Statement under Section 54(1) of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 (“MSA”)
for London and Regional Group Hotels Ltd  and their affiliated entities
(together the “L+R Hotels Group” or the ”Group”)

The L+R Hotels Group recognises the importance of respecting human rights as embodied in the International Bill of Human Rights, The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and as a Group is committed to preventing forced or compulsory labour, human trafficking, and other kinds of slavery across all business dealings and transactions in which we are involved, regardless of location, and throughout our supply chain. We always strive to work to the highest professional standards and comply with all laws, regulations and rules relevant to our businesses.

About L+R Hotels

The L+R Hotels Group is a global private investment business that owns and manages an extensive hotel portfolio that includes some of the finest branded and independent hotels and resorts in the UK, Continental Europe, the US and the Caribbean. It operates hotels directly and under franchises, licence agreements and under hotel management agreements. The Group works to create lasting value for investors and communities, building on the strength of its properties and people including employees, guests, partners and investors.

• For more information on the Hotels group, please visit our website at www.landrhotels.com

Policies

We are committed to upholding the human rights of our employees and ensuring that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business in the UK and wherever we operate, globally. The policies of the Group have been developed to ensure high standards of conduct and ethical behaviour in all of our business activities and we expect the same standards from all our contractors, suppliers and other business partners.

We have policies and procedures in place across the Group to protect our employees and their labour rights across our operations including policies around equal opportunities, working hours and pay. Compliance with these policies is monitored by our People and Culture support, as well as senior management, and is reviewed on an annual basis with ad-hoc updates made when there are changes in employment law.

We engage with suppliers on a regular basis as they are important to our business being able to operate effectively and we have a clear policy for approving suppliers prior to work being commissioned. Out supplier due diligence processes help to identify and address potential risks of modern slavery. We screen our established strategic suppliers to ensure we are only engaging with suppliers who comply with anti-slavery laws and that do not engage in any slavery or human trafficking practices. Where cases, or allegations, of forces labour are identified within our supply chain, we investigate any concern thoroughly. There have been no such cases or allegations in FY 2023.

We have also adopted other relevant policies and procedures, which reinforce our fundamental values of integrity, professionalism, transparency, accountability, client focus and excellence and which provide a robust foundation for identifying risks, including emerging risks, assessing mitigation factors and actions and establishing clear management responsibility. Our staff are encouraged to discuss the importance of ensuring fair and safe working practices and to report possible signs of modern slavery and trafficking through our whistleblowing channel as set out in the Group Whistleblowing Policy. Employee inductions on joining the Group includes an outline of our expectations for ethical business practices including how to conduct relationships with suppliers and clients. Through internal communications all employees are made aware of the Group’s policies and procedures, including those on health and safety, anti-bullying and harassment, whistleblowing, anti-bribery and corruption and preventing slavery and human trafficking. Through these educational activities we increase awareness of modern slavery and human trafficking with employees and contractors and ensure that they are equipped to identify, and report suspected instances.

Risk Assessment & Due Diligence Procedures

From a slavery and human trafficking perspective, given the nature of our business, we are highly sensitive to the existence of slavery and human trafficking in the hospitality industry and within our supply chain relating to support services such as cleaning and maintenance amongst others. We continue a to assess, regularly monitor and mitigate risks relating to slavery and human trafficking on a Group-wide basis, with individual operating companies taking specific actions where appropriate to the level of risk and taking actionable steps to prevent the use of any of the assets we own and/or control for human trafficking and slavery, and to raising awareness concerning such exploitation wherever we do business.

We will undertake a review of modern slavery risks across the Group towards the end of FY 2025 to identify any significant risks that may have been overlooked.

Training & Looking Ahead

We recognise that modern slavery and human trafficking requires constant commitment and vigilance. Raising colleagues’ awareness of trafficking and modern slavery is key to identifying and helping to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking.

Going forward we intend to take the following steps aimed at mitigating modern slavery, forced labour, and human trafficking risks in our operations:

• Invite all senior managers across the Group and its operating divisions to undertaken a mandatory, dedicated online training module related to preventing modern slavery across our operations.
• Continue to monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains on an ongoing basis to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains.
• Continue to embed human rights in our policies, governance practices and contracts;
• Undertake an assessment and review of policies periodically.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes the slavery and human trafficking statement for the L+R Hotel group and those joint ventures and funds managed by us, for the financial year ending 31 December 2023. It was approved by the executive board of L + R Hotels Group on 17 December 2024. 

Desmond Taljaard

Deputy Chair