1. Structure, Business and Supply Chains
Vizion is the largest vehicle body repair network in the UK and Ireland, incorporating British Standard accredited collision repairers and Vehicle Manufacturer approved bodyshops. We believe transparency is the best way we can assure the public that we are doing our best as an ethical corporate organisation. In that spirit, we have published here our annual statement of slavery and human trafficking, made in compliance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, in which we explain how slavery and human trafficking can affect our business and the steps we are taking in the fight against it. Our efforts against slavery and human trafficking complement our broader CSR Policy, our values and our ethical trading approach.
Vizion has offices in Hull and Wellingborough and sells its services throughout the United Kingdom. Our services are provided via the contracted use of the highest quality vehicle body repairers, and we repair vehicles ranging from a family saloon through to prestige, sport and luxury vehicles, as well as light to heavy commercial. We have over 200 employees within our organisation in addition to approximately 16,500 individuals who are engaged throughout our supply chain. Where possible, we engage suppliers who are known to clients and the local community so that we can improve consistency in ethical practices.
2. Slavery and Human Trafficking Policies
Building on our existing policies and our commitment to the ethical trading, we have embraced the requirement to publish an annual slavery and human trafficking statement. This will allow us to share our efforts against slavery and human trafficking and improve and measure our success each financial year. We operate a number of internal policies to ensure we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner. These include:
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy. This policy sets out the organisation's stance on modern slavery and explains how employees can identify any instances of this and where they can go for help.
- 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 reprisal.
- Vizion Values / Code of Business Conduct. This code explains the manner in which we behave as an organisation and how we expect our employees and suppliers to act.
This past financial year, we have taken key steps to ensure slavery and human trafficking did not occur within our organisation or supply chain. Notably, our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy sets out clear objectives for slavery and human trafficking plans around the following themes:
- Relationships: Strengthening our supplier engagement process
- Feedback: Establishing grievance mechanisms and channels for individual staff feedback
- Knowledge: Improving our knowledge base by collecting relevant data and improving transparency
- Third party engagement: Building strategic alliances with independent auditors, bodies and assessors
- Measurable change: Developing verifiable KPIs to measure progress
- Supplier collaboration: Encouraging suppliers to collaborate to address slavery and human trafficking issues
- Incentivisation: Developing mechanisms to incentivise employees and suppliers to address the issues
- Accountability: Establishing a framework for organisation accountability to allow raising of related issues
3. Due Diligence Procedures
Vizion operates a supplier policy and maintains a comprehensive supplier list. We conduct due diligence on all suppliers before they become active. This due diligence includes an online search to ensure that the particular organisation has never been convicted of offenses relating to modern slavery and onsite audits which include a review of working conditions. Our anti-slavery policy forms part of our contract with all suppliers and they are required to confirm that no part of their business operations contradicts this policy.
In addition to the above, as part of our contract with suppliers, we require that they confirm to us that:
- They have taken steps to eradicate modern slavery within their business
- They hold their own suppliers to account over modern slavery
- They pay their employees at least the national minimum wage / national living wage (as appropriate)
- We may terminate the contract at any time should any instances of modern slavery come to light
4. Identifying and Addressing Risks
We set out to identify the extent of any slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains by:
- Conducting internal spot-checks at suppliers across the UK
- Engaging third party auditors to conduct audits at supplier sites
- Interviewing individuals to discuss their conditions and their rights
- Collaborating with our suppliers to develop an awareness plan to address related issues
- Instituting an annual review questionnaire for existing suppliers to self-assess against the issues
5. Key Performance Indicators
We measure activity and will know the effectiveness of the steps that we are taking to ensure that slavery and/or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain when:
- No reports are received to indicate that modern slavery practices have been identified
- We can measure the number of people completing training and passing post training questionnaires
- We see the number of visits to our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking web page
- The number of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking poster downloads
- The number of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking video views
- Supplier self-assessment responses show no activity
- Due diligence spot checks reveal no signs of activity
6. Training
A key part of our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking strategy is to promote cultural change through training. This last financial year we:
- Delivered online training modules to Vizion employees
- Distributed posters on slavery and human trafficking and workers' rights
- Ran training seminars for our supplier managers at our offices in Hull and Wellingborough
- Started development of a dedicated Vizion training and knowledge resource webpage
Chris McKie
Managing Director