During Anti-Slavery Week (18 – 23 October), the University’s Procurement team has been asking for help in raising awareness of modern slavery and how to stop it.

Modern slavery is an issue that stretches far beyond the people traffickers on the south coast of the UK; slavery and servitude hide in plain sight across a wide range of industries and services. The University has committed to zero-tolerance to any form of modern slavery or human trafficking with our Procurement Team at has just delivered its fifth Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.

In 2016 the University established an innovative policy that made sure controls were in place to ensure modern slavery was not happening in any of our supply chains. Led by our Director of Risk and Compliance, our Procurement Team has partnered with academic colleagues to develop our approach to working with the supply chain. We are proud that our work is recognised as sector-leading and that the University was the first higher education institution member of Manchester-based charity Slave Free Alliance in 2019.

Our work at the University continues to evolve, and we want to do more to help tackle the issue. You can help by being a key part of our commitment: to raise awareness so that everyone understands the issues of exploitation and can play their part in stopping the exploitation of other people for personal or commercial gain.

Find out more on the Hope for Justice website.

Together we can stop this practice.