environment, food and retail and healthcare. Through its expertise in Standards and Knowledge Solutions,
Assurance Services, Regulatory Services and Consulting Services, BSI helps clients to improve theirperformance, grow sustainably, manage risk and ultimately become more resilient.
BSI employs over 5,000 people in 32 countries and has an annual turnover of £539 million. In 2020, BSI worked
with over 3,500 direct vendors that provide a variety of products and services. This figure excludes individuals
who work for BSI as contractors rather than employees (External Resource). Geographically, our suppliers
extend around the world with no specific concentration in any one country.
OUR POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
We are committed to ensuring that sustainability is an intrinsic element of BSI’s decision-making, activity andculture. BSI is proud to be a participant in the UN Global Compact and we have aligned our approach with theUN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) to achieve a better, more sustainable future for BSI, our clientsand society.

Our Code of Business Ethics and our Sustainability Code both confirm BSI’s commitment to conducting itself
fairly, honestly and lawfully and affirm our zero tolerance approach to modern slavery. A requirement of ourGroup Procurement Policy is that our suppliers must adhere to our Sustainability Code. The BSI Procurement
team is responsible for monitoring compliance and the Internal Audit and Risk team is responsible forinvestigating possible breaches of these policies.
Due to the nature of our organization, the vast majority of our employees need to be highly skilled. Our
Recruitment and Selection Policy enables us to attract, recruit and select the most suitable candidates. We
operate a Grievance Policy and associated procedures, and provide a confidential free whistleblowing service
to encourage internal and external stakeholders to “Speak Up”. This service is available in over 170 languages
and enables anonymous reporting of failure or suspected failure to comply with the BSI Code of Business
Ethics or our Sustainability Code. Stakeholders are encouraged to make reports, when they see fit to do so,using the telephone service or web portal, the details of which are on the BSI website. All bona fide reports ofnon-compliance or unlawful behaviour (anonymous or otherwise) are investigated. BSI has zerotolerance for retaliation against anyone who speaks up in good faith.
DUE DILIGENCE, ASSESSMENT OF MODERN SLAVERY RISK AND TRAINING
We believe the risk of slavery within our own business is low due to the nature of services BSI offers. We are
not complacent, however. During 2020 we took the following actions to prevent slavery in our own business:•

provided mandatory training on our Code of Business Ethics to all employees and External Resource•

actively continued to promote our Code of Business Ethics to employees, through our on-boarding processand internal communications•included modern slavery considerations in the internal audits we have undertaken•

continued our global “Speak Up” internal awareness campaign to promote anonymous reporting of anyissues

BSI’s primary risk of slavery issues lies within our supply chains. During 2020 we took the following actions toprevent slavery in our supply chains:•included modern slavery awareness training as part of the Introduction to Sustainability e-learning course
issued to all employees and External Resource•sent a dedicated communication to suppliers regarding our Sustainability Code affirming our approach tomodern slavery•

expanded the above communication to request all existing suppliers for catering, cleaning, security and leaseservices, our high-risk suppliers, to attest to the Sustainability Code via our own Supply ComplianceManagement (SCM) tool•

started to conduct enhanced sustainability due diligence on new high-risk suppliers•

continued to identify and implement any required improvements with suppliers

Through its consultancy services BSI also continues to assist clients to address Modern Slavery risk within their
supply chains.

KPIs and NEXT STEPSIn our previous statement BSI committed to report on the following:
ActionPerformance

Employee training

Over 95 per cent of employees globally have confirmed theirunderstanding of the Code of Business Ethics

Communication with suppliers

Annual communication sent to over 95 per cent of suppliers
globallyInvestigations and remedial action

No reports of modern slavery within our own business or supply
chain.

In 2021, we will:•continue to conduct enhanced due diligence on new high-risk suppliers•track how many of our high-risk suppliers have policies and processes in place to prevent modern slavery
using our SCM tool•

deliver in depth workshops with targeted groups to further understand the risks of modern slavery

To assess the effectiveness of the measures taken, we will continue to report on:•

percentage of employees trained;•

percentage of suppliers with whom we have communicated globally; and•number of investigations undertaken into reports of modern slavery and remedial action taken.

This statement has been approved by the BSI Group Board.

Susan Taylor Martin
Chief Executive