Sustainable and Ethical Procurement

Sustainable procurement brings benefits for both North Ayrshire Council (NAC) and the wider world. It considers the impact of environmental, economic, and social factors along with price and quality.

The Corporate Procurement Unit (CPU) needs to ensure practices undertaken are sustainable and ethical.

The CPU must consider socio-economic and environmental factors for all procurement exercises as required by the Sustainable Procurement Duty outlined within the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. Sustainability is embedded in procurements by using the Sustainable Procurement Tools developed by Scottish Government.

NAC also promote prompt payments within the supply chain in every appropriate contract and community benefits with a specific focus on employability are encouraged as voluntary in contracts between £100,000 and £499,000 and are mandatory within contracts above £500,000.

The CPU are aware and look out for signs of unacceptable practices in the supply chain such as:

• fraud
• corruption
• modern slavery
• human trafficking
• child labour

NAC are one of the 83 councils who have signed up to the Co-operative Party Charter against modern slavery and human trafficking and are leading the way to ensure exploitation has no place in our supply chains.

North Ayrshire Council has committed to:

• training all procurement staff on modern slavery and human trafficking
• making sure our suppliers/contractors comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and our Modern slavery and human trafficking code of conduct document
• challenging any abnormally low tenders to ensure the low cost is not as a result of exploitive labour
• highlighting the fact that all suppliers/contractors' workers are free to join trade unions and have a voice
• reviewing spending to identify potential issues and refer any identified risk to the relevant agencies (National Crime Agency)
• publicising a whistleblowing system both for our staff and suppliers/contractors' staff to enable reporting of suspected incidences of modern slavery and human trafficking

NAC's Construction Charter document sets out health and safety and employment standards that suppliers/contractors must comply with. NAC expect all contractors who secure contracts with us to comply with this charter.