This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes the slavery and human trafficking statement for Specsavers International Healthcare Limited (Specsavers) and all its subsidiary companies including but not limited to, the following:

  • Specsavers Optical Superstores Limited
  • Specsavers UK Holdings Limited
  • Specsavers Procurement UK Limited
  • Vision Labs Limited
  • International Glazing Services Limited
  • Lens-Online Limited
  • NLRX Services Limited

Specsavers is committed to acting responsibly, trading ethically and ensuring that the people who work for us and who make our products are safe, healthy and free from human right abuses.

This Modern Slavery statement outlines the upcoming plans and commitments that Specsavers as a global business has made towards preventing and mitigating risks of modern slavery throughout the business and Specsavers supply chain.  Specsavers continues to broaden its understanding of modern slavery risks, strengthening due diligence processes and increasing transparency of reporting, whilst also embedding knowledge and understanding of human rights across the Specsavers teams. Specsavers continues advance business efforts in tackling Modern Slavery. 

Our approach

As a people-oriented business, Specsavers takes the welfare of its customers, employees and value chain workers very seriously and is committed to creating positive working environments that place people at the front and centre of its operations.  With this as a backdrop we aim to create and maintain strong, long-term relationships with suppliers, many of whom we have worked with for decades.

There is no place for illegal, unethical or unprofessional conduct in Specsavers’ value chain. Specsavers, as a business, makes it clear that colleagues must speak up and report if they become aware of any activity that is not consistent with the Specsavers trading vision and values.  Since 2011, Specsavers has reported on activity relating to Modern Slavery avoidance, publishing the business’ plans and progress in the Specsavers Annual Review. As part of this reporting and commitment, Specsavers continues to develop practices and procedures to progress and enhance the ethical trading activities and improvement of the transparency of reporting.

Our facts and figures 2023/24

Our business and supply chain

Specsavers International Healthcare Limited is the Guernsey registered parent company of the Specsavers Group. The Specsavers Group includes subsidiaries which are, or support, optical retail outlets, audiology stores and domiciliary partnerships throughout the UK, Republic of Ireland, Northern Europe, Spain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as Specsavers group owned manufacturing and distribution sites.

Specsavers has more than 45,000 employees across Guernsey, UK, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Hungary, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China and Hong Kong.

As a retailer, the product supply chains are extensive and global; Specsavers sources in excess of 3,500 products from more than 20 countries. Specsavers takes the obligations to combat modern slavery and to trade ethically very seriously, with a dedicated team of experts supporting risk assessment and due diligence activities.

Identifying and managing risks

Specsavers follows a risk-based approach to assessing the likelihood of occurrence of human rights abuse based on International Labour Organisation (ILO) guidance.  To formalise and verify that these principles are being adhered to, Specsavers joined SEDEX in 2024.  The standards which Specsavers requires its suppliers to uphold is the recently updated SMETA-7 audit standard, which is used globally by retailers and other businesses to deliver a consistent assurance on ethics and human rights. 

Independent third-party audits help us ensure that this standard is met across all suppliers of product and is also the standard for any identified high risk manufacturing site.  The audit framework is structured to identify non-compliance on issues such as employment being freely chosen, freedom of association and collective bargaining, wages, discrimination, harsh or inhumane treatment, regular employment, reasonable working hours and safe and hygienic work environments. As part of the independent audits, checks are carried out to ensure that child labour is not used and that employees are treated fairly with no discrimination or rights violations. Within Specsavers own sites, these checks are part of our standard hiring processes.

In the coming year we will continue working with our global buying and procurement teams to carry out risk assessment on new and existing suppliers. Where suppliers fall into a higher risk category, we will require them to carry out independent audits to give us insight into labour, environmental and ethical practices.  Our internal teams continuously evolve our policies to reflect and mitigate against emerging risks across our retail business

Policies and controls

Where high risk categories of employees have been identified, we look to bolster visibility and reporting through placement of support teams to allow direct feedback which help to form new, and improve upon existing, resourcing procedures and schemes.  Specsavers has a well-communicated and signposted Whistleblowing Policy to guide employees on how to raise suspected wrongdoings at work, including suspicions of unfair working practices or modern slavery.  To ensure our employees feel safe and empowered to voice their concerns, we also provide access to independent third-party whistleblowing services.

For suppliers, we have a Code of Conduct based on the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code and International Labour Organisation Conventions, which covers respectful employment standards, safe working environments and ethical business practices.  We require all existing and new core suppliers to agree and adhere to our Supplier Code of Conduct or have their own equivalent policy in place.  Specsavers retains the right to independently audit compliance with these principles and requirements.  When engaging with new suppliers in the product sourcing category, they are required to undergo a risk assessment process and a third-party audit which is aligned to the level of risk identified. Alongside this, we also carry out additional compliance checks, all of which must be completed and approved before production is commenced.

The audits focus on risks associated with modern slavery and human trafficking, including the occurrence of passport retention, illegal documentation, the right to work, illegal deduction of wages, child labour, forced labour, excessive hours of work and illegal subcontracting.

Where a concern is raised as a result of any audit, the supplier is immediately given a corrective action plan and a timetable within which they must take remedial action. If the supplier fails to take the required remedial action, Specsavers maintains the right to reduce, withdraw or (if a new supplier) withhold business, although our preference is to always work with suppliers to assist in rectifying issues in order to protect their employees and to prevent the same, or similar, practices from occurring. 

