Modern Slavery Statement

Introduction

Morris Leslie Plant Hire Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Morris Leslie Ltd, a family-owned business Headquartered in Perth, Scotland. Morris Leslie Plant Hire Limited specialises in the hire and sale of plant machinery with Hire Depots located throughout the UK.

As required by the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “Act”), this statement describes the steps which we at Morris Leslie Plant Hire Limited take to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business or in any of our supply chains.

Scope

This statement covers Morris Leslie Plant Hire Limited and is applicable from our financial year end, 30th April 2023. We directly employ over 250 people within the UK and although consider them unlikely to be vulnerable to modern slavery in this country, our policies and procedures do aim to cover everyone including contractors and suppliers.

Our suppliers

We work with a number of UK based suppliers and Global Multinational manufacturers of Construction Machinery who provide products and services relating to this sector including the supply of new construction equipment and all associated parts and services.

We monitor the performance of our suppliers through regular meetings with them and confirm their commitment to ensuring their business is free of slavery. We strive to foster long-term relationships with our critical suppliers, and we avoid making demands of our suppliers that might lead to them violating human rights.

The supply chains supporting Morris Leslie Plant Hire Limited can be diverse in both category and location. We do however believe that the risk of slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains is low due to the majority of our supplies being sourced from within the UK and where products or parts are manufactured or sourced overseas we generally have no direct dealings with the sources of supply and will always strive to deal with the UK based subsidiaries of these organisations.

We expect our suppliers to have robust processes to ensure compliance with the Act, ensure fair employment practices and will work with our closest partners to promote best practice.

Our Policies

We have policies in place that underpin our commitment to ensure that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking across our businesses which are regularly reviewed.

• 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 provide an independent external reporting hotline, which is free, anonymous and confidential where employees and those associated with our business operations can raise concerns.

• Anti-Slavery & Human Trafficking Policy –we are committed to ensuring there is transparency in our own business and in our approach to tackling modern slavery throughout our supply chains.

• Equal Opportunities Policy – we are committed to equal opportunities, non-discriminatory procedures, and practises in the workplace.

Our Performance Indicators – next 12 months

We have agreed a number of actions to help the business understand and address potential slavery risks.

• We will continue to review our antislavery policy that sets out the organisations stance on modern slavery and explains how our employees can identify any instances of this and where they can go for help.
• We will identify areas of our supply chain that are at greatest risk to modern slavery abuses and follow up to ensure compliance.
• We will roll out Modern Slavery refresher training to all appropriate employees who have association with our suppliers and the onboarding of our people.
• Continue to follow tight compliance approaches within our own workforce in relation to legally binding contracts of employment and right to work checks.
Our training

All new employees will be provided with a copy of our handbook where they will be directed to our full policy regarding our company stance on Modern Slavery, to understand the serious nature of this and the important role that they play in identifying signs that it may have been breached both within our employee base and within our suppliers.

Employees are actively encouraged to report their concerns either internally or via our whistleblowing policy. Our aim is to raise awareness of the issues and increase informed scrutiny. We are committed to ensuring awareness of the Act across the business as part of our efforts to help eliminate all forms of compulsory labour and human trafficking.

This statement was approved by the Board of Morris Leslie Limited and will be reviewed on an annual basis.

Graham Ogilvie
Group Operations Director