“Contract Terms:

A key method that Berkeley uses to exercise control and influence over its supply chain is the contractual terms that it agrees with its contractors and suppliers. The Call-Off team uses a bespoke contract that all of its site contractors must sign up to.This contract was updated in October 2015 to include robust anti-modern slavery provisions, including 'flow down' provisions to ensure that the obligations are passed on down the supply chain and not restricted to the first link in the chain.”

“The internal dialogue revealed that the risk of child labour being used in the supply chain is closely related to the risk of modern slavery. As both of these come under the umbrella of human rights, these will be combined into a single human rights policy, with a section dedicated to modern slavery and child labour. The 'Human Rights, Modern Slavery and Child Labour Policy' will be submitted to the Board for approval in the financial year 2016/17.”

“One of these centralised functions is the 'Call-Off' team, which administers Berkeley's database of approved construction sub-contractors on behalf of the Group companies. Call-Off is responsible for the initial vetting of contractors before their use ondevelopments around the Group and is involved in the ongoing administration of contractors.

Sometimes main contractors are used by the divisions where construction requires a single point for design responsibility or there is a single end-user, such as a care home or school. While there are some limited aspects of the supply chain that are unique to the individual operating companies (for example requirements to use local labour under planning agreements), a review of spending levels indicated that the majority of all operating companies' supply chains come through the Call-Off team, including some labour only contractors. This is a further factor determining that it is appropriate for Berkeley to report on behalf of itself and for subsidiary companies to adopt this report.

A limited quantity of material is sourced directly from suppliers, with the majority of the materials being procured by the contractors engaged to carry out works. Therefore Berkeley is often several steps removed from the procurement of materials. Nonetheless Berkeley exercises a degree of control over the sourcing of supplies used on developments and has a long history of sourcing sustainable materials for use on its developments.

Berkeley aims to make a significant, long-term contribution to the environment and the social and economic fabric of the communities in which it works and its goal is to work with its supply chain to help it achieve this.”

Binu Silva.....2017-10-18 14:39:18 UTC