LGA modern slavery assurance guidance – construction

Local authorities undertake a significant volume of construction work ranging from programmes of repair and maintenance to major refurbishment and new build projects across a host of different sectors including schools, social care, housing, infrastructure and highways. It is therefore crucial that councils use their spending power to ensure that their supply chain is behaving responsibly and identifying and combatting instances of exploitation wherever it may be found in the supply chain tiers.

Construction supply chains are complex and multi-tiered, supported by complex contractual relationships, significant reliance on subcontracting, the passing of risk down the supply chain and high usage of temporary and transient labour - for these reasons, the risk of exploitation is high.

To address exploitation effectively it is essential that organisations take a risk-based approach to procurement. Whilst construction as a sector is considered high risk for modern slavery, the risks are found within specific materials and work packages which need to be identified by any procurement team before any requirements are set.

Clients, principal designers, designers, principal contractors, contractors and suppliers throughout the supply chain should all be analysing their supply chains including any products purchased and focusing on addressing modern slavery in high-risk areas.

This guidance document, developed by the Nottingham Rights Lab, Action Sustainability the LGA and local government procurement specialists, aims to support procurement teams within local authorities embed requirements through the procurement process to identify and combat exploitation and slavery wherever it may be found.

It has been developed to outline all key activities that are associated with good procurement and provide advice, examples, and links to appropriate resources that will allow procurement teams to integrate requirements as effectively as possible.