INTRODUCTION FROM THE BOARD
This statement is made pursuant to Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “Act”) on behalf of LKQ Group (UK) Limited, LKQ Digraph and LKQ (Distribution Ireland) Limited (together “LKQ UK & Ireland”).
The above companies are affiliates of LKQ Corporation and part of the overall governance and compliance framework of the wider LKQ Group.
OUR SUPPLY CHAINS
LKQ UK & Ireland is the largest distributor in the UK in the automotive and components sector and also operates across Ireland.
Our supply chain extends to parts manufacturers in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. In addition to dealing with manufacturers we deal with other suppliers to support the operational and commercial aspects of our business.
Due to the complexity of our supply chain, there are often many different levels of suppliers between a distributor and the source of raw materials obtained by the manufacturers that we engage with. We therefore require that our suppliers and manufacturers adhere to the same ethical trading principals that we adhere to.
OUR POLICIES ON SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Our objective is to ensure as far as reasonably practicable that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in our own business. We have a Code of Ethics, and global supplier code of conduct, and we request our suppliers and require our employees to follow such policies. In particular, we ask our suppliers to either sign up to our Supplier Code of Conduct or confirm they have policies and procedures setting out an equivalent framework which they comply with.
DUE DILIGENCE PROCESSES FOR SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk we seek to:
- Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains.
- Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains.
- Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains.
- Protect people who speak up about these issues.
The Speak Up Program at the wider LKQ Group demonstrates our strong commitment to fostering a transparent and ethical environment. We prioritise upholding high ethical standards and value our employees' role in ensuring that we win with integrity. The main goals of our Speak Up Program include:
- Encouraging Open Communication: employees are encouraged to report misconduct promptly, knowing their efforts are valued.
- Building a Culture of Trust: we nurture a culture of integrity where raising concerns is respected and addressed swiftly.
- Providing Clear Reporting Channels: we stress the importance of accessible reporting channels for employees to communicate concerns.
- Ensuring Confidentiality and Protection: we ensure confidentiality in the Speak Up Program and have zero tolerance for retaliation.
SUPPLIER ADHERENCE TO OUR VALUES
We have a zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking. To encourage all those in our supply chain to comply with our policies, we have involved our Legal, Procurement, HR and Audit departments to assist the business in ensuring, as far as reasonably possible, that our supply chain adheres to the Modern Slavery Act.
We regularly review and update our standard terms and conditions, and provide training on our terms and conditions to our employees who work with our suppliers. We continue to share our revised terms and Supplier Code of Conduct to our suppliers to make them aware of the standards that we expect from them.
We continue to audit suppliers in China, which we have identified to be a high-risk region. This forms an integral part of our supplier introduction process.
In addition, monitoring and assessment of our suppliers is carried out by the European Procurement Team of our parent company, LKQ Europe GmbH. to improve efficiency and to reduce risks not only in ethical, social and environmental terms, but also with regards to compliance, finance, quality, privacy and security. This applies to all suppliers of European-based trading companies within the LKQ Group (including LKQ UK & Ireland).
We use EcoVadis to support our monitoring and assessment of suppliers. EcoVadis is a global platform that supports Sustainability assessments for suppliers in four key areas: Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. The platform assigns a sustainability risk level to a supplier, considering the industry sector, the size of the supplier and the country where the supplier operates, the relevance of the supplier for the purchasing segment and the supplier’s publicly available relevant documents (e.g. Sustainability Report, Code of Ethics, Human Rights Policy, Certifications, etc.).
The suppliers at higher risk or that are significant to us are requested to complete a Sustainability assessment through the EcoVadis platform. The EcoVadis Assessment Methodology covers 21 criteria across the above mentioned four main topics and allows us to monitor Sustainability performance of our suppliers, manage supply chain risks, propose improvement actions, build capacity, and share best practices.
In 2024, 100% of LKQ Europe suppliers in scope for the assessment (8.610 suppliers) were uploaded and assessed using the EcoVadis platform.
TRAINING
To promote understanding of the risks of modern slavery in our supply chains and our business, we require our salaried, office and sales-related team members to review and attest to our Code of Ethics annually. In 2024, we revised our Code of Ethics to further underscore our commitment to fostering a sustainable supply chain, among other updates.
Additionally we continually refresh our compliance training activity with internal staff; during 2024 we delivered Modern Slavery and human trafficking training to our procurement colleagues. We set ourselves, and exceeded, the target number (90%) of relevant staff we would train about such modern slavery issues.
Modern Slavery Statement 2025
Kevan Wooden (CEO)
LKQ Group (UK) Limited
Previous Statements:
Modern Slavery Statement 2024