At USP Maritime, our commitment extends across all business regions, operating companies, and business units worldwide, including both wholly-owned and partly-owned subsidiaries. We are dedicated to conducting our business dealings with the highest level of integrity, and we stand firmly in our support for the eradication of modern slavery in all its forms. Regardless of location, our businesses are obligated to respect individuals and embrace their diversity.
Our primary goal is to foster an inclusive organization where the skills and contributions of all individuals are not only valued but also integrated into our approach to health and safety. This statement outlines the proactive measures USP is taking to prevent, detect, and respond to modern slavery within our business operations and supply chains.
Sincerely,
James Dryden | Director on behalf of USP Maritime and its group companies
Our business is principally involved in the delivery of support to, complex engineering which support ship-building, ship repair, modification, life extension, conversion, in service support and associated services.
We operate in the following key markets: defence, super yacht, cruise and commercial shipping, providing services to predominantly governmental or blue-chip customers, all of whom are located in the UK, Europe or North America.
In addition to sector specific activities we have a category management approach for common expenditure across the company. These leads provide subject matter expertise into Business Units and Bids and support supplier development activities in the following areas:
We welcome the opportunity to contribute positively to global efforts to ensure that human rights are understood and observed.
As an international business, we recognise our responsibility for upholding and protecting the human rights of our employees and other individuals with whom we deal in our operations across the world.
We believe that a culture of respect for and promotion of human rights is embedded throughout our business and can be demonstrated by our commitment to ethical conduct in everything we do. We expect the same commitment from our suppliers and for them to flow down that commitment through the Supply Chain.
The USP Code of Conduct describes the Company’s expectations of all those suppliers doing business with USP. In addition to communicating USP’s values, it mandates full compliance with all laws and regulations. It also addresses the proper handling of intellectual property and other sensitive data, health, safety and environmental concerns as well as Human Rights.
This company wide Code of Conduct is designed to provide clarity about our expectations of methods used to deliver environmental and social responsibility. The code reflects the same standards that we hold ourselves and enables a consistent approach to our customers in delivering to the highest ethical standards.
Our suppliers should either be willing to subscribe to our Code or have equivalent standards and procedures in their own businesses.
We continue to deploy our modern slavery risk assessment via our due diligence tool-sets for new and existing suppliers.
This due diligence tool-set assists with supply chain awareness and facilitates measurement of supplier mitigation activities relating to modern slavery. This tool-set continues to be reviewed on an annual basis.
Businesses should use appropriate processes to qualify, on-board and periodically re-validate suppliers, to ensure compliance with commercial, regulatory and legal requirements.
We continue to believe that our exposure to the risks of modern slavery is very low within our own business and supply chain.
This assessment is under continuous review so that we can determine if circumstances change that require us to take additional actions. We work in collaboration with other industry leaders to create a process that optimises risk management whilst encouraging the use of SMEs. USP requires potential suppliers to demonstrate their capability to meet our contractual requirements. We also look for a clear demonstration of commitment to corporate social responsibility. We expect high standards of conduct from our suppliers in what they will do for us or our customers and will not accept any behaviour contrary to our codes.
No instances of modern slavery have been identified during the year in any of our sectors.
We are raising awareness of Modern Slavery across the business to ensure employees have a clear understanding of the issues and how to proceed where a risk is identified.
We have a clearly defined process for confidential whistle-blowing that can be used for reporting breaches of the codes of conduct.
We continue to raise awareness of Modern Slavery in which we explain the current legislation, USP policy and internal escalation points.
