Modern Slavery Statement
This statement is made pursuant to Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It outlines the steps taken by NEC Group [1] during the financial year ended on 31 March 2024 (“FY24”) as part of our commitment to uphold and implement high standards of governance and ethical behaviour across our business.
We are committed to ensuring that slavery is not taking place in any part of our operations or, to the maximum extent possible, in any of our supply chains and to acting ethically and with integrity in all of our business relationships.
Our business
NEC Group is the UK’s leading live events business operating in exhibitions, conferences, music, sports, family entertainment and hospitality. Our venues include the NEC, ICC, Resorts World Arena, Utilita Arena Birmingham and the VOX Conference Centre. During FY24 we also operated the national ticketing agency, The Ticket Factory, award winning caterer Amadeus and hospitality brand Amplify.
During FY24 our business was organised into three business units:
(i) Conventions & Exhibitions – which operates the NEC, ICC & VOX Conference Centre venues;
(ii) Arenas & Ticketing – which operates the Resorts World Arena and the Utilita Arena Birmingham venues and The Ticket Factory; and
(iii) Amadeus – which operates our catering business.
Our policies on slavery and human trafficking
We are committed to ensuring that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains or our business.
We also adhere to standards of responsible conduct and train employees to treat each other with respect, and to adhere to laws, regulations, and standards such as those referenced above.
Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking
We have a zero tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking. As part of the NEC Group’s due diligence process to identify and mitigate risks related to slavery and human trafficking, we put in place systems to:
(i) Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains;
(ii) Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains; and
(iii) Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains.
In addition, we have established policies and procedures in place to protect whistleblowers.
Supplier adherence to our values
We work with a large number of suppliers of goods and services, event organisers, concert promoters and operational support partners. To ensure that our supply chains comply with our policies, we continue to develop our supplier due diligence processes and require suppliers to provide compliance information as part of our tender and other purchasing processes.
Our purchasing arrangements require suppliers to comply generally with all applicable laws and statutory requirements. They also include contractual commitments relating to tackling the risk of bribery, corruption, and tax evasion in our supply chains.
We have a compliance team in relation to this policy, which consists of involvement from Procurement, People, Finance and Legal teams within NEC Group.
Our effectiveness in combating slavery and human trafficking
In line with our commitment to treat people fairly and to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our business, we are always looking to improve our processes and systems. In FY24, we carried out the following action:
(i) We completed the process of ensuring that due diligence questionnaires had been received from all NEC Group suppliers as part of the new supplier risk assessment process that we introduced during the financial year ended 31 March 2022 (“FY22”). No new suppliers were identified as potentially higher risk suppliers during FY24;
(ii) All new suppliers in FY24 have signed up to terms containing anti-slavery and human trafficking compliance obligations and all continuing suppliers have provided confirmation of their continuing compliance with such obligations;
(iii) We have completed an annual review of our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy;
(iv) Our ‘code of conduct’, which brings together our key policies and values in respect of how we expect our suppliers to act in a fair and ethical way, is now embedded within our new supplier setup process, and a supplier is only accepted if this is agreed to; and
(v) We have continued beta testing in respect of a supply chain risk-management tool which forms part of a wider operational resilience solution.
During the next financial year, we intend to take the following additional steps to combat slavery and human trafficking:
(i) We plan to review the effectiveness of the code of conduct and wider new supplier set up process following the bringing together of our Group Procurement & Catering Procurement teams into one central Procurement function; and
(ii) We plan to launch a new risk management tool as part of a Group Procurement Dashboard which will include an annual health check for all of our major and strategic suppliers including Anti- Slavery compliance monitoring.
Training
To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide training to relevant staff via our online training platform and monitor completion levels across the business on a monthly basis.
Board Approval
This statement was approved by the Board of Directors on 1 August 2024.
Melanie Smith
CEO, NEC Group
[1] References to NEC Group in this statement are to LHTCA New Holdco Limited (a Jersey company) and its subsidiary companies, including The National Exhibition Centre Limited (UK company registration number 979395).