Modern slavery statement

At ESB Energy, we’re committed to being the easiest and most transparent energy company to deal with.

Modern slavery statement

At ESB Energy, we’re committed to being the easiest and most transparent energy company to deal with.

ESB Energy Limited

Statement on the Prevention of Slavery and Human Trafficking – 2020

INTRODUCTION

This is the first statement of ESB Energy Limited on slavery and human trafficking following the introduction of the UK Modern Slavery Act (‘the Act’). This statement is made pursuant to section 54 of the Act and constitutes ESB Energy Limited’s statement for its financial year ended 31 December 2019.

ESB Energy Limited is part of the ESB group of companies. ESB is a vertically integrated utility whose business activities include the transmission, generation and supply of electricity in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Further details on ESB can be found at www.esb.ie.

APPROACH

ESB Energy Limited, and its parent company, ESB, fully support the aims of the Act and has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery.

ESB Energy Limited is committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all its business dealings and relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in its own business or in any of its supply chains.

ESB Energy is committed to ensuring there is transparency in its own business and in its approach to tackling modern slavery throughout its supply chains and expects the same high standards from all its contractors, suppliers and other business partners.

STEPS TAKEN

In order to prevent acts of slavery and human trafficking from occurring within its business and supply chains ESB Energy Limited has taken the following steps in 2019:

Risk assessed all vendors with an annual spend of greater than £250,000 based on their geographical location & industry sector
Issued questionnaires to vendors identified as being potentially high risk based on this assessment and the previous year’s review
Assessed these returns and identified three vendors for external audit
Appointed a third party with extensive expertise in the area of modern slavery and forced labour (BSI - British Standards Institute) to undertake these audits
Continued to incorporate anti-slavery and human trafficking requirements into its procurement processes and contractual arrangements with contractors, suppliers and other third parties;
Provided mechanisms for employees, and others, to report suspected incidents of unlawful behaviour, including slavery and human trafficking; and
Continued to provide training to relevant employees, particularly those involved in procurement processes, on the risks of slavery and human trafficking occurring and the introduction of the above measures. This training includes the hosting of an on-line training module on the Prevention of Modern Slavery in ESB’s Supply chains. This training module, which was co-developed with BSI, and is available to all ESB Energy Staff.

ESB Energy Limited’s Policy on Modern Slavery was adopted by the ESB Energy Board at its meeting on the 17th day of July 2020 This policy details the actions that ESB Energy Limited will take to ensure the prevention of modern slavery, the roles and responsibilities from Board level down to each individual employee and the means by which any suspected incidences of modern slavery should be reported. Employees are encouraged to report any suspected wrongdoing, and ESB Energy Limited’s Policies set out the protections for employees in reporting serious malpractice at work.

In order to understand how effective these controls are to ensure that modern slavery does not exist within our supply chain, external audits are conducted, where appropriate, on the activities of suppliers considered to operate in high risk regions or industries. No incidents of modern slavery have been found to-date.

The specific work outlined above will be complemented by a further programme of work in 2020.