Read more about the policies and processes we have in place to give us better insight into our customers’ activities and address issues of concern.
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Human rights and modern slavery
Respecting Human Rights
At NatWest Group, we understand that businesses have an important role to play in promoting respect for human rights and continue to align our approach to internationally recognised human rights standards including the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).
We have established a policy framework to respect and promote human rights with our customers, our colleagues and our suppliers. These are reflected in our Human Rights Position Statement (PDF 1.3MB) which was reviewed and updated in 2022.
We regularly engage with stakeholders around our responsibilities to respect human rights and are members of the Thun Group, which discusses how the financial services sector can incorporate and embed the UNGPs into their due diligence processes. Throughout 2022, we participated in several indices and benchmarks which helped to inform our activity and identify opportunities to continually improve and evolve our approach.
We have established a Human Rights Steering Group, a management group that brings representatives from across NatWest Group together to coordinate our activities, and to make recommendations to the NatWest Group Executive Committee and Board to develop and strengthen our approach
We are continually evolving our approach and our Sustainable Banking team welcome any input or feedback from stakeholders.
Tackling modern slavery and human trafficking
Modern slavery and human trafficking affect an extraordinary number of people and are among the fastest growing criminal industries and the biggest human rights crises of today.
We have put in place policies covering our customers, colleagues and suppliers, which seek to address modern slavery and monitor our financing and supply chain for this activity.
Our approach to modern slavery and human trafficking is continuously evolving to ensure we keep pace with the changing external environment.
We publish an annual statement which sets out the steps that we are taking to identify and address modern slavery and human trafficking within our own operation and throughout our value chain.
Our current Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement (year end 2022) can be found below alongside our previous statements.
Our Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement
2017-2018 Statement (PDF 177KB)
2016-2017 Statement (PDF 118KB)
For more details, please see our 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Supplement (PDF 9.6MB)
Related links
Read more about the important role we have to play to detect and prevent financial crime, protecting people, families, and businesses.
Read more about our ambition to quantify the impact of all supplier activities through a supplier engagement framework.