Modern Day Slavery Statement

Our Commitment to Ethical Practices 

We are committed to ensuring that modern slavery, human trafficking, and forced labour do not occur within our business or supply chains. As part of this commitment, we are dedicated to fostering a workplace culture based on respect, fairness, and accountability. Our values align with the highest standards of ethical practice, and we hold ourselves accountable for the well-being of both our people and those in our supply chain.

We believe that this commitment will benefit our clients and stakeholders affected by our activities. We recognise, however, that we are but one link in a supply chain to the end user that is long, and potentially global. Therefore, it is essential that our suppliers also understand and appreciate the standards of conduct we expect of any company that does business with us.

Organisation’s structure 

We are a leading UK professional services firm with approximately 1,300 employees (and consultants), operating across multiple locations, providing a wide range of services to individuals, businesses, and public sector organisations. Shakespeare Martineau LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales. Shakespeare Martineau LLP has one controlling member which is Ampa Holdings LLP. Ampa Holdings LLP has approximately 140 members.

Our business 

At Ampa Group we believe that our business should serve its people, communities and the environment as it grows.

We are a certified B Corporation (known as B Corp) making us one of over 8,500 companies globally that are verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

Ampa Group is committed to driving positive change amongst our people, in our communities and for the environment.

We provide legal services under two brands, which maintain separate websites – Shakespeare Martineau and Mayo Wynne Baxter.

Shakespeare Martineau offers legal advice on corporate, commercial, intellectual property, banking and employment issues to businesses; and on family matters, wills, probate and trusts to individuals. We also offer residential conveyancing services. We provide sector-focused legal advice to the energy, education, social housing, residential and commercial property and development sectors. We advise on all aspects of litigation and dispute resolution, provide large scale litigation services to businesses through our Corclaim brand, and we offer a number of litigation services to individuals, trading as Lime Solicitors. Additionally, we offer planning, design and development consultancy services through our Marrons brand.

We subcontract some of our work to Shakespeare Martineau (Scotland) LLP, a separate entity regulated by the Law Society of Scotland.

Mayo Wynne Baxter (a brand within Shakespeare Martineau) provides both personal and business legal services, who have been serving the people of Sussex for over a century and a half, starting in Lewes in 1867 by Wynne Edwin Baxter.

Key Services include:

Personal Legal services Business Legal services
Employment Law Commercial Property
Personal Property Employment Law
Private client Vineyards and Wineries
Family Law Rural Property and Agriculture
Business and Commercial
Litigation and Dispute Resolution

 

Website: Leading Sussex Law Firm & Solicitors | Mayo Wynne Baxter

Staff Training and capacity building 

We ensure all our people have annual training on Modern slavery, in the form of elearning. Training includes learnings on:

  • Understand the Modern Slavery Act
  • The reality of Modern slavery
  • Identify signs of slavery in the supply chain.
  • How to change Modern slavery & Preventing Exploitation
  • Assessing and managing Risk
  • Review questions
  • Modern Slavery e-learning is mandatory for all new starters.

Our supply chains

Supply Chain and Business Partners 

Our firm takes a proactive approach to managing our relationships with suppliers, contractors, and business partners. We require that they adhere to the same high ethical standards and do not engage in any form of modern slavery or human trafficking. We regularly assess and monitor our suppliers’ practices to ensure compliance with these standards. Where any risks are identified, we work closely with suppliers to address them and implement corrective actions.

Our suppliers provide us with the following types of operational supplies:

  • Office equipment & consumables;
  • Employee services (ie. benefits);
  • Auditing services;
  • Telecommunications and digital technology;
  • Building services such as cleaning, waste collection, and maintenance services;
  • Archiving and off-site storage facilities;
  • Switchboard services;
  • Hospitality and catering;
  • Consultancy services;
  • Temporary/agency workers.

We also use legal service suppliers for services necessary to deliver an outcome for a legal matter, such as barristers and other lawyers, medical agencies, experts and forensic investigators.

We assess our supply chains for the risk of involvement in slavery and human trafficking as part of our due diligence at on-boarding stage, and in line with contract lifecycles. All suppliers must sign our supplier code of conduct as part of due diligence reviews or when onboarding new suppliers.

Supply chain risk assessment for Modern Slavery 

We identify that international supply chains, where suppliers do not directly employ workers, and in unskilled roles are at higher risk of modern slavery.

