Delivery, Compliance and Ethics.

High standards in corporate compliance, guided by integrity

The nature of NDC Certification Bureau Ltd's ("NDC") operations means our activities are subject to a range of statutory regulations and standards. As a certification body, our credibility rests on the trust our clients, accreditation bodies, and stakeholders place in us — which makes corporate compliance a particularly important topic.

Corporate compliance means acting with integrity and observing the legal and ethical framework at all times. Our code of business ethics provides the framework for acting in accordance with the rules, based on expertise, impartiality, fairness, and reliability.

NDC's reputation is a key contributor to the value and authority of the certifications we issue. Our stakeholders expect us to conduct our business with integrity and independence.

Our commitment

Our ability to create value depends on applying high ethical standards to build trust-based relationships with our colleagues, clients, business partners, and communities.

In all our business activities we will comply with applicable laws, act in an ethical, sustainable, and socially responsible manner, practise good corporate governance, maintain the impartiality essential to a certification body, and respect internationally recognised human rights principles. We will maintain an open dialogue on these issues, internally and externally.

Our code of business ethics

Our code of business ethics sets out our expectations, commitments, and requirements for ethical conduct. The code applies to all NDC employees, contractors, auditors, and anyone acting on NDC's behalf.

Some important principles in our code are:

We treat ethics as an integrated part of our business. We comply with applicable laws and act in accordance with our values and the code of business ethics when performing our work. We safeguard the impartiality and independence of our certification decisions and manage conflicts of interest. We deal openly with ethical dilemmas and spend sufficient time on difficult decisions. We expect high ethical standards from everyone acting on our behalf. We are open in dealing with ethical issues.

Impartiality and conflicts of interest

As a certification body, our independence and freedom from conflicts of interest are fundamental to the integrity of our certificates. We identify, analyse, and manage threats to impartiality across all our activities and relationships, in line with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17021-1 (and other relevant accreditation standards).

Anti-bribery and corruption

NDC has a strict zero-tolerance stance on bribery and corruption. Our anti-bribery and corruption programme is designed to prevent, detect, and address bribery and to drive a better ethical business culture, consistent with the UK Bribery Act 2010 and aligned to ISO 37001.

Health and safety

Our health, safety, environment, and quality policy sets out our commitment to managing the health and safety of our employees, preventing pollution through our activities, and providing quality services to our customers, in line with the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and supporting regulations.

Information security and data protection

NDC is committed to safeguarding all commercial and personal information in its charge. We operate an information security management system aligned to ISO/IEC 27001, and we comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 in our handling of personal data.

Workplace behaviour

NDC is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive working environment, free from harassment, bullying, victimisation/retaliation, or any other unacceptable behaviour, consistent with the Equality Act 2010.

Modern slavery

NDC has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery, including servitude, forced or compulsory labour, and human trafficking. We are committed to ensuring modern slavery does not take place within NDC or our supply chain.

Supplier code of conduct

NDC's supplier code of conduct provides a foundation of principles from which we, and our business partners, are expected to work.

Greenhouse gas emissions

As part of NDC's commitment to sustainable practice, we measure and report our greenhouse gas emissions and pursue continual improvement in our environmental performance.

You can help us by speaking up

Our aim is to ensure that all our employees, business partners, and other stakeholders feel comfortable and have a safe space to raise any concerns.

It may feel easier to remain silent or ignore behaviour you think may not be within the spirit of our code of business ethics, but each of us has a responsibility to report any potential or actual behaviour which is unethical or unlawful, or which is contrary to our values and business principles. This duty applies whether it involves you directly, a colleague, or any third party connected in any way with NDC.

If you wish to raise a concern, you may contact the NDC Compliance and Ethics Team at info@ndccertification.org.

You do not have to be an employee of NDC to use this service, and we encourage anyone with an issue or concern related to NDC to raise it as soon as possible. We protect against retaliation, and any concern reported will be handled with confidentiality and discussed only as needed or advisable in the circumstances.