Modern Slavery Act​

This statement is made on behalf of UK Mortgage Lending Limited (formerly Optimum Credit Limited) and Pepper Money Limited (“Pepper Money”) pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our statement for the financial year ending 31 December 2020.

At Pepper Money we recognise the responsibility that we have as a commercial organisation to prevent and combat modern slavery in our business and the supply chains we participate in. We aim to achieve this by operating in a manner that is ethical, transparent and fair and we have designed policies and procedures to drive this behaviour in every area of our business.

UK Mortgage Lending Limited is incorporated in England and Wales, with registered company number 08698121 and registered office at 4 Capital Quarter, Tyndall Street, Cardiff, CF10 4BZ.

The Pepper Money business is organised into seven business units, including Operations, Sales & Marketing, Legal, Human Resources, Finance, Compliance, Risk and IT.

We deal with hundreds of companies that supply us with a broad range of products and services. In many cases those companies also have extensive supply chains. In terms of modern slavery, we are particularly focused on those supply chains where there is a higher degree of sub-contracting and outsourcing to developing countries and so we pay particular attention to our technology and IT hardware supply chains and/or any providers of branded merchandise.

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy reflects this commitment, as well our intention to act transparently, ethically and fairly in all our business dealings. The policy also reflects our approach to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to monitor and ensure that our supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking.

At Pepper Money, we hold our suppliers to high standards. We expect suppliers to demonstrate the same level of commitment to the elimination of modern slavery and human rights abuses in their supply chains as we do and this is a major focus of our due diligence and contract negotiation process for new suppliers.

To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide training to our staff. Where we consider it necessary, we also require our business partners to provide training to their staff and suppliers and providers.

We have not identified any areas requiring immediate action with regard to supplier relationships, beyond our regular procurement due diligence processes and our internal third-party supplier policies.