Introduction
Our purpose at Macmillan Cancer Support is to do whatever it takes to support people living with cancer. As an organisation we strive to operate to high ethical standards, and we recognise that we have a responsibility to consider the impact of our operations on others.
We have developed a modern slavery statement to demonstrate our commitment to ethical trading principles. This statement sets out the measures we have already taken - and that we are continuing to build on - to understand and minimise modern slavery risks within our business structure and supply chain.
We are committed to ensuring that modern slavery is not taking place in any part of our operations or our supply chains
Our organisation
Macmillan Cancer Support are the UK's a leading cancer charity. We have around 1,500 employees and 10,000 volunteers, all based in the UK. Our employees are not in any category that is seen as vulnerable to modern slavery in this country. We are an accredited Living Wage Employer with the Living Wage Foundation, and all our employees (regardless of location) are paid at least the London Living Wage.
As an organisation, we offer expert emotional, financial and practical support for people living with cancer in the UK and we raise money to be able to provide this support in the future.
At time of writing, we have a wholly owned subsidiary companies:
- Macmillan Cancer Support Trading Limited, which sells Christmas cards and other items, and carries out fundraising trading activities
We are governed by a board of trustees who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of company law. The trustees oversee our activities to achieve our objectives and are ultimately responsible for everything we do. Day-to-day responsibility for running the charity is delegated to the Chief Executive, and the Executive Directors who comprise the Executive Team.
Our supply chain
We work with over 1,000 suppliers (based on our 2024 spend information) with 80% of spend across 48 suppliers. A significant percentage of our suppliers are dedicated to supporting marketing, fundraising, corporate and IT services. Most of our suppliers are UK based.
Branded merchandise supply chain
At Macmillan we procure branded merchandise through our internal buying team which is sold on our online shop. Our merchandise is produced in eight countries, most of which comes from China, followed by the UK, Turkey and Germany. We have a core supplier framework selected through a comprehensive supplier tender process.
As we have assessed these types of products as having potentially higher modern slavery risk, we have focused on strengthening our due diligence and practices throughout these supply chains. Our merchandise suppliers must adhere to strict processes, maintaining accurate factory audits, ensuring safe working conditions, and addressing any identified issues promptly.
Our policies and procedures
We have a range of policies that contribute to minimising the risk of modern slavery in our supply chains. They are promoted through internal awareness raising programmes such as all colleague emails and training. The most relevant policies for the purposes of modern slavery include our procurement policy and guidance, our ethics policy and our whistleblowing policy. Our whistleblowing policy is publicly available on our website and members of the public can raise a whistleblowing concern.
Due diligence
For higher value contracts, we now include an assessment of the anti-modern slavery measures taken by potential suppliers. Our template services contracts include clauses about suppliers complying with the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, however, on some occasions, for practical purposes we enter into contracts based on the suppliers’ terms meaning clauses around suppliers complying with the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 are not always included in the contracts.
Our Procurement Policy requires that in both the selection of suppliers and their management, we must consider Environmental Social Governance (ESG) criteria, including exploitation in the supply chain.
We use an external third-party data analytics service that enables us to monitor the risk profile for our suppliers, including modern slavery risks.
Our Procurement team is part of the Charity Sector Procurement Group where members share good practice about all areas of Procurement in charities, including reducing the risk of modern slavery in supply chains.
Risk identification
We carried out a high-level modern slavery risk identification on our supply chain using the principles and guidance set out in a government procurement policy note. The assessment considers supplier industry, nature of workforce and the supply chain model which allows us to identify spend areas which may carry an increased risk.
Supplier Code of Conduct
Staff training and awareness
During 2024 we set up a modern slavery working group to raise organisational awareness and continually improve measures to minimise modern slavery risks in our operations and supply chain.
As part of Anti-Slavery Week in October 2024 we raised awareness through a Modern Slavery news item in an all-colleague email newsletter and developed a dedicated Modern Slavery page on our internal intranet.Looking ahead
Key actions and initiatives planned for 2025 include:
- Expanding the number of existing suppliers that actively agree to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct.
- Carrying out an annual review of our Supplier Code of Conduct to identify any improvements after its first year in operation.
- Setting standards and expectations with all third-party relationships, which includes modern slavery.
- Raise internal awareness of modern slavery to colleagues working in high-risk areas.
This statement is made voluntarily (as Macmillan does not meet the financial threshold at which publishing a statement becomes mandatory) and accords with s54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 for the financial year ending 31 December 2024.
This statement has been formally approved by the trustees of Macmillan Cancer Support at a board meeting on 24th February 2025 and signed on their behalf.
Richard Murley, Chair
Macmillan Cancer Support
24 February 2025