This statement has been published in accordance with Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
It sets out the steps taken by Newcastle Building Society Group during year ending 31 December 2025 to give us reasonable assurance that modern slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in its business or its supply chains.
Introduction
The Newcastle Building Society Group has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery of any kind within our operation. We all have a responsibility to be aware of the risks, however small, in our business and wider supply chain. Colleagues are expected to report concerns, using appropriate reporting channels and management are expected to act upon them.
Organisation's structure
The Newcastle Building Society Group consists of Newcastle Building Society, the trading name under which it operates (Manchester Building Society) and 4 subsidiary companies: Newcastle Financial Advisers Limited, Newcastle Mortgage Loans (Jersey) Limited, Newcastle Strategic Solutions Limited and MBS (Mortgages) Limited. The Society is one of the largest building societies within the United Kingdom and the largest building society in the North East of England. The Newcastle Building Society Group has 33 branches and employs more than 1,700 staff across its branch network and head office sites.
Our business
The Newcastle Building Society Group, like all mutual organisations exists and functions for the benefit of its members, and so core to our vision is being a trusted provider of family savings, mortgages and financial advice delivered with good customer outcomes and great customer service.
In addition, our subsidiary company, Newcastle Strategic Solutions Limited is dedicated to the provision of outsourcing for financial services and provides system development and on-going operational support to both itself and the Society.
Responsibilities
The Newcastle Building Society Group’s board of directors has overall responsibility for ensuring our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking policy complies with our legal and ethical obligations, and that all those under our control comply with it. All our colleagues must observe our policy on Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking and be aware that turning a blind eye is unacceptable.
Supply chain risk
As the provider of financial services, the Newcastle Building Society Group is not in an industry with a high risk of modern-day slavery and is not part of a supply chain, however, in delivering our services, we procure goods and services from suppliers who do operate supply chains, some of which are global. We have adopted a risk-based approach to reviewing our supply chains which may carry a higher risk; these supply chains and suppliers which supply goods and/or services to us include:
- IT and electronics manufacture including the disposal, dismantling and recycling stages.
- Marketing and promotional merchandise.
- Cleaning staff.
- Colleague uniform supplier.
- Corporate hospitality.
We manage these risk areas through our procedures set out in our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking policy and elsewhere and we have not identified any evidenced reason to believe that slavery or human trafficking exists in the above currently.
We ensure all our supplier contracts (both existing and new) contain an anti-slavery clause, prohibiting suppliers and their employees from engaging in slavery and human trafficking and ensure obligations under the Act are replicated throughout their own supply chain and other contractors (where possible).
Our due diligence process
We carry out sufficient due diligence to provide opportunities to identify potential cases of modern slavery or human trafficking which will allow us to take any appropriate action. These include:
Colleagues
- We vet all colleague directly employed by the Newcastle Building Society Group before they begin working for us to ensure they have the right to work in the UK.
- Once working for us, our colleagues are contractually required to adhere to our policies and standards.
- In 2025, the Newcastle Building Society Group maintained its accreditation as a Living Wage employer by the Living Wage Foundation. We have been an accredited Living Wage employer since 2017.
- Following the launch of the Living Pension in March 2023, the Newcastle Building Society Group became the region’s first Living Pension employer in 2024 and have maintained its accreditation in 2025.
Our members
- As part of our member onboarding process, we carry out due diligence checks to ensure accounts opened meet our account opening criteria and any suspicious activity is picked up and processed accordingly and within a timely manner.
- As part of our continued strategy, we continue to invest in our branch network which allows our members to have face-to-face contact and develop relationships with our branch colleagues. As such, our branch network colleagues are best placed to identify changes in customer behaviour which could be an indication of vulnerability. All our colleagues are trained to report any concerns and propose support if required.
Our policies on slavery and human trafficking
We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains.
Colleagues can report any suspicion of modern slavery or human trafficking under our Whistleblowing policy. This policy is to protect and support colleagues who make a non-malicious allegation in the best interests of the Newcastle Building Society Group, providing a confidential contact point and responding in an appropriate manner.
Wherever possible we will seek to perform critical functions in-house and will only outsource functions where such arrangements will avoid undue conduct risk, operational risk, and reputational risk. Where we outsource functions, we perform due diligence on all outsourcing partners to satisfy ourselves of the robustness of outsourcing arrangements. We then undertake ongoing supplier due diligence, on at least an annual basis (depending on the criticality of the supplier) throughout the lifetime of the supplier relationship. This is fully documented under our Procurement & Supplier Management policy.
We tell companies we do business with that we are not prepared to accept any form of exploitation. Our Contracts policy advises that no agreements should be entered into by the Society which breach any law or regulation. The Contracts Policy also provides that any material contract must be reviewed by our Legal Services team prior to signature who will ensure there is a clause which obliges each party to comply with all applicable laws or regulations, in force from time to time.
Training
To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide regular training to all our colleagues, and releasing regular updates and reminders of our obligations.
Further steps
Following a review of the effectiveness of the steps we have taken this year to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains, we intend to take the following further steps to combat slavery and human trafficking:
- We will review and refine our training for colleagues to ensure they maintain a high level of understanding of the risks involved.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our Group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 December 2025.
James Ramsbotham
Chair
Newcastle Building Society Group
Date: 27 April 2026