WE USE COOKIES TO TRACK USAGE AND PREFERENCES. READ MORE CLOSE Home TOGGLE MOBILE MENU TOGGLE SEARCH Breadcrumb About us Reports & statements Modern slavery statement Our modern slavery statement for the financial year 2020/21. Statement The Crick is strongly opposed to slavery and human trafficking. The Crick is committed to better understanding its supply chains and working towards greater transparency and responsibility towards people working within them. We will continue to monitor and work with our service partners to encourage more of them to commit to managing the risks to humans in their supply chains. We have continued to identify and assess the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking during the Covid-19 pandemic. This statement was approved and published by the Crick Board of Trustees and will continue to be reviewed at least annually. Lord Browne of Madingley Chairman The Francis Crick Institute Sir Paul Nurse Director The Francis Crick Institute Financial year 2020/21 Introduction This statement sets out the steps taken by the Crick, and the steps it proposes to take, to identify, prevent and mitigate the risks associated with modern slavery across the institute. It is made pursuant to the requirements of section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the "Act") and it constitutes the Crick's slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ended 31 March 2021. About us The Francis Crick Institute (the "Crick") is a biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work is helping to understand why disease develops and to translate discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases. Our organisation The Crick is a registered charity. An independent organisation, its founding partners are UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Cancer Research UK, The Wellcome Trust, University College London, Imperial College London and King's College London. Overall responsibility for setting the strategic direction of the institute lies with its Board. An executive management team led by Sir Paul Nurse is responsible for leading the organisation and implementing its scientific vision and research strategy. The Crick is committed to acting ethically, with integrity and transparency across its supply chain. We have, and continue to put in place, appropriate processes intended to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within our procurement, supply chain or contract management operations. High-risk areas and spend categories The Crick's workforce comprises highly educated professional occupations and the Crick does not directly employ staff in categories typically deemed to be vulnerable to modern slavery in the UK. The focus of the Crick is, therefore, on its supply chain and on ensuring there are appropriate safeguards in place in our relationships with contractors and suppliers. The key areas in our supply chain are scientific equipment, laboratory consumables, IT equipment and services, professional services and building services. Within these broad areas, the principal categories carrying material risks are laboratory consumables, ICT equipment and office supplies and some estates services, such as cleaning and security. Our approach The Crick is committed to acquiring goods and services without causing any harm to others. As such, we remain committed to the UK Government's National Action Plan, updated in May 2020, to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We take a multifaceted approach which includes: Modern Slavery Statement - this statement publicly sets out the Crick's stance on modern slavery and our continuous work to develop in this area. Recruitment Policy - we operate a robust recruitment policy, including conducting eligibility to work in the UK checks for all employees to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against their will. Whistleblowing Policy - we operate a whistleblowing policy so that all employees know that they can raise concerns about how colleagues are being treated, or practices within our business or supply chain, without fear of reprisals. This is supported by a Speak Up ‘hotline’ that was launched in early 2021. Sourcing Policy - this policy covers the acquisition of all goods and services from external sources, by the Crick and any of its subsidiaries, whether or not for financial consideration. Sourcing and risk mitigation The sourcing process at the Crick plays an important role in our approach to combat modern slavery in our supply chain. Sourcing projects follow one of three paths, an in-house tendering and contracting process, or a collaborative route through purchasing consortia, or direct negotiations with strategic partners. For areas of our supply chain where we believe there is a significant risk of modern slavery, our in-house tendering and contracting process allows us to identify those risks. For example, questions at the assessment stage that may provide grounds for exclusion from the tendering and contracting process for non-compliance. The Crick is a member of the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) which works with vendors in supply chains with higher risks for human rights violations, such as IT and office supplies, to encourage more suppliers to commit to the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code. LUPC also periodically reports on specific areas of the supply chain relevant to the Crick. To mitigate the risk posed to third party service contracts, we ensure that all supply chain partners commit to paying the London Living Wage to all staff working at the Crick, with the exception of apprentices. The Crick Sourcing Policy was updated in February 2021 to include an expanded list of duties for Crick staff undertaking sourcing activity. This includes considering the potential for modern slavery risks within individual purchases. Continuous review We will continue our commitment to better understand our supply chains and to work towards greater transparency and responsibility towards people working within them. This is underpinned with a robust supplier relationship management process (SRM) and a nominated champion for the Sourcing team to lead on improvements to the procurement process. We will augment our SRM with steps to ensure that, where appropriate, modern slavery risks are monitored as part of our business as usual approach to supplier relationship management. We will do this with our key suppliers across all categories which are deemed as carrying an inherent material modern slavery risk. We recognise modern slavery awareness as a training need to develop wider awareness across the Crick and will take steps to ensure that the Sourcing team has the required knowledge to be able to influence decision making throughout the purchasing cycle. We will develop a standalone Responsible Sourcing Policy which will cover modern slavery risks alongside some meaningful targets. In light of the rapidly changing landscape, we will be looking out for any new or increased modern slavery risks, or the need to reconsider the prioritisation of previously identified risks in our operations and supply chain. Share the page Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share on Email The Francis Crick Institute is a unique partnership between CONTACT US The Francis Crick Institute 1 Midland Road London NW1 1AT +44 (0)20 3796 0000 info@crick.ac.uk Send us a message GALLERY OPENING TIMES We’re delighted to be welcoming back more visitors to the Crick, and have put measures in place to keep our staff, students and visitors safe. Check our COVID-19 response page for our latest information. 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