Supply chain due diligence

The Service spends £16-£20M per annum and is committed to ensuring contracts for the supply of goods, services and works (https://www.dsfire.gov.uk/about-us/how-supply-goods-and-services) are compliant with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, UK legislation and the Authority Contracts Standing Orders. The Service expects all suppliers competing for its business to be aware of and comply with the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act. The Service takes responsibility to ensure the procurement governance and practices will assist in the identification and elimination of modern slavery and human trafficking, encouraging fair pay and working conditions in our supply chains. The Act requires suppliers with a turnover in excess of £36 million to provide a Statement on Slavery and Human Trafficking in their supply chain and provide an annual update.

The Service adopts a category management approach to procurement based on the highest spend areas: Fleet, Operational Equipment, Estates, ICT and Corporate Services. A risk-based approach is adopted to identification of modern slavery and tackling modern slavery breaches, that considers the category of expenditure, subject-matter of the contract, risk of modern slavery, size of contract as well as the size of the supplier. We are committed to eliminating modern slavery in our supply chains and subcontracting arrangements, both during the procurement and contract management phases.