Edinburgh Napier University Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement
Year ending 31st July 2022

Introduction

This statement is made pursuant to section 54 (1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the steps that Edinburgh Napier University has taken during the financial year ending 31st July 2022 to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in our supply chains or in any part of our business.  This statement will be reviewed annually.

Edinburgh Napier University Structure, Business & Supply Chain

Our purpose is to deliver high quality education and research and to add value to the social, cultural and economic capital of the communities we serve.  We work at the leading edge of our academic disciplines in research, pedagogy and professional practice, developing highly valued graduates and delivering research outcomes that together transform communities.

Edinburgh Napier is an international university, home to over 21,000 students from 100 countries.  We are also a leader in transnational education and the largest UK provider of higher education in Hong Kong.

Edinburgh Napier University is a member of the Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC) Ltd, the Procurement centre for expertise for Scotland’s Universities and Colleges.  The University benefits from its close links with APUC in a number of areas within sustainable and responsible Procurement.
 

Our Categories

We contract with our suppliers for works, good and services in each of the six categories aligned to APUC’s category structure:

  • Estates;
  • Information Services;
  • Laboratory;
  • Human Resources;
  • Professional Services; and
  • Libraries.

Edinburgh Napier University employs a central procurement team of two full-time and four part-time members of staff which includes the following roles: Head of Procurement, Deputy Head of Procurement, three Operational Procurement Managers and one Procurement Co-ordinator.  Each team member acts as a Procurement Client Partner for a group of Schools and Departments.  The embedded procurement team is employed directly by APUC, as part of an extended shared service agreement. Through this approach the University benefits from the flow of sustainable procurement best practice to internal procurement processes.

A significant proportion of our procurement is with suppliers who are pre-approved either by a purchasing consortium or through public tenders managed by our procurement team.  In relation to vetted suppliers, we use collaborative framework agreements put in place by APUC or other sectoral and national procurement consortia.

Organisational Policies

We are committed to acquiring goods and services for our use without causing harm to others and are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships.

The University has adopted tools and practices from APUC to address modern slavery and human trafficking.  For all open tenders with a contract value above the Scottish Government threshold, the University uses the APUC template tender document (which includes full sustainable procurement references and a Modern Slavery Act compliance question).  As part of the tendering process, the University also adopts the amended Sustain Supply Chain Code of Conduct (whose principles cover Social Compliance including suitable and fair working conditions, Ethical and Environmental Compliance as well as Economic Development).

By signing and submitting to the Code of Conduct, bidders acknowledge their compliance with these principles.  The code also requires suppliers to the University to ensure that their own suppliers adhere to the same principles, to enforce and promote these practices throughout their own supply chain.   

In addition, for all open tenders with a contract value above the EU threshold, we require bidders to complete the Single Procurement Document (Scotland).  In completing this, bidders declare that they have not committed any offence under Part 1 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 or under any provision referred to in the Schedule in that Act.

Living Wage

One of the key policies that the University formally implemented over the last year was the UK Living Wage Accreditation.  The University already met the UK Living Wage pay thresholds for all staff however as part of the formal accreditation, the University now includes all contracted workers/suppliers that regularly work on our premises (more than 2 hours in any given day in a week for 8 consecutive weeks) within the same pay thresholds.    A project was carried out to identify and negotiate in-scope contracts to ensure implementation of Living Wage rates throughout our supply chain.  The University has ensured that employees earn a fair wage that meets the costs of living, not just the Government minimum.

Due diligence, risk assessment and response

Edinburgh Napier University carries out a variety of due diligence checks across the organisation including with external partners it works with. This includes for instance pre-agreement checks and questionnaires in relation to overseas student recruitment agents, and contracts which set out clearly the University’s expectations on the services (and limits to them) delivered to students.

As Edinburgh Napier University uses many national and sectoral framework agreements to let contracts, it is also relevant that APUC have undertaken prioritisation on framework agreements either led or promoted by APUC, to understand the key sustainable procurement risks and opportunities for each agreement, which includes possible labour concerns. This helps APUC to assess which agreements and suppliers should be audited on compliance with its Sustain Supply Chain Code of Conduct.

Further to this, Edinburgh Napier University Procurement team have undertaken their own assessment on contracted suppliers where spend is classed as influenceable.   This is a 13-point risk assessment where suppliers are entered into the matrix and risk scored against a number of categories such as financial risk, supply chain vulnerability, sustainability, modern slavery and living wage checks.

To assess suppliers’ compliance with the Sustain Supply Chain Code of Conduct, the procurement team access Supply Chain Management (SCM) - the APUC web-based sustainable procurement tool which links to the contracts database containing contracts/agreements used by the whole sector.   ENU Suppliers have been invited to complete the Part 1 question set which allows the University to verify that its contractors have published their own Modern Slavery statements.  The tool assesses suppliers over a variety of achievement/compliance levels in social, ethical, economic and environmental areas, including recruitment processes and employment terms for workforces.  The assessments are carried out by SA8000 trained staff within APUC’s Development and Sustainability team. The tool enables procurement managers to view the status of their suppliers, and for sub tier suppliers to be linked/assessed. Part 2 involved increasing the transparency around suppliers’ responsible business performance and APUC has chosen EcoVadis, a global Corporate Social Responsibility rating company based on international standards, to conduct individual sustainability performance assessments across all relevant areas of our supplier / supply chain community. Suppliers receive a sustainability scorecard from EcoVadis with detailed insights into their strengths along with opportunities for improvement. The roll out of the service to the collaborative team started in August 2021 and has been made further available to client institutions to use with Edinburgh Napier University being one of the early adopters to use the service.

By virtue of its membership of APUC, Edinburgh Napier University is a Consortium Affiliate Member of Electronics Watch, an independent monitoring organisation working to achieve respect for labour rights in the global electronics industry through socially responsible public purchasing in Europe. 

The main areas that have been highlighted by the sector as being potentially high risk in terms of Modern Slavery are those with a greater percentage of agency workers or outsourced services such as Construction, Hospitality and Cleaning Services.  To address this, the University has taken additional steps within our local agreements which may fall into a higher risk category. 

With regards to staffing departments where there is a high risk of modern slavery and human trafficking Edinburgh Napier University employs directly nearly all catering, cleaning and security staff on our main campuses with the exception of cleaning in Student Accommodation. These areas are managed by Property and Facilities Services via dedicated team leaders.

Training

Due to Covid-19 there have been limited opportunities for the Procurement team to take part in face-to-face training sessions however regular online webinar and training sessions were attended either with or via APUC in relation to Responsible Procurement. 

In addition to the HEPA (Higher Education Procurement Association) Modern Slavery training, members of the Procurement team continue to take part in all relevant training and awareness raising sessions organised by the sector.  

The Procurement team continues to have representation on both the APUC Sustainable Procurement Leaders Group & Climate Emergency Procurement Working Group (SPLG & CEPWG) and the HEPA Responsible Procurement Group.  The SPLG & CEPWG brings together representatives from APUC members as well as all Heads of Category to consider all key issues related to sustainable procurement and looks at ways to increase/ improve sector awareness.  The HEPA Responsible Procurement Group is a national (UK) working group which seeks to address the issues surrounding Responsible Procurement. Topics covered include, but will not be limited to Modern Slavery, Workers Rights, Sustainable and Ethical Procurement in Higher Education with an aim to increase awareness, improve working practice and encourage collaboration between universities and also their suppliers.


Professor Andrea Nolan OBE
Principal & Vice Chancellor