Over the past year we have continued to develop our responsible procurement processes to help maintain close and trusted relationships with all our Arthur Cox suppliers. These supplier relationships are important to ensure we deliver on our environmental, social and governance commitments. Through increased due diligence we can better understand our suppliers, how they interact with us and the environment around them. For us as a business it is key that we achieve this open, transparent, communication and collaboration.

We require our new suppliers to complete a risk assessment and to acknowledge our supplier Code of Conduct which outlines our expectations in relation to security, sustainability and ethics. Our vendor evaluation questionnaire also requires suppliers to describe their cyber security and ESG practices. As well as ensuring that we conduct appropriate due diligence on our suppliers, we now place greater scrutiny on the contractual basis of our partnerships. This enables us to best position both the firm and our clients in an ever-evolving regulatory environment. By reducing our exposure to risks in selecting and managing suppliers, we can assure our clients and our people that we are committed to maintaining best practices.

To ensure that we continuously improve on these practices, over the past 12 months, the firm’s Sustainable Business Committee has developed a sub-committee which is accountable for the selection, oversight, review and on-going monitoring of critical suppliers to the firm. The sub-committee steers our procurement practices towards having both maximum external and internal impact. This proactive approach is crucial to ensure our responsible procurement maintains appropriate governance and works towards practical objectives.

The sub-committee is tasked with:

• designating responsibility and accountability
• building up relevant know-how in procurement
• implementing resilient risk management systems for environmental and social risks
• integrating systems and processes to increase efficiency and reportability
• working proactively with our suppliers in completing and ensuring relevancy of our vendor evaluation questionnaires

As a firm we place increased emphasis on suppliers who share a similar vision to us in terms of the execution of their day-to-day operations and service delivery.

This holistic, risk-orientated approach is crucial for the efficient and targeted implementation of a structured, secured and trusted supply chain while encouraging transparency and collaboration throughout.

We have updated our Modern Day Slavery Statement this year to ensure we uphold ethical standards and demonstrate our commitment to human rights and responsible business practices in today’s globalised world.