Modern Slavery
**Asda is committed to addressing the complex issue of Modern Slavery within our businesses and supply chains**
Modern Slavery is an umbrella term which encompasses human trafficking, slavery, servitude, and forced or compulsory labour. Many, if not all, forms of modern slavery have the potential to impact our customers, colleagues, suppliers, and the communities in which we operate, and we recognise the importance of addressing these risks.
Modern Slavery Act 2015 Compliance
Asda complies with the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, and as required under Section 54 – Transparency in Supply Chains, annually publishes our Modern Slavery Statement on the homepages of all our businesses websites. Our statements can also be found on the UK Government Modern Slavery Registry.
Our statement details our approach in addressing Modern Slavery, covering all areas recommended by government guidance:
· Organisation structure, business and supply chains;
· Policies;
· Risk Assessment;
· Due Diligence (steps to address risk)
· Training
· Goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of the organisation’s actions and progress over time.
Asda’s Approach to Modern Slavery
Modern slavery is a complex and often hidden issue, requiring continuous vigilance and collaboration to identify and address. To ensure our efforts are focused where they can have the greatest impact, we undertake detailed risk assessments to identify and prioritise our salient modern slavery risks. These assessments inform our due diligence processes and mitigation strategies, helping us strengthen protections for vulnerable workers, engage responsibly with suppliers, and contribute to positive outcomes for the people and communities connected to our business.
**Key Policies**
We have several policies in place to help support our Modern Slavery approach and convey our expectations, particularly in our supply chains. These include:
**Governance and Due Diligence**
Our Modern Slavery programme is led by Asda’s Legal and Compliance team, supported by a dedicated Modern Slavery Subject Matter Expert (SME) responsible for driving our strategy, commitments, and ongoing due diligence activities. The programme is recognised as a key component of our ESG approach and is supported through established governance structures, including oversight by our ESG Steering Committee and reporting to the Compliance, Ethics, Risk and Audit Committee (CERA).
Due Diligence is critical to addressing our Modern Slavery business and supply chain risks. We maintain a range of controls and monitoring activities, including quarterly reviews of colleague data to identify indicators that may suggest worker vulnerability or exploitation, such as duplicate bank account, contact, address, or emergency contact information.
Within our supply chains, suppliers are required to comply with the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and our broader responsible sourcing expectations. These requirements are embedded within our supplier onboarding and due diligence processes, helping us assess compliance from the outset of the commercial relationship.
Asda also takes the approach that any grievances or whistleblowing with allegations or potential indicators of Modern Slavery are fully investigated via our incident management process. Where concerns are identified, we seek to work collaboratively with suppliers to drive effective remediation.
**Training and Awareness**
Training, awareness, and engagement are key components of our approach to tackling modern slavery. We recognise that modern slavery can affect anyone and that increasing understanding of the risks, indicators, and impacts is essential to helping prevent harm. Asda therefore seeks to raise awareness and build capability across our colleagues, suppliers, and customers.
Our colleagues receive modern slavery training through dedicated e-learning modules, helping them understand the risks, recognise potential indicators, and know how to raise concerns. We also use key awareness moments throughout the year, including UK Anti-Slavery Day, to reinforce messages and encourage ongoing engagement.
Our suppliers are encouraged to strengthen their own understanding of modern slavery risks and responsible recruitment practices. Through our partnerships and industry collaborations, we seek to make training and awareness resources accessible and, where possible, available at no cost.
Our customers are increasingly aware of modern slavery and wider human rights issues through media coverage, social media, and public discourse. We continue to explore opportunities to raise awareness and promote understanding of modern slavery-related risks and the actions that can help address them.
Our Partners
Collective action and collaboration are vital to addressing Modern Slavery risks. We regularly perform stakeholder mapping exercises to identify external partners who can collaborate with us to deliver action plans for our salient risks, including NGOs and Trade Unions.
We are active members of external collaborations such as the Ethical Trading Initiative (of which we are a founding member), Stronger Together and Slave Free Alliance which continue to support their members to drive continuous improvement.
For a full list of our active partnerships see our latest Modern Slavery Statement available on the **Asda Corporate website**.
Reporting Modern Slavery
Possibly the most important thing anyone can do to prevent modern slavery issues is to report them. We encourage our colleagues and customers to report anything of concern, no matter if it may seem innocuous. In the first instance if anyone believes there is an immediate risk to life/safety call 999 and report to the Police. For non-urgent Modern Slavery issues or concerns, Asda colleagues and customers can report to [email protected].