Volex Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement

Introduction

This statement is made on behalf of the Board of Directors of Volex plc further to the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which requires large employers with a turnover of more than £36 million to be transparent in their efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking in their supply chain.

Modern slavery is a fundamental violation of human rights and takes various forms, all of which serve to deprive a person of their liberty for another's commercial or personal gain. These forms include, but are not limited to, compulsory labour, servitude, slavery and human trafficking.

Volex Business Structure and Group Commitment

Volex is a leading integrated manufacturing specialist for performance-critical applications and supplier of power products, with a workforce of 16,000 working across 32 operational locations in 26 countries including in the UK, Europe, Turkey, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia including India and China, as well as from other associated sales and administrative offices.

Volex has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. We are committed to ensuring there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in any part of our business or at any point in our supply chains.

We undertake to ensure transparency throughout the business, with a commitment to build on that undertaking year on year.

Volex's Business Code of Conduct confirms our explicit commitment to ensuring there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in any part of our business or our supply chains and to respecting the rights and dignity of all employees. We make similar individual commitments to customers as part of the contractual arrangements we have with them.

Internal Controls and Procedures

Every year, all key personnel, including all Executive and business unit leaders, are required to formally confirm that the parts of the Group they are responsible for follow all main Group policies and codes, including those relating to modern slavery and trafficking.

All persons working for Volex Group or on the Company's behalf in procurement or any other capacity, including employees at all levels, are expected to understand their obligations under those policies and under the Group's Code of Conduct, which are all hosted on the Company's intranet.

Volex operates an independent whistleblowing system called Speak Up in collaboration with Navex Global and we utilise the EthicsPoint solution. The Volex Speak Up framework provides a robust mechanism for any Volex employee or interested party acting in good faith to raise their concerns about breaches of any ethical policy. Each report is confidential and investigated to determine whether it identifies a violation of our code of standards. Reports and trend data are brought to the attention of the Board's Audit Committee periodically.

The Group's Internal Audit function conducts regular reviews and inspections of Volex sites around the world for compliance concerns generally, reporting back to the Board on their findings. One element of those reviews is to ensure that recruitment and employment are conducted in accordance with local labour laws and regulations. All of our sites in China and Asia received external audits during the year covering labour compliance.

Four of our biggest sites, in China and in Indonesia, are regularly audited in accordance with the Responsible Business Alliance's Code of Conduct. Our largest site has RBA gold certification. We provide broad sustainability-related disclosures in our Annual Report, our supplemental sustainability disclosure report and through independent disclosure platforms including Ecovadis. All of these reports are available on our website.

Our HR teams ensure that all prospective employees are legally entitled to work and, once employed, are fully trained in Company policies. Our employees are assured a place of work that complies with all applicable laws and regulations and that safeguards them from any abuse or coercion once in Volex employment. Our HR teams closely monitor absence and turnover data and in particular reasons for leaving and exit interviews are a standard practice. Our HR specialists regularly audit the arrangements for temporary, dispatch and outsourced workers where these are part of our workforce. As part of our efforts to reduce the risks within our own workforce we significantly reduced our use of outsourced workers during FY2024 and this category now represents 1.9% of our global workforce.

The Group HR Director makes regular visits to sites around the world to assess and advise on HR and Safety, Health and Wellbeing issues. 12 site reviews were completed in FY2024 with findings reported to management and summarised periodically to the Board through the Safety, Environment and Sustainability Committee. These visits ensure regular contact with local site HR and factory general managers, ensuring that Volex's standards for safety, health and labour management are upheld and applied consistently across the Group.

Our Code of Conduct is communicated to all employees in local languages and is displayed in all of our manufacturing facilities in local language formats and it is included with site communication and induction trainings.

In those manufacturing sites where collective bargaining processes are not present we operate employee representative forums at our manufacturing facilities enabling employees to discuss any concerns that they may have with their management colleagues.

Supplier Code and Guarantees

We expect the same high standards from all our contractors, suppliers and other business partners as well. All suppliers are requested to sign up to the principles and requirements of our Supplier Commitment and Code of Conduct, which requires them to agree to operate in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations in the areas in which Volex conducts business with them and with various ethical and industry standards. Volex also requires them to establish similar commitments from their own suppliers. Under that code, suppliers explicitly commit to not rely on forced labour, child labour, slavery or human trafficking, including in their own supply chain.

Suppliers are subject to regular audit checks, which require them to provide up-to-date information to Volex about working conditions, employee rights and other CSR-related matters. In FY2024 audits were completed for 107 [FY23: 112] key suppliers during the year.

Training and Education

Volex is committed to training its key employees to develop their skills and knowledge with regards to Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. In FY2024 we launched a new e-learning programme and 426 (75%) had completed this training by year end.

Further Action

Volex is committed to improving all its internal processes and to strengthening its controls to ensure that not only the Group itself but its entire supply chain operates in an ethical manner and has no involvement in, or connection to, modern slavery or human trafficking in any form.

Reporting Period

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes Volex's slavery and human trafficking statement following the financial year ending 31 March 2024.

Board Review and Approval

The statement has been reviewed and approved by the board of directors on 07 May 2024.

Signed by:

Name: Jon Boaden

Title: Group Chief Financial Officer