Sustainable procurement incorporates net benefits for both North Ayrshire Council and the wider world. It considers the impact of environmental, economic and social factors along with price and quality. This is important in terms of how the Council conducts relationships with suppliers/contractors, including contract negotiation, especially when sourcing globally with unfamiliar work cultures.
Purchasing professionals need to ensure practices undertaken in business are ethical. They 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
Modern Slavery
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.
The Council have committed to:
- training all procurement staff on modern slavery
- 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
Modern Slavery Whistleblowing
If you suspect there are instances of modern slavery, please report it.
Construction Charter
North Ayrshire Council either directly procure, or are the planning authority, for a multitude of construction projects. It is the Council's intention to promote and support positive workforce practices involving “Direct Employment” on all construction projects and we expect all construction companies who secure contracts on these projects to comply fully with our Construction Charter (PDF, 103kb).