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 by using the Scottish Government Sustainable Procurement Tools. Areas to consider include:

• reducing environmental impact by reducing emissions and waste to landfill
• encouraging fair work practices and payment of the Real Living Wage

The CPU must be aware and lookout for signs of unacceptable practices in the supply chain such as:

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

The council are one of the 83 councils who have signed up to the Co-operative Party Charter against modern slavery 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
• making sure our suppliers/contractors comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and our Modern slavery 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

The Construction Charter document sets out health and safety and employment standards, contractors must comply with. NAC expect all contractors who secure contracts with NAC to comply with this charter.