Increasing transparency

Specsavers is focused on increasing transparency across its supply chain and overall business. Specsavers works with over 70 suppliers and 200 factories in 20 countries and is committed to delivering the highest standard of products to every single Specsavers customer. Therefore, understanding where products are sourced and made, and the risks inherent across the supply chain operations, is an essential part of due diligence undertaken.  To date, we have connected with 97 sites on the SEDEX platform, which covers 54% of our goods for resale, tier 1 suppliers, giving us increased visibility of ethics within our supply chain.

Activity in the countries which Specsavers sources product from is continually monitored to ensure that slavery and human trafficking does not exist in the Specsavers supply chain.

Specsavers is dedicated to provide the best working environment possible for each person employed by or engaged in our business. Through engagement schemes such a Great Place to Work, we actively encourage conversations for the improvement of working standards and practices, in whichever part of the business that may be.

Governance

As part of the Specsavers approach to global supply chain governance, Specsavers now has a team dedicated to onboarding our suppliers to the SEDEX platform and monitoring ethics performance. In addition to formal audits, key members of the Specsavers supply chain team regularly undertake onsite factory visits. Any action required by the suppliers visited, is or shall be reported into our ethics governance process.

We have formalised our ethics governance process, with issues and non-compliances forming a standing agenda item at quarterly, operating board level meetings.  Where non-compliances are not able to be resolved by our Regulatory and Compliance teams, our Supply Chain Board are responsible for ensuring that these form part of a discussion with suppliers.  A key part of our governance process is to ensure that the Product Directors of our business consider the ethical status of our suppliers, and have responsibility for communicating our requirements where issues are identified.  This process allows us to use commercial leverage if it is required, whilst avoiding a cut and run approach to supplier relationships.

Specsavers has a dedicated Audit and Risk function which assists in assessing, reporting on and protecting against external and internal impacts to the business and its communities. Our well-established Audit and Risk Committee meets regularly to keep on top of all high risk areas, and is key to ensuring that any identified issues can be escalated and addressed at appropriate levels across our business.  

Training and awareness raising

Specsavers recognises the importance of training, raising awareness and embedding knowledge and understanding of human rights, ethical standards and risks across all the Specsavers business functions. This year we have provided extra focus on training Specsavers’ core procurement and buying functions through bespoke sessions on our updated human rights processes.

By dedicating resource to help build strong relationships with suppliers and partners, Specsavers continues to raise awareness and undertake discussions as to the continued implementation of improved policies and agreeing on the standards expected.

Our progress

During 2024/25 we continued to invest in, and develop, our people to ensure we have the appropriate skills and resources to deliver the strategic plans in relation to Regulation and Compliance. We have a global team including subject matter experts dedicated to each element of the long-term plan. This year the team has provided expertise and support with progress, in particular:

  • We improved our processes to require all suppliers to adhere to our Supplier Code of Conduct as part of our onboarding process.
  • 57 independent ethical audits were completed across our product suppliers. These audits ensure compliance with our social and environmental standards and adherence to regulatory requirements, and encompass the principles of continuous improvement.
  • Following last year’s initiation of SEDEX membership, we now have better visibility and insight into ethical and environmental risks within our supply base. This enables us to identify and address risks with our suppliers to improve standards.
  • We progressed mapping our Tier 2 suppliers and connecting with Tier 2 manufacturing sites on SEDEX. We connected with 97 Tier 1 and Tier 2 manufacturing sites in the SEDEX platform. We consulted with our key suppliers to better understand which ethical and sustainable standards and practices they have in place..
  • We delivered training on our updated ethics process and strategy to our buying teams.
  • .We introduced our new ethics process to suppliers through webinars and a supplier conference giving them the opportunity to ask questions and clarify our requirements.
  • We continued to update supplier contracts to include sustainability related clauses covering human rights. 
  • We continued to govern the ethics process, ensuring that issues of higher risk or concern were escalated to the appropriate level of seniority within the business. 

Our plans

In 2025/26, we remain committed to being ethical and sustainable across our business and making a positive difference by:

  • Ensuring a robust approach to human rights and ethical risks. Working with independent auditors, as well as the continuation of existing processes and systems, enabling us to conduct risk assessments and proactively rectify any non-compliance against our Supplier Code of Conduct.
  • Connecting with all Tier 1 manufacturing sites to allow us to report more transparently on our suppliers’ performance, to identify risks with greater accuracy and therefore focus our efforts accordingly.
  • Ensuring our suppliers recommit to our Supplier Code of Conduct as part of our annual process sets the standard of the behaviours suppliers must always adhere to when working with us.
  • Ensuring that all of our product suppliers are audited by independent third parties with Corrective Action Plans in place, where required.
  • Continuing to carry out assessments of our wider value chain and internal processes to identify further areas of ethics and human rights risk.
  • Maintaining an ongoing dialogue with our supply base, to ensure that standards are improved and maintained.  We aim to support them to identify opportunities and to share best practice to drive improvements
  • Continuing to educate and train Specsavers colleagues on the areas of risk across our value chain and how to identify and manage them. 
  • Continuously reviewing our sustainability related contractual clauses to keep up with changing targets, expectations and regulatory requirements. 
  • Complying with global legislation in all the territories in which we operate.. 

Measuring our progress

Specsavers has committed to adhering to the following key performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of steps taken to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking in the Specsavers business:

  • All scheduled audits completed with Corrective Action Plans in place and actioned within appropriate timeframes.
  • Quarterly supply chain board reporting on identified risks of modern slavery and ethical compliance.

This Modern Slavery Statement is made in respect of the Specsavers International Healthcare Limited’s financial year ending 28 February 2025 and has been approved on behalf of the board of directors. 

John Perkins

Group Chief Executive Officer, for and on behalf of SPECSAVERS INTERNATIONAL HEALTHCARE LIMITED

Statement No. 9

Dated: August 2025