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82 Corporate governance report

Respect for human rights Cabinet Office had made changes to its approval levels
for contingent labour from 1 November 2021; we were

We are strongly committed to ensuring our supply
not made aware of this until receipt of the Schedule of
chains and business activities are free from ethical and
Delegations. We have undertaken a review of contractual
labour standards abuses. Steps taken to date include:
spend to identify where we may not have applied the
People DPISC and Cabinet Office controls. Retrospective business
cases were submitted to regularise the position. These
• We confirm the identities of all new employees and
their right to work in the United Kingdom and pay have been approved subject to meeting conditions
all our employees above the National Living Wage. on improving processes to ensure compliance.
We have updated our procurement and temporary staff
• Our Freedom to Speak Up - Raising Concerns policies
procedures to ensure the correct approval processes
additionally give a platform for our employees to
are followed.
raise concerns about poor working practices.
We are committed to ensuring our tenders include
Procurement and our supply chain
matters related to the Social Value Act and as such have
• Our procurement approach follows the
included this as an evaluation criteria in appropriate
Crown Commercial Service Standard and
tenders. All procurement is considered in terms of
includes a mandatory exclusion question business need and is the most economically advantageous
regarding the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
for us. We continue to develop and embed best practice
• When procuring goods and services, we additionally in contract management to ensure we achieve good
apply NHS Terms and Conditions. This requires value for money on the contracts we enter into.
suppliers to comply with relevant legislation. Statutory functions

NHS Pension scheme regulations
An assurance map has been maintained, which provides
As an employer with staff entitled to membership of high level assurance that we are operating within the
the NHS Pension scheme, control measures are in place relevant directions and statutory functions for NHS
to ensure all employer obligations contained within the Resolution. This gives me as Accounting Officer the
scheme regulations are complied with. This includes assurance that we have a clear view of those functions
ensuring that deductions from salary, employer's and regulations we should be working to. During
contributions and payments into the scheme are in 2021/22 we continued to administer and operate
accordance with the scheme rules, and that member new scheme arrangements in relation to Covid-19.
Pension scheme records are accurately updated in
accordance with the timescales detailed in the regulations.
Procurement and contracting
We have annual plans in place to ensure that
acquisitions for goods and services are supported
through a procurement process and are completed in
compliance with Public Procurement Regulations.
In May 2022 DPISC issued the ALB Schedule of
Delegations, which sets out the spending authorities
that apply to ALBs in line with HM Treasury and
Cabinet Office, and DPISC's own requirements.