With all our office locations geographically within the UK, most of our suppliers being UK based with a small number having international supplier chains or being part of international groups, most of our workers being directly employed by us, and the nature of work being skilled, we assess our risk of modern slavery or trafficking to be low, however we take appropriate steps to understand our suppliers through our due diligence process and adopt a Zero tolerance approach to Modern slavery and trafficking.

Our policy on slavery and human trafficking

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business.

Our Anti-Slavery & 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.

We have taken the following steps towards achieving this outcome and mitigating the risks identified in our risk assessment:

  • New suppliers (of a material service and/or level of goods) are required to complete a thorough due diligence questionnaire, including specifically providing details of how they ensure:
    • child labour is not used in their operations;
    • forced, bonded or involuntary labour is not used in their operations, including confirmation that workers are not obliged to lodge identity papers or pay deposits as a condition of work;
    • working hours, wages and benefits are lawful; o workers are not subject to abuse or intimidation;
    • Our supplier contracts and supplier code of conduct (re: a material service and/or level of goods) oblige suppliers not to engage in any conduct that would be an offence under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 if such conduct was carried out in the UK; o to comply with our Anti-Slavery & Human Trafficking Policy or their own equivalent to this;
    • to undertake not to purchase any resources sourced from producers or manufacturers using forced labour. o to implement due diligence procedures on their own supply chain to ensure there is no slavery or human trafficking;
    • to implement appropriate due diligence, audit and training systems to ensure their sub-contractors comply with our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy;
    • to keep records to trace the supply chain of all goods and services provided to us.
    • to allow us to audit their compliance.
  • Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) is important to our organisation. We require contract owners to carry out Supplier Relationship management meetings in accordance with our procurement policy. Due diligence is recompleted at a frequency aligned with our risk categorisation. At a minimum, due diligence is resubmitted at least every three years or on contract renewal whichever is sooner.
  • We have a whistleblowing procedure which provides for the appropriate escalation of suspected wrongdoing, and for the protection and support of whistle-blowers.

Policies and Procedures 

We have introduced a range of policies and procedures to combat modern slavery and human trafficking, including the following:

    1. Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy: Our firm’s policy explicitly prohibits modern slavery and human trafficking in all aspects of our operations, including hiring practices, employment, and relationships with external suppliers.
    2. Due Diligence and Risk Assessment: We conduct regular assessments of our supply chain to identify and address any potential risks related to modern slavery or human trafficking. Our risk management processes help ensure that we engage only with suppliers who uphold our ethical standards.
    3. Staff Training: We provide ongoing training for our employees to raise awareness of modern slavery and human trafficking. This ensures that our staff are equipped to identify the signs of exploitation and know how to report any concerns they may have.

These steps are documented in the following policies and procedures:

  • Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy
  • Supplier Terms and Conditions Addendum
  • Supplier Due Diligence questionnaire
  • Supplier Management Procedure (Legal Services Suppliers)
  • AMPA Group procurement Policy
  • Procurement process guide
  • Supplier code of conduct
  • Whistleblowing Policy and Procedure

Our Actions and Achievements

During the financial year 2024/2025, we:

  • Strengthened our supplier vetting and onboarding processes to ensure alignment with our ethical standards.
  • Conducted internal audits and risk assessments of our supply chain to ensure compliance with anti-slavery legislation.
  • Delivered targeted training to all employees on the risks and indicators of modern slavery, as well as on how to respond if they suspect exploitation.
  • Engaged with external organisations and industry groups focused on combating modern slavery, sharing best practices and supporting initiatives to eliminate slavery in the legal and business sectors.

Future Steps for financial year of 2025/2026

We remain committed to furthering our efforts to combat modern slavery. In the upcoming year, we will:

  • Expand our due diligence processes to cover a broader range of business activities and supply chains
  • Continue to evolve our staff training to ensure greater awareness and response to modern slavery.
  • Collaborate with other law firms and businesses in the sector to drive collective action and share knowledge on combating modern slavery.
  • Continue to roll out our Supplier Code of Conduct to our suppliers
  • Develop KPI's to evidence the effectiveness of our controls surrounding Modern slavery

Conclusion

We are dedicated to upholding the principles of transparency, fairness, and respect for human rights. We are fully committed to preventing modern slavery and human trafficking, and we will continue to take proactive measures to ensure these practices have no place in our operations or supply chains.

This statement is made in accordance with section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, covering the financial year 2023/2024.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes Shakespeare Martineau LLP's slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending April 2024.

Mark Beesley (Designated Member)

Shakespeare Martineau LLP

April 2025