Modern slavery transparency statement

Each of the Modern Slavery Transparency Statements set forth below are made pursuant to Section 54(1) of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “Act”) and constitute LGC’s annual statement on modern slavery and transparency from 2016 to (and including) 2023:

1. Introduction

Our core purpose, Science for a Safer World, is integral to how we operate. It informs how we conduct business at LGC. We are committed to the continuous improvement of our business practices and how we view our operations and wider supply chain. This includes assessing and minimising risk arising from slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking (collectively “modern slavery”).

2. Our business

LGC is a leading, global life science tools company, providing mission-critical components and solutions into high-growth application areas across the human healthcare and applied market segments. Our high quality product portfolio is comprised of tools for genomics and quality assurance applications. These are typically embedded and recurring within our customers’ products and workflows and are valued for their performance, quality and range.

Our tools play a key role in customer workflows from discovery applications through to commercial manufacture and enable our customers to:

bring new diagnostics and therapies to market;
progress research and development;
optimise food production; and
continuously monitor and enhance the quality of food, the environment and consumer products.

Our 180 years of scientific heritage, combined with a track record of innovation and value-enhancing acquisitions, has enabled us to build our product portfolio and expertise, and develop deep relationships with customers, industry partners and the global scientific community.

In addition to our core purpose, the values of our organisation - passion, curiosity, integrity, brilliance and respect - drive our culture. As of 31 August 2022, we employ 4,496 employees, of which over 28% hold PhD and/or master’s degrees. Our products and services are delivered by highly qualified and experienced teams, operating from a global network of accredited sites that showcase our scientific and manufacturing capabilities.

3. Our policies and practices

Many of our policies reflect our commitment to act with integrity and respect in all our business interactions and to minimise the risk of modern slavery in our business and wider supply chain. Our Code of Ethics is underpinned by our policy on Equality & Diversity as well as processes for supplier selection and diligence. LGC personnel are accountable for compliance with company policies and procedures, which includes an overriding requirement to ensure LGC operates in compliance with the law. This year, we created a dedicated Legal Compliance Team within the Legal function, to supplement the work of existing divisional compliance resources. This step strengthens our ongoing commitment to doing business in a way that reflects our values of respect and integrity.

LGC’s Supplier Code of Conduct outlines the standards which LGC expects its suppliers to follow, including compliance with appropriate policies and procedures, such as those relating to modern slavery. In addition to complying with applicable laws and regulations in connection with the provision of goods and services, LGC seeks to work with suppliers that adhere to our core values in all business transactions and all suppliers are required to commit to the Supplier Code of Conduct as a condition of doing business with LGC. All suppliers are contractually obliged to communicate their obligations under the Supplier Code of Conduct to their employees and subcontractors.

LGC continues to operate a whistleblowing procedure, allowing employees and third parties to report concerns about the actions of other employees, managers and suppliers anonymously and in confidence to the LGC Chief Compliance Officer. During the past 12 months, any reports made through this procedure were investigated as appropriate. None of these reports related to modern slavery or human trafficking.

4. Risk assessment and due diligence

LGC’s risk assessment processes indicate that the risk associated with modern slavery across our businesses, including in our wider supply chain, continues to be low. LGC is a global business and has a global supply chain. As a consequence of the highly specialised nature of our businesses, the vast majority of LGC’s suppliers are located in low-risk sectors and geographies and LGC typically seeks to engage with strategic suppliers only. Our suppliers are predominantly based in the UK, EU and the US.

As part of LGC’s initiative to identify and mitigate risk, we conduct due diligence, including financial checks on all new suppliers, contractors, sub-contractors, distributors, agents and customers. These checks help identify and verify that such parties are not involved with, or suspected of, modern slavery, bribery, corruption or other unlawful activity. We further utilise improved capabilities for live counterparty checking at each stage of the transactional process to ensure LGC continues to comply with applicable laws and regulations when transacting with our partners and customers.

LGC reserves the right to audit its key suppliers through virtual or on-site audits to ensure that they comply with LGC’s Supplier Code of Conduct and applicable laws and regulations. In line with many businesses supplier audits have been limited during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past 12 months, we have implemented enhanced procedures to promote continued transparency and facilitate greater control of our supply chains. These include:

Use of digital procurement tools, to track supplier sustainability credentials, including adherence with modern slavery and conflict mineral requirements and to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements within contracts;
Supplier onboarding assessments, as part of onboarding and qualification processes we ask what certifications, policy commitments or statements the supplier has made around responsible or sustainable procurement practices, e.g. relating to conflict minerals, labour management practices and human rights protection; and
Updated supplier code of conduct, to include specific expectations with regards to environmental performance and working conditions for employees in our supply chains.

5. Training

LGC continues to deliver periodic personnel training on counterparty checking of both customers and suppliers to LGC personnel in a systematic manner, as informed by our risk assessment processes. We launched compulsory training to all employees on anti-bribery and corruption in 2019 and on export controls in May 2020. In 2022, we deployed an updated e-learning course covering our controls to manage anti-bribery and corruption, and further training on data privacy and cybersecurity risk, which were each mandatory for all employees. We continue to review on-going compulsory compliance training offered to employees to ensure compliance with applicable laws, including those in connection with modern slavery.

6. Next steps

LGC is not aware of any established instance of modern slavery in our business or wider supply chain. Our global procurement team will continue to adopt and implement the pre-emptive measures outlined above in order to minimise the risks associated with modern slavery across LGC.

As our business continues to grow, we remain committed to integrating our businesses with global policies and procedures that highlight and educate our personnel and suppliers of the risk of modern slavery. As such, identification and management of modern slavery risk will continue to inform the update of LGC’s compliance processes and policies.

This statement has been approved by the Board of LGC Limited, LGC Genomics Limited and their parent company, LGC Science Corporation Limited, in compliance with the Act. It was approved by the Board of LGC Science Corporation Limited on 29 September 2022.

Euan O’Sullivan
President and Chief Executive Officer of LGC
29 September 2022