SSRO gifts and hospitality policy

The Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO) has produced a gifts and hospitality policy applicable to everyone who works for the organisation. The policy emphasises that SSRO members and staff need to exercise the utmost care in accepting hospitality or gifts where such acceptance could conflict with their official duties.

1. Introduction

The aim of the Gifts and Hospitality policy is to guard against the risk of allegations of impropriety by SSRO members or staff, however contracted, by providing advice on a number of key issues relating to the rules of regularity and propriety. The rules are based on the fundamental requirements of Parliament, HM Treasury and the National Audit Office.

Under the Bribery Act 2010, it is a criminal offence for employees in an official capacity to accept any gift or consideration as an inducement or reward for:

• doing or not doing anything; or
• showing favour or disfavour to any person.

1. The policy applies to everyone working for the SSRO or on the SSRO’s behalf, including agency workers, secondees, interns, consultants and contractors.  SSRO members and staff are not civil servants, and therefore the provisions of the Civil Service Code do not form part of their terms and conditions of employment.  However, as members of a public body, SSRO members and staff are required to abide by the highest ethical standards.  All members and staff must be seen to act with complete honesty and integrity, and must not put themselves in a position where they could be accused of acting improperly.Members and staff are responsible for their decisions on the acceptance of gifts or hospitality and for ensuring that any gifts or hospitality accepted can stand up to public scrutiny and do not bring their public office and the SSRO into disrepute.

The policy applies to everyone working for the SSRO or on the SSRO’s behalf, including agency workers, secondees, interns, consultants and contractors.  SSRO members and staff are not civil servants, and therefore the provisions of the Civil Service Code do not form part of their terms and conditions of employment.  However, as members of a public body, SSRO members and staff are required to abide by the highest ethical standards.  All members and staff must be seen to act with complete honesty and integrity, and must not put themselves in a position where they could be accused of acting improperly.

Members and staff are responsible for their decisions on the acceptance of gifts or hospitality and for ensuring that any gifts or hospitality accepted can stand up to public scrutiny and do not bring their public office and the SSRO into disrepute.

Members and staff should exercise the utmost care in accepting hospitality or gifts where there could be a real or perceived conflict with their official duties at the SSRO.  Members and staff must not accept any gifts or hospitality from any employment or engagement which might, or might reasonably appear to, compromise their personal judgement or integrity or place them under an improper obligation.  Members and staff must never canvass or seek gifts and hospitality.

The SSRO Governance team maintains the Gifts and Hospitality Register and arranges for its retrospective publication on the SSRO website each quarter.  Members and staff are responsible for ensuring that any gift or hospitality offered, accepted or declined is recorded in a timely manner and in accordance with the quarterly publication process.

Gifts

1. The acceptance of any gift from interested business parties could be presented as promoting a conflict of interest that might arguably have compromised the impartiality of members and staff in the decisions that they were required to make.Offers of gifts should be reported to the Chief Executive and, if of any significant value, should be declined.It is not possible to put forward hard and fast rules for when gifts may be accepted, since in practice this will depend upon the circumstances and business needs of individual areas of the SSRO.

The acceptance of any gift from interested business parties could be presented as promoting a conflict of interest that might arguably have compromised the impartiality of members and staff in the decisions that they were required to make.

Offers of gifts should be reported to the Chief Executive and, if of any significant value, should be declined.

It is not possible to put forward hard and fast rules for when gifts may be accepted, since in practice this will depend upon the circumstances and business needs of individual areas of the SSRO.

The general principles for the acceptance of gifts are:

• The gift must be of a nominal or notional value.  Typically, a gift should not be accepted if the cumulative value from any one organisation or individual exceeds £100 in any 12-month period or £25 for any one gift.
• The gift must be given for an appropriate reason.
• The gift must be given at an appropriate time (e.g. not in advance of the issuing of an opinion or determination, or in advance of the award of a contract).
• The gift must be of a “one-off” or irregular nature (i.e. that could not be viewed as a regular source of income by HMRC for personal taxation purposes).
• The details of all gifts accepted or declined should be fully recorded in the Gifts and Hospitality Register, which is published on the SSRO’s website.

Exceptions

The Chief Executive may, in exceptional circumstances, override the above principles where members and staff are able to demonstrate that the business needs of the SSRO justify it.  An example of this might be where a visiting foreign dignitary offers a gift, and to refuse it would cause offence. The Chief Executive’s written approval of the acceptance of the gift should be sought as soon as the gift is offered.

A gift of a very low promotional value, such as a company pen, or a keyring received from a stakeholder at a meeting does not need to be recorded on the register.

Use of accepted gifts

Retention of accepted gifts by the recipient is at the discretion of the Chief Executive.  In reaching their decision consideration should be given as to whether the gift should be put to another use (i.e. donated to a charity or a library, displayed in public offices etc) and the risks to the reputation of the SSRO associated with the retention of the gift by an individual.  In no circumstances may an individual sell an accepted gift for monetary gain.

