In this section, you will find tools, resources and websites relevant to the sector, which will support you with your Responsible Procurement activity. If you come across any useful guidance which you think should be included on this page, please contact Marisol Bernal.

LUPC resources

Marisol Bernal, LUPC's Responsible Procurement Lead, can support you with your responsible procurement activity. From carrying out work placements with LUPC members to sharing her knowledge and expertise, Marisol is available to work with you, please contact her should you need any assistance. You can read Marisol's blog for some top tips she shares for members to embed responsible procurement practices in their organisations.

Embedding Sustainability in procurement activity- Marisol shares her expertise on embedding responsible procurement and has identified four key areas to assist with focusing activity.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) tender and call-off questions provides a set of questions that can be used at framework or call-off level to further investigate potential suppliers' commitments and plans to manage their organisations and supply chains in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. A sector wide commitment and input from LUPC, SUPC, NEUPC and NWUPC, this standard set of questions will allow suppliers to report on what they have achieved so far, what they are committing to do in the future and how this set of questions can help them to make positive changes to their organisations and demand better through their supply chains.

Responsible Procurement Assessment Tool - jointly produced by LUPC &SUPC, this tool should be used at the pre-tender stage, forming part of the tendering strategy where the risks and potential benefits of the framework/contract are considered. The Tool covers positive and negative environmental, economic and social impacts of the proposed tender.

Responsible Procurement Glossary- created by UKUPC, this glossary helps bring clarity to some of the terms we use.

Assessment for ISO 20400 Sustainable Procurement- Action Sustainability has developed a free online tool to assess your organisation’s responsible procurement activity against ISO 20400. You just need to create an account with some simple information to enable the benchmarking of your scores anonymously and you can re-assess as many times as you wish.

Watch this Ted Talk on Public Procurement and Human Rights, delivered by Andy Davies, former LUPC Director and leading specialist in Modern Slavery. 

A guidance document on Protecting Human Rights in the Supply Chain, published by CIPS Knowledge and written specifically for public procurement practitioners, offering guidance for buyers, decision makers and opinion-formers to identify and understand the risks, develop appropriate mitigating actions and promote respect for human rights in public supply chains.

The guide sees a collaboration between CIPS and partners London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC), the Business, Human Rights and the Environment Research Group at the University of Greenwich (BHRE) and Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC).

Wage rates in public contracts

LUPC is proud to be a Living Wage employer. That means we have made a commitment to pay the independently-calculated Living Wage rates to all staff in London.

We have developed a paper which explores the different wage options in the United Kingdom and considerations that should be made when procuring goods and services, from a wage rate perspective. The paper sets out some questions you can ask regarding a supplier’s stance on paying the living wage and other practical considerations to help you in your procurement activities.

We would like to remind our members to review their current Modern Slavery Statements and make the appropriate amendments before the next publication. It is best practice to publish the statement within 6 months of the end of the financial year.

According to the International Labour Organisation, more than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery. Although modern slavery is not defined in law, it is used as an umbrella term covering practices such as forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking. Essentially, it refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power.

Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) requires commercial organisations, with an annual turnover of £36 million or more, to report each year on their efforts to identify, prevent and mitigate modern slavery in their supply chains.

For the LUPC membership – the vast majority need to comply.

As a reminder of the mandatory elements, all statements must:

  • contain information on the efforts of your institution in the financial year
  • be available from a link on a prominent place on your organisation homepage
  • be approved by the highest level of governance
  • be signed by someone at the most senior level in your institution

Based on the UK Government guidance, it is best practice that you:

  • Publish your modern slavery statement at the bottom of the homepage or in a relevant menu on your website such as “About Us”. Visibility and easy access to the statement is a clear sign of transparency and confirms your reputation as an organisation that takes this seriously.
  • Always include the date of approval and the financial year you are reporting.
  • Ensure the statement is published within 6 months of the end of the financial year.
  • Ensure you keep a statement for each previous financial year on your website. This is a live document that has to be updated every year and serves to detail the progress made by your organisation.
Key resources to help you write your Modern Slavery statement

LUPC's top tips on writing a Modern Slavery statement

Preparing a Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement: Guidance for Higher Education and the wider Public Sector

Guidance for suppliers produced by the UKUPC Responsible Procurement Network, on developing a Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Act Statement.

HEPA Responsible Procurement Group Modern Slavery & Human Rights sub-group* guide listing resources related to modern slavery & human rights, including UK and international legislation, relevant international organisations, and guidance on modern slavery statements.

*Marisol Bernal, LUPC's Responsible Procurement Lead sits on this group

Free e-learning: Protecting Human Rights in the Supply Chain

LUPC, in collaboration with our partner consortium APUC and the University of Greenwich, has developed an eLearning suite on Protecting Human Rights in the Supply Chain, developed especially for public procurement practitioners.

Users will learn why protecting human rights in the supply chain is important to the public sector, how to assess and prioritise risks, monitoring supply chains, responding to abuses and measuring and reporting effectiveness. There’s also a module on compiling your annual Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement under the Modern Slavery Act.

The suite was written by Dr Olga Martin-Ortega, Reader in Public International Law and leader of the Business, Human Rights and Environment Research Group at the University of Greenwich and former LUPC Director, Andy Davies FCIPS. We thank the University of Greenwich and Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges for their kind support in co-funding this project.

You can access the eLearning suite, for free, by registering your details below which will then take you directly to the portal. LUPC will only use this data in relation to modern slavery communications and not for sharing with third parties.

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Over the last 12 months, members of the HEPA Responsible Procurement Group have developed a plan to provide resources and activities to support teams in reducing packaging, increasing recycled content and reducing deliveries. One of their initiatives was to re-develop the PROC-HE analysis tool to include packaging risk. You can access the plan here.