Modern slavery and labour exploitation statement

Statement for the financial year ending 31 August 2027, published 28 August 2026. Both dates are here on purpose, and they have to agree. We have read a statement from one of the largest agencies in this trade whose declaration covers the financial year ending 2025, whose body reports highlights from 2023 and 2024, and which was signed on 31 May 2026. The file it was published as has the words "date change" in its name. Section 54 asks for a statement for EACH financial year, not last year's with a new date on the front, and the only way to hold ourselves to that is to print both dates where anybody can compare them. We have since read a second one, from a group of seven staffing brands turning over £145 million, which sets out the steps it "will take during the year ending 30th April 2027": a year that had not started when the statement was published. That is a plan, and a plan is a fine thing to have, but section 54 asks what a business DID in a financial year that has ended. It closes with a name and a job title and no approval date, where the Act wants a statement approved by the board and signed by a director. We mention both because they are the two easy ways to file something that looks like compliance and reports nothing: reuse last year's, or promise next year's. We publish this voluntarily. Our turnover is below the £36 million threshold that makes a statement compulsory under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, so nothing obliges us to write it. A job board is a route exploitative operators try to use, so we write it anyway, and we structure it the way the Act asks larger businesses to: organisation and supply chain, policies, due diligence, risk assessment, effectiveness, and training.

1. Our position

We have zero tolerance for slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking: in our own business, in our supply chain, and in anything advertised on this platform. We would rather lose an advert, a customer and the money than carry a listing that helps somebody exploit a worker.

2. Our organisation and supply chain

HIRINGUK LTD is a UK company registered in England and Wales, number 17414012, based in Birmingham. It operates the HIRING UK job board and is also an employment agency and employment business.

• Our people. The business is currently run by its director. Anybody we employ or engage has a written contract, is paid at or above the real Living Wage, and has their right to work checked lawfully and without discrimination.
• Our supply chain is deliberately short: a hosting and infrastructure provider, an email provider and a payment provider, all in the UK or the European Economic Area. It is listed in full in the privacy notice. We use no labour providers, no offshore support desk and no outsourced moderation.
• Our commercial relationships are with employers and recruiters who buy advertising. They are not our supply chain in the usual sense, but they are where the real risk sits, so most of this statement is about them.

3. Where the risk actually is

An honest risk assessment for a business like ours. The risk is not in our office, it is in what somebody might advertise:

4. Our policies

This statement sits alongside the acceptable use and advert rules, the employer terms of business, the equality and diversity policy and the anti-bribery policy. Every advertiser accepts the advert rules as a term of contract when they place an order, not as guidance.

5. Due diligence: what we actually check

• An advert must name a real employer or a named client, with a verifiable contact route. Anonymous adverts for unskilled bulk labour are refused.
• No advert may charge a work seeker a fee for work finding services, accommodation tied to the job, transport, equipment, uniform, training, a DBS check or anything else, before or after employment starts. That is the law under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 and it is an absolute rule here.
• Pay must be stated and must be consistent with the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage. An advert offering less, or offering "cash in hand", is refused.
• We refuse adverts requiring applicants to hand over identity documents, bank details or immigration papers before an offer.
• We look closely at adverts that bundle accommodation or transport with the job, at bulk adverts for unskilled work with vague employer details, at adverts written in a language other than the language of the workplace, and at adverts pressing people to start immediately.
• Every advert carries a report link on the page itself, so a candidate or a member of the public can raise a concern in one press without an account.

6. Warning signs we ask candidates to report

Being asked for money to get a job. Having your passport or identity documents held. Being told your wages will be paid into somebody else's account. Accommodation, transport or equipment deducted from pay without a written agreement you understood and signed. Being pressed to start immediately with no contract. Being unable to leave the accommodation or the job. Somebody else answering questions for you.

If any of that happens: tell us at hello@hiringuk.co.uk. In an emergency call 999. Otherwise the Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline is 08000 121 700, free, confidential and open 24 hours. The GLAA can be told about labour exploitation on 0800 432 0804. ACAS advises on pay and employment rights on 0300 123 1100.

7. What happens when we get a report

1. We suspend the advert and, where the concern is serious, the whole account, the same day, before investigating.
2. We preserve the advert, the account and the records rather than deleting them, so evidence survives.
3. We report to the Fair Work Agency or the police where there is any indication of exploitation, and we cooperate fully. We do not wait to be asked.
4. No refund is given, and the account is not reinstated.
5. Where a candidate has applied to a suspended advert, we contact them directly to warn them.

Reporting an advert to us costs nothing, needs no account, and is answered by the director.

8. How we measure whether this works

Numbers we keep and review annually, so that next year's statement can say what actually happened rather than what we intend:

• Adverts refused or removed under these rules, and why.
• Reports received from candidates or the public, and how long each took to action.
• Referrals made to the Fair Work Agency or the police.
• Accounts closed for breaching the advert rules.

Every one of those is a count, not a percentage, and that is deliberate. A third statement we have read, from an agency in this trade, reports that it "increased our worker welfare surgeries by 19% from the previous". Nineteen per cent of what? If the agency held five surgeries last year it held six this year, and the sentence is doing a great deal of work for one extra meeting. A percentage with no starting number cannot be checked by anybody, which is what makes it attractive to write and worthless to read. That statement also names no financial year at all, says it was approved by the board without naming who approved it or when, and carries the words "Updated April 2026" where the Act wants a director's signature. When our own numbers are small we will publish them small.

For the period to 28 August 2026: the platform is at launch stage, no adverts have been removed on these grounds and no referrals have been made. We publish that plainly rather than leaving the section out.

9. Training

Everybody who reviews an advert or handles a report is trained to recognise the signs above before they touch a live advert, and refreshed at least once a year. The training record is kept with our internal documents. Today that is the director alone: as we take on people or contractors, each one completes the same training and signs the record before they are given access, and the number trained is reported in the next statement.

The material we use is free, and we would rather you used it too. Stronger Together is a business-led initiative against modern slavery and it publishes training films, posters and toolkits at no charge. Its film following Daniel and Weronika, two workers brought to this country and exploited, is made for exactly this purpose and carries subtitles in several languages, which matters in a trade where a great many workers read English as their second or third. It was produced in 2014 and the tactics it shows have not dated: control of somebody's bank account, control of their documents, control of their transport and their bed.

We link it rather than embedding it. An embedded video loads Google's player and its tracking onto this page, and a compliance page that quietly sets third party cookies while telling you about worker protection is not the tone we are after. Clicking the link is your decision and it happens on their site, not ours.

10. Approval and review

This statement was approved by Grigore Octavian Pupazan, director of HIRINGUK LTD, on 28 August 2026, and it is reviewed and republished every twelve months, or sooner if the business changes in a way that affects it. Next review due: August 2027. Earlier versions are listed at the bottom of this page, so you can see what changed and when.