Ethical Procurement & Labour Policy

Statement of Intent

Ethical principles on behalf of our suppliers are one of our top priorities; in turn we demonstrate the highest level of ethical principles ourselves. We are fair in our procurement dealings and avoid any adverse conduct.

It is the responsibility of all our employees, but particularly those involved in the procurement process, to maintain and exhibit faultless standards of integrity in all business relationships, both internally and externally, and firmly to reject those practices that may reasonably be deemed improper; ensuring we are trusted and respected by all suppliers and that we are known for carrying out business efficiently in a fair and reasonable manner, and with integrity.

Aim

We are committed to ensuring the goods and services we purchase are manufactured, delivered, used and disposed of in an ethical manner.

Objectives

To ensure that dealings with suppliers must at all times be honest, fair and even-handed, and in line with the requirements placed upon us by The Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

Foster innovation in our supply markets to increase the availability and effectiveness of sustainable behaviour in procurement.

To encourage and promote ethical behaviour among our suppliers and ensure this is supported by appropriate systems and procedures.

Targets

We will seek out suppliers and contractors that share our commitment to sound environmental and ethical performance and improvement. Suppliers shall comply with all national and other applicable law and regulations.

Where applicable, we will offer assistance to our suppliers in raising their ethical and fair trade awareness. We will develop partnerships with our suppliers and contractors and work together to minimise the environmental and social impacts of our supply chain.

As a result, our purchasing decisions will give preference to:

• suppliers that operate a fair employment policy

• organisations that provide safe and healthy working conditions for their employees

• suppliers that contribute to, or participate in, policies that support the elimination of modern slavery in all its forms

• organisations that provide their employees with the right to a living wage and operate with an avoidance of excessive working hours and provision of regular employment

• suppliers that do not undertake any form of harsh and inhumane treatment

• suppliers who have a clear policy towards anti-bribery.

Supplier Code of Conduct

As the contracting organisation, we expect our suppliers to ensure their practices are supportive of our approach. We would like to procure goods and services that have been produced or are delivered with minimum impact on the environment and with regard for social and ethical issues such as employment conditions and welfare.

As a result, we reserve the right to refuse partnerships with organisations that do not achieve, or are unable to provide, evidence of an action plan of the following minimum standards for their operations, employees and supply chain; these are in accordance with International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and other public sector commitments.

Environment

We would like our suppliers to have processes in place to actively improve the efficiency with which finite resources, including fossil fuels and water are used and the release of harmful emissions to the environment associated with manufacture, use and end-of-life product management are minimised. To have an effective environmental policy in place and to implement the policy at all levels throughout the company and to include a commitment to continual improvement in environmental performance, the prevention of pollution and encouraging sustainability is expected.

We also expect our suppliers to:

comply with all environmental legislation, regulations and all local laws which relate to the organisation’s environmental aspects to facilitate the protection of the environment

have a process that ensures conformity to local regulations, including those relating to the reduction, reuse and recycling of waste and the elimination and safe disposal of dangerous materials

identify a person within the organisation who has responsibility for environmental compliance issues and continual improvement within environmental management.

Our Working Principles

We will ensure all procurement decisions and actions are considered and determined by a team of in-house specialists, across the organisation, to ensure the most ethical outcomes are achieved.

Appropriate ethical, environmental and social requirements will be integrated into all procurement activities; these include pre-qualification, specification and evaluation stage.

We will review the ethical, environmental and social impacts of a particular product or service over its whole-life cycle, and appropriate supplier performance assessment criteria and weightings will be used when doing this.

We will also encourage and influence our suppliers to improve their ethical practice.

We will, and we expect our suppliers to, ensure that all relevant people are provided with appropriate training and guidelines to implement the requirements of this standard.

We will consider a similar ethical trading standard as a reasonable alternative where suppliers are already working towards sustainability.

Our Accountability

All our business premises and relevant members of staff have a shared responsibility for integrating the provisions of this policy into their ethical procurement decision-making.

Our central procurement team has the overall accountability for developing a coordinated and integrated approach to implementing this ethical procurement policy across the whole of the organisation.

We will review this policy and associated procedures on an annual basis and involve our suppliers in this review process.

We will use external assessors to verify our performance against this ethical procurement policy on a regular basis.