Modern slavery act statement

Our structure and business

The Royal Society of Chemistry is a UK registered charity and our Royal Charter granted in 1980 defines the nature and roles of our organisation.

• As a learned society we are concerned with advancing chemistry as a science, developing its applications, and disseminating chemical knowledge
• As a professional body, we maintain professional qualifications and set high standards of competence and conduct for professional chemists. We also provide a wide range of services and activities of value both to members and to the community
• As a representative body, we provide information and advice on issues involving the science and practice of chemistry at all levels. We also act on behalf of qualified chemists so that their expertise and experience may be used to the best advantage of the community
• As a chartered body, we have a special status with a paramount duty to serve the public interest while remaining completely objective

Our purpose statement

To help the chemical science community make the world a better place emphasises our focus on helping chemical scientists make a positive impact.

The Royal Society of Chemistry has a permanent presence in the United Kingdom, India, China, Germany, Japan and the United States of America. In 2025 we employed a monthly average of 712 people worldwide, comprising an average of 660 employees in the UK and 52 internationally.

Our supply chain

The Royal Society of Chemistry works with a wide range of suppliers in order to deliver its activities, including in publishing and production services, IT and software services, outsourced development, facilities management, professional services, events and catering.

Analysis by global organisations, such as the International Labour Association, indicates that from a supply chain perspective, modern slavery is most likely to occur in industries often characterised by labour intensive activity, lower levels of regulation and reliance on vulnerable workers. This includes industries such as garments and textiles production; cleaning; security; food processing; manufacturing; and electronics. We recognise that our areas of higher potential risk may include IT and electronics, facilities management services including cleaning, and catering supply chains.

Modern slavery can occur anywhere in the world and the Global Slavery Index (published 2023) highlights countries estimated to have the highest prevalence. We work with suppliers across many countries globally, including some countries such as India which have a higher estimated prevalence of modern slavery as measured by the most recent Global Slavery Index.

Actions to minimise risks of modern slavery

The RSC has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery.

During 2025 we:

During the forthcoming year, we intend to:

• Continue to ensure that our contractual arrangements with our suppliers for any higher-risk expenditure categories are robust and transparent
• Continue to include modern slavery training as part of our mandatory new starter and all staff training, increasing training completion rates and maintaining awareness across relevant roles
• Further promote awareness of modern slavery risks and due diligence processes with employees, including additional practical guidance for those employees engaging with suppliers
• Carry out checks of agreements in the pre-contract phase to confirm appropriate terms have been included with relevant suppliers
• Monitor and undertake robust investigations of supply chains where evidence indicates that breaches of RSC policy has occurred or is ongoing and terminate arrangements where necessary.

We recognise that addressing modern slavery risks requires ongoing development and we will continue to refine and evolve our approach.

Supplier adherence to our values

We will continue to carry out reviews of new and existing commercial relationships to ensure that suppliers and partners comply with our values and our obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. These will include:

• engaging with our suppliers, contractors, associates and business partners via contract management meetings and communications to convey our Policy where needed
• encouraging self-reporting by our suppliers
• where appropriate request completion of our Supplier Suitability Questionnaire to support our assessment of risk and compliance
• where we identify high-risk areas, we will ensure that we consider potential modern slavery risks in any future contracts or renewals

Communication and training

We will communicate or make available this Statement and our Policy to all our employees, members and volunteers to ensure a clear understanding of the risks of slavery and human trafficking within our own business.

We will continue to incorporate modern slavery training as part of mandatory new starter training, and promote additional guidance relating to modern slavery for those employees engaging with suppliers.

Our internal Whistleblowing Policy sets out the procedures to follow should employees have any suspicions of modern slavery in the workplace.

Further steps

We will review and update this Statement and our Policy on an annual basis to ensure it reflects our ongoing commitment.

Helen Pain
Chief Executive Officer
Royal Society of Chemistry