This statement is made on behalf of Thornhill's Gardening & Landscaping Services (TGLS) in accordance with Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (‘the Act’).

Our business

We utilise our wide range of knowledge and expertise to deliver bespoke services for our clients. We offer a comprehensive range of services to residential and commercial gardens to ensure they are well kept and looking how they should.

Our approach

We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in our business dealings and relationships, and to maintaining systems and controls designed to ensure modern slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in our business or across our supply chain.

Our values underpin our culture and how we do business. They are embedded throughout our business and set the parameters for how we expect our people to behave with their colleagues, clients and the wider business environment. We seek to treat everyone fairly and consistently, creating a workplace and business environment that is open, transparent and trusted.

Our policies

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery, servitude and forced compulsory labour or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. We have begun to develop an Anti-Slavery Policy to raise awareness and reinforce this commitment at all levels across TGLS.

Our Whistleblowing Policy, available on our company intranet, provides a mechanism for our employees and others working in our supply chain to raise any concerns about suspected wrong doing or breaches of our policies or the law with confidence and without fear of reprisals.

Employment

We have robust recruitment processes in line with UK employment laws, including: ‘right to work’ document checks; contracts of employment. We also have market-related pay and reward, which is reviewed annually.

On occasions where we use employment agencies, we only work with specified, reputable agencies to source employees.

Supply chain risk

Our supply chains include: Sub-Contractors, Homeowners, Commercial Building Owners, Professional Service Companies, Property Professionals, Institutional Investors, Builders and Developers, Corporate Landlords, Resident Management Companies and Right to Manage Companies.

We understand that our biggest exposure to modern slavery lies within our supply chains. We intend to take a risk based approach to reviewing supply chains that fall within industries that may carry a higher risk of modern day slavery.

Due diligence processes

As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk, we carry out appropriate due diligence when engaging and working with suppliers, whilst also ensuring that the work undertaken is proportionate to the services provided and the risk involved.

Looking forward

We are currently reviewing our internal processes to understand what further steps can be taken to ensure that our obligations under the Act are met and that our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy, once live, is effectively implemented and complied with, so as to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in any part of our business or supply chain. Some of the specific measures we are considering include:

  • Finalising and implementing a Group Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy by 1 March 2020; and
  • Developing an awareness programme. Throughout 2020 and 2021 we will raise awareness of modern slavery issues by circulating a series of emails to staff which explain the basic principles of the Act, how employees can identify and prevent slavery and human trafficking, what employees can do to flag it up and what external help is available.