Making gifts

Reciprocal gifting is not encouraged.  However, there may be circumstances where the failure to give a gift would give offence.  An example would be an official visit by foreign officials whose custom would be to give and/or receive a token of friendship or respect.  

Where such circumstances arise, written approval should be sought from the Chief Executive and the MOD before any gift is given. Any gift provided by the SSRO should be recorded in the Register and accounted for appropriately.

Should the value of a gift that the SSRO has given meet applicable reporting requirements, it will also be reflected in the SSRO’s Annual Report and Accounts where required[1].

Donations

Donations to the SSRO or a member or staff member, for example a fee for a speech or a presentation, should not be accepted. The person offering the donation should instead be asked to donate it directly to a charity or other cause.  It would be a conflict of interest to accept a donation when performing a duty or role on behalf of the SSRO.  Any queries on the subject of donations should be raised with the Chief Executive.

Hospitality

1. Members and staff should not encourage business contacts to provide hospitality to them, or indirectly to other colleagues, friends or relatives.Offers of hospitality should be reported to the Chief Executive.  Some examples of hospitality which should be refused are payments for lunch or dinner, and tickets to sporting or leisure events.

Members and staff should not encourage business contacts to provide hospitality to them, or indirectly to other colleagues, friends or relatives.

Offers of hospitality should be reported to the Chief Executive.  Some examples of hospitality which should be refused are payments for lunch or dinner, and tickets to sporting or leisure events.

In the following circumstances, it may be considered appropriate to accept a working lunch, dinner or attendance at an annual stakeholder event, where it is:

• not lavish in nature;
• not a frequent occurrence; and
• there is no suspicion of a conflict of interest.

Such hospitality must be recorded in the Register.  The details required in that form must be completed as fully as possible.

Providing hospitality (working lunches, refreshments etc.)

It is permissible to provide hospitality in the form of refreshments or working lunches for meetings with external partners such as industry and the MOD, suppliers or customers.  However, it should be noted that alcohol should never be provided as part of a working lunch.

In the vast majority of situations, it is not considered appropriate to provide refreshments or working lunches at the SSRO’s expense for internal meetings.  However, where the provision of such can be demonstrated in terms of value for money in pursuit of the SSRO’s objectives then this is permissible.  You must consider the following factors in making your decision for each individual event:

• The scheduled length and formality of the meeting.  Where it may be considered disruptive for a long meeting (such as a project board that is scheduled to run for two or more hours) to be interrupted for attendees to make their own refreshments.
• The number of attendees.  Where the cost of preparing refreshments for the number of attendees would exceed the cost of ordering from a catering provider.
• The journey to and from the meeting by attendees.  Where there is a long journey involved and the provision of refreshments or working lunches will facilitate a productive meeting.

Additional catering

• Generally, the conduct of the SSRO should not require catering additional to that prescribed above.  It is essential always to err on the side of caution in this area, and seek the Chief Executive’s permission.Members or staff may on occasions be expected to offer more than a working lunch for official visitors.  Catering must be modest, and special arrangements are acceptable only where business cannot be advanced by any other suitable means, or where failure to offer would cause offence or embarrassment.  All catering should always be clearly in the public interest, and demonstrate furthering our objectives, as a benefit to the public service.In these circumstances it would be appropriate to provide modest additional catering such as a restaurant dinner from the SSRO budget.  At such an occasion, it would be improper to invite other members of staff at public expense (unless they were fulfilling an essential support function).

Generally, the conduct of the SSRO should not require catering additional to that prescribed above.  It is essential always to err on the side of caution in this area, and seek the Chief Executive’s permission.

Members or staff may on occasions be expected to offer more than a working lunch for official visitors.  Catering must be modest, and special arrangements are acceptable only where business cannot be advanced by any other suitable means, or where failure to offer would cause offence or embarrassment.  All catering should always be clearly in the public interest, and demonstrate furthering our objectives, as a benefit to the public service.

In these circumstances it would be appropriate to provide modest additional catering such as a restaurant dinner from the SSRO budget.  At such an occasion, it would be improper to invite other members of staff at public expense (unless they were fulfilling an essential support function).

It should be noted that under the subsistence policy the SSRO will not meet the costs of any alcoholic drinks.  Costs should be kept to a minimum, and itemised receipts must be provided.

Catering for SSRO teams

Generally, it is not acceptable for managers to take their team out for lunch or evening activity at SSRO expense.  Exceptional cases may be considered for team building away days.  Applications for funding such a team-building event should be sought from the Chief Executive in advance of the event.

Review and updates

This document is maintained by the SSRO Governance team and will be reviewed formally at least every three years, although reviews and amendments may be made in between reviews to reflect changes in the organisation or the SSRO’s operating environment.

[1] This includes gifts meeting the current £300,000 threshold.  Such situations will be exceptional and would, for example, relate to the transfer of public assets between the SSRO and another government body, rather than to a personal gift.