Modern Slavery Act

Modern Slavery Act 2015: Transparency in Supply Chains Statement 2023

Introduction

Mourant is a law firm-led, professional services business and provides specialist entity management, governance, regulatory and consulting services. We strive for excellence and the highest standards of professionalism, ethics, and integrity in every aspect of our business.

We are committed to combating slavery and human trafficking and to engaging with our suppliers to ensure that they do not engage in slavery or human trafficking or any activity which would be associated with these practices.

This statement is published pursuant to Section 54 of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the Act) and describes the steps which Mourant has taken during the financial year ended 31 January 2023 and beyond to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any of our supply chains, or in any part of our business.

Organisational Structure and Business

'Mourant Ozannes' designates the separate law firm partnerships, limited liability partnerships or other bodies (corporate or otherwise), which advise, respectively, on British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, and Jersey law. 'LexField' designates the separate law firm private limited company, which advises on Luxembourg law. We have offices in these jurisdictions as well as Hong Kong, Mauritius, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

Through our affiliated governance services provider, Mourant Governance Services, we deliver a complementary range of fiduciary, administration, and governance services. We also offer a regulatory and compliance consulting service through Mourant Consulting Limited.

For full details about the entities comprising the Mourant Group, including how we are regulated, please see our Legal & Regulatory Notice & Disclaimer.

Commitment to a Supply Chain that is free from Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking

As a professional services firm, we view the risk of modern slavery within our business to be low and our supply chain to be straightforward. Nevertheless, we are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chain, or any part of our business.

Policies and Procedures:

As a professional services business, we comply with all relevant laws and regulations and we have firm-wide policies and procedures in place to mitigate the risk of our business being exposed to money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion, proliferation financing, bribery, and corruption. We also have policies and procedures in place to ensure that the culture within Mourant is one of lawful and ethical behaviour, openness, trust, and integrity and one which promotes and supports equity, diversity, and inclusion.

As part of our commitment to identify and mitigate any risk of modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chain, we have introduced policies and procedures to assess our new and existing key suppliers including, amongst other things, to their adherence to principles of good governance, fair employment, and sub-supplier practices. We require our key suppliers to comply with the Act, our Code of Business Conduct (see below), as well as all other relevant laws concerning the fair treatment of employees. Many of our suppliers who support our business such as cleaning, catering, contractors, security, IT suppliers and recruitment agencies are long-term relationships with contract renewal points to reassess our terms from time to time.

We continue to keep our policies and procedures under review with the aim of further driving best practice amongst our suppliers.

Code of Business Conduct

We have a Code of Business Conduct published on our website which sets out our commitment to upholding the highest standards of professionalism, including combatting modern slavery. Any breach of our Code of Business Conduct by a supplier, may result in us terminating our arrangements with the supplier.

Internal Training

The procurement of our key suppliers is managed through a transparent and clear protocol with strong oversight. We provide periodic mandatory training to our personnel who are involved in the onboarding and review of suppliers, so they can understand the requirements of the Act and how to identify risks to ensure that our business operations are at all times conducted in accordance with the policies set out in this statement.

Keith Pearse, Partner of Mourant LP on 25 October 2023.

You can find out more about us, and access our legal and regulatory notices at mourant.com