The Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority oppose slavery and human trafficking in all forms and make this statement to set out the steps we have taken to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our organisation or supply chain in the year to 31 March 2023 and which further steps are to be taken to address the risk of modern slavery.

This statement is our fourth modern slavery statement.

Our Structure and Supply Chain

The Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority Limited (the Delivery Authority) is a private company limited by guarantee and incorporated under the Companies Act 2006, based in London, UK. The Corporate Officer of the House of Commons and the Corporate Officer of the House of Lords (acting jointly) are the sole member and guarantor of the Delivery Authority.

The Delivery Authority is responsible for the restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster and related works on behalf of the Houses of Parliament pursuant to the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019 (“the Act”), as amended and supplemented by the Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body (Abolition) Regulations 2022.

The Delivery Authority reports to Parliament via the Client Team, a joint department of the Houses of Parliament. Further information on this governance structure is available on the R&R website. At the time of writing the Delivery Authority employs 163 direct employees and has three secondees. Furthermore, the Delivery Authority has an additional 10 agency workers.

The Delivery Authority contracts with a third party supply chain to undertake much of the work required for the Programme. The Delivery Authority has direct contracts with 111 suppliers, with 110 suppliers based in the UK and one in Ireland. Three suppliers represent approximately 70% of the Delivery Authority’s supply chain expenditure. The sub-contracting arrangements of all key contracts are regularly reviewed. As our programme develops and our supplier base grows, we are committed to having a high level of visibility into our supply chain to establish risk profiles and take appropriate mitigating actions. Our organisation prohibits the use of modern slavery and human trafficking in all its operations and supply chain. It is committed to improving awareness of the practices necessary to combat and eliminate slavery and human trafficking and to assess the risk profile of its business in these areas.

Our Policies, Processes and Contracts

The Delivery Authority recognises that slavery is not only an ethical and human rights issues, but also one of criminality. We recognise that corruption is a key factor and driver of exploitation and that it takes various forms that impact worker welfare such as forced labour, labour exploitation, poor working and living conditions, poor terms of employment, detained passports, salary deduction issues and withheld payment. These all have the deprivation of a person's liberty to exploit them for personal or commercial gain in common. Our organisation is committed to promoting high standards of ethical behaviour on the Programme. Our policies and processes underpin these requirements.

These policies and procedures are regularly reviewed and updated as part of our Quality Management System, and include:

Whistleblowing Policy; Grievance Policy; Code of Conduct; Anti-Fraud and Bribery Policy; Conflict of Interest Policy; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Policy; Skills and Apprenticeships Policy; Commercial Policy.

Our employees are required to uphold the Delivery Authority’s Code of Conduct and sign adherence to this as part of our onboarding process. All colleagues are encouraged to submit anonymous feedback and seek support through our reporting guidelines contained in our Whistleblowing Policy.

Our supply chain partners are expected to maintain equally high standards of behaviour. We ensure that they can do this by confirming they have a suitable Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement in place and, with high-risk contracts, reviewing their application of it on a regular basis.

The Delivery Authority requires compliance with our policies and processes relating to Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking from sub-contractors, suppliers, and agency/interim staff. As part of our procurement processes, we have developed subject specific material to be included in our standard procurement templates and provisions addressing requirements relating to modern slavery and human trafficking are included in our standard contract terms. Having completed a third full year of operation, the Delivery Authority has aligned its processes with PPN 02/23 (Tackling Modern Slavery in Government Supply Chains) to further our commitment to eliminating modern slavery and human trafficking.

Governance

Legal compliance reporting is an established part of the governance and compliance framework of the Delivery Authority, and this encompasses the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. As such, progress against the implementation of measures to address modern slavery and human trafficking risks is monitored by the Risk Audit and Assurance Committee, who report to the board of directors of the Delivery Authority.

Training and Measuring Effectiveness

The Delivery Authority engaged Slave-Free Alliance (a social enterprise, wholly owned by anti-slavery charity Hope for Justice) in January 2022 to develop an eLearning module on Modern Slavery which launched in June 2022 with completion being mandatory for all Delivery Authority staff. The learning outcomes ensure our staff:

• understand what we mean when we talk about 'modern slavery';

• recognise the indicators and understand how to report any suspicions or instances of forced labour or exploitation anywhere in our supply chain;

• are aware of the proactive steps the Delivery Authority is taking to tackle the problem of modern slavery in supply chains. The completion rate for this training is regularly monitored and is currently at 98%. Bespoke training is also delivered annually to the Commercial team which is responsible for all procurement and contract management activity on behalf of the Delivery Authority.

We remain conscious of the need to inform ourselves of best practice in tackling Modern Slavery. In furtherance of this we maintain close links with the wider Parliamentary community through regular attendance at the UK Parliament Social Sustainability and Modern Slavery Working Group. Our policies and processes are continuously benchmarked against latest best practice as published by the Home Office and relevant Procurement Policy Notes as published by the Cabinet Office.

This statement is made pursuant to Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and was approved by the board of directors of the Delivery Authority on 24 July 2023.

David Goldstone CBE

Chief Executive, Restoration & Renewal Delivery Authority

24 August 2023