This is a follow up to our previous statement under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “Act”). It sets out the steps that the IFoA is taking to ensure that modern slavery is not taking place within our organisation or in our supply chain. As Chief Operating Officer of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), it is important to me that the IFoA does the right thing, acting ethically and in accordance with our Royal Charter obligations.
That means that everyone working for the IFoA or on our behalf can expect zero tolerance to any form of modern slavery, including slavery, servitude, human trafficking, and forced labour. Modern slavery is a serious global issue and we are committed to doing our part to help to eradicate it.
We have incorporated related controls into our procurement practice as part of our periodic improvement reviews since the Act came into force. We encourage our people to develop knowledge and understanding of modern slavery so that we can spot the signs and feel confident to take any action necessary. This work is ongoing and we remain vigilant to the threats that modern slavery presents to wider society, our organisation, and our supply chain both domestically and internationally.
In 2024/25 we will continue to build on this. We will review our obligations, review what we have already done, and what we need to do next. Our annual Modern Slavery statement for 2024/25 will outline that work.
Anne Moore – Chief Operating Officer – 6 November 2024
The IFoA is an international professional membership body established under a Royal Charter. We operate out of offices in Edinburgh, London, Oxford, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The objects of the IFoA, as set out in the Charter, shall be, in the public interest, to advance all matters relevant to actuarial science and its application and to regulate and promote the actuarial profession. Our objects, together with our strategy, set out what we do.
We ensure that appropriate policies in this area (for example, in procurement) are in place and are maintained. We are accountable in this area to our Audit and Risk Committee who review new or updated policies and who will monitor the effectiveness of the steps taken. In February 2024 our Audit and Risk Committee approved a new procurement policy.
The new policy is a comprehensive, detailed set of processes setting out how we engage and contract with suppliers. Detailed guidance is being developed to help budget-holders to apply this new policy, and to support them in complying with the responsibilities that come with purchasing goods or commissioning services on behalf of the IFoA.
We are committed to proportional due diligence in our supply chain as part of any contract review or procurement exercise. We prioritise due diligence in industries where risks associated with modern slavery are statistically greater.
We recognise that some countries around the world are identified in the Global Slavery Index as having a range of prevalence of modern slavery. As a global professional membership body, we are cognisant of our responsibilities in our sourcing activity in other countries. Before onboarding any supplier, every effort is made to carry out the appropriate due diligence checks to establish the credibility of the supplier and to mitigate risk. The following are examples of the types of checks that could be carried out: company checks; political/reputational checks; cybersecurity and operational risk checks.
The impact of this on our international organisation will continue to be reviewed in 2024/25.
We have incorporated modern slavery compliance clauses into our supplier contracts since 2015. As a responsible employer, we are committed to ensuring our levels of pay meet the Living wage (as a minimum). We share the values of Living Wage Employers and ask that our suppliers pay the Living Wage where we can influence this. Our supplier base is low risk, but we will not make any assumptions in our review for 2024/25. We require our suppliers to adhere to our standards including alignment with our position and policy on modern slavery. Where required we will ask for evidence from potential suppliers to ensure their approach, standards and ‘way of doing things’ is compliant with our values. We conduct ongoing monitoring of the supplier to ensure consistent and ongoing compliance with our standards.
We provide appropriate training to employees to raise awareness of signs of Modern Slavery. A comprehensive training programme will be delivered across our organisation from lawyers specialising in the law relating to modern slavery and best practices to mitigate risks. We will also be providing internal training sessions on the newly introduced procurement policy to ensure that those working at the IFoA apply the highest standards in sourcing third-party suppliers to mitigate the risks of modern slavery.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Act and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 29th February 2024. It has been approved by the IFoA Audit and Risk Committee as an annual statement on Modern Slavery for the year 2024/25.
Anne Moore – Chief Operating Officer
Date: 6 November 2024
This statement covers the IFoA and the following subsidiary companies: Institute and Faculty Education Ltd, Continuous Mortality Investigation Ltd, CERA Global Association, ICA 98 Ltd, CAA Global Ltd, IFoA Research Limited and the charity IFoA Foundation.