Modern Slavery Statement 2025
References to we, us and Walker Morris in this statement relate to Walker Morris LLP on behalf of itself and its subsidiaries.
This is the tenth modern slavery statement published by Walker Morris, with our first published in 2016. This statement is published in accordance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the Act) and sets out the work we have undertaken to build on and develop our efforts to ensure transparency in our business and throughout our supply chains to eradicate the risk of modern slavery.
Our business
We conduct all of our business in an honest and ethical manner.
We are a full-service commercial law firm, with a single site in Leeds serving clients in the UK and overseas with high quality advice.
Our clients, many of whom are blue chip companies, are drawn from a broad range of sectors, predominantly manufacturing, real estate and infrastructure and financial services. Other sectors include retail, food and drink, technology and media, energy, construction and sport.
Our policies
Our Anti-Slavery Policy and supporting documentation reflect the progress we have made in strengthening our supplier processes. We also maintain a number of other relevant policies which support our compliance with the Act, and which are reviewed and updated annually, as appropriate and include:
- Anti-Corruption and Bribery Policy;
- Colleague Dignity and Respect Policy;
- Corporate Responsibility Policy;
- Equality and Diversity Policy;
- Whistleblowing Policy, and
- Safeguarding Statement.
We provide training to our staff on the key elements of these policies, as appropriate.
Our supply chain
We expect all of our contractors and suppliers to meet the same high ethical standards that we apply to our own business.
The majority of our suppliers are UK businesses although some are multi-nationals. Our supply chain is not complex and primarily involves the purchase of services and goods to support the delivery of our services such as IT equipment, software, facilities maintenance, general office equipment and consumables. We continue to assess and monitor our supply chain for evidence of modern slavery.
Risk assessment and due diligence
This year we have completed a further detailed risk assessment of new tier 1 suppliers in our supply chain. This involved scoring suppliers against criteria including known ethical breaches, criminal convictions, sectoral risk, geographical risk based on the 2023 Global Slavery Index and taking into account matters such as our spend with the supplier and the length of our relationship with them. We used this scoring to categorise our suppliers as representing a high, medium or low risk of modern slavery taking place in their business. This year 84% of new tier 1 suppliers assessed were categorised as low risk and, due to their sector risk score, 16% were categorised as medium risk. Due diligence has been conducted on these suppliers to better understand the risk posed, and following completion of this due diligence exercise we have identified no evidence of modern slavery.
We re-risk assess existing suppliers on a rolling 5-year basis as part of our ongoing supplier due diligence.
Key performance indicators
We continue to make good progress in developing and refining our anti-slavery procedures with our existing suppliers and our processes for onboarding new suppliers. While we remain committed to strengthening our approach, due to the evolving nature of our procedures, and the relatively low-risk profile of our current supply chain, at this stage we have decided not to adopt key performance indicators. However, we will keep this under review.
Approval
This slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 30 April 2025 is signed by Jeanette Burgess, Managing Partner and Designated Member on behalf of the members of Walker Morris LLP in accordance with section 54 of the Act.
Jeanette Burgess, Managing Partner
October 2025
__________________
Previous Modern Slavery Statements
