Modern Slavery Act

Attends Ltd.(“Attends”) is committed to the principles of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and to preventing acts of modern slavery and human trafficking from occurring within both its business and supply chain. This statement sets out the steps taken by Attends during its financial year ending 31 December 2023 to prevent slavery and human trafficking from taking place in any of its supply chains or in any part of its business.

Attends engages in the distribution of incontinence and continence care products for men and women worldwide. The products distributed by Attends are manufactured by Attends Healthcare AB, Attends affiliated company in Sweden. It serves customers and the NHS through wholesalers, retail, online and pharmacies. The company is based in Wakefield, United Kingdom.

Attends (and Attends Healthcare AB) are part of Attindas Hygiene Partners group (“Attindas”), which has production facilities in Europe and North America.

We Respect Human Rights. Attindas Code of Conduct specifies that:

“Respect for Human Rights is one of our fundamental values. Through our actions and policies, we strive to respect and promote Human Rights in our relationships with our People and our business partners. Our aim is to help increase the enjoyment of Human Rights within the communities where we operate. We expect our People and our business partners to avoid causing or contributing to Human Rights infringements through their business actions. […] We do not tolerate: • Use forced labor or involuntary prison labor in any form, including any human trafficking and slavery”.

Our Human Rights policy reinforces this statement, and specifies that:

“We do not use forced labor, nor do we tolerate the use of forced labor by our contractors and suppliers, and under no circumstances do we tolerate physically abusive disciplinary practices. Attindas does not use, and is strongly against, human trafficking in its labor force or that of its contractors and suppliers”.  

We are also committed to sourcing responsibly and ensuring that our Suppliers conduct their operations in a socially responsible manner.Attindas Code of Conduct specifies that:

“Transparency and sustainability are critical elements to our Supply Chain. We expect ourSuppliers to follow the standards of our Code, or otherwise act in a manner consistent with our standards. We mustensure that our ethical expectations are understood and respected by all Suppliers wherever they operate”. 

In addition, Attindas has in place a robust Compliance Program encompassing the following key elements:

Moreover, Attindas is building an ESG Program to work systematically in this direction, fostering leadership, coordinating efforts and initiatives, setting goals and ambitions and providing measurability and accountability. 

As part of Attindas ESG commitment, Attindas has signed up the UN Global Compact and supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).

Attindas carries out due diligence steps with certain business partners, in particular for Antibribery and Export compliance purposes. According to Attindas Antibribery and Export compliance policies, certain business partners are screened using a specific screening tool to learn if they have been sanctioned or there is adverse media about them for illegal or unethical practices (which potentially may include Modern Slavery).

In addition to the above, Attends Healthcare AB carries out specific due diligence on its supply chain to assess the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring within its supply chains and requests social audits (e.g. SMETA) to some of its suppliers.

We take compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 seriously, and do not tolerate slavery and human trafficking within our supply chains, as expressly stated in Attindas Code of Conduct. If we were to find evidence that one of our suppliers was involved in modern slavery or human trafficking, we would investigate those allegations and consider terminating our relationship with them if the incidents were not resolved to our satisfaction.

Given our view that Attends’ exposure to modern slavery risk is limited, we have not implemented any specific training or key performance indicators in relation to modern slavery and human trafficking during the previous financial year. However, all employees have to complete their Code of Conduct training via mandatory e-learning, and participation in this training is regularly monitored and reported to the Board.

• As part of Attindas ESG Program and in order to support SDG 16 we will assess the feasibility of setting goals related to the assessment of our Suppliers for social impacts.
• We will conduct briefings for our staff so that they understand the signs of modern slavery and what to do if they suspect that it is taking place within our employee base and supply chain.

As mentioned above, we have plans to evaluate the feasibility of setting goals related to the assessment of our suppliers for social impacts. In such case, we will establish systems to monitor and track indicators in relation to that commitment (e.g. number of suppliers assessed for social impacts, percentage of new suppliers that were screened using social criteria). We will strive to make sure we know the effectiveness of the steps we take to ensure that slavery and/or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain.

We support the government's objective to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking and acknowledge our role in both combating it and supporting victims. We’re committed to make sure our supply chains and business activities are free from ethical and labour standards abuse.

This statement is made following the principles of Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and is valid for the financial year commencing 1 January 2023 and ending 31 December 2023.

Last updated 31st October 2023.