Winning Public Sector Business - a rough guide

5. Getting down to it...continued

5.4 Typical requirements

a) Questions about finance/probity/insurance

• Details of incorporation
• Financial statements/company trading accounts – typically a minimum of 3 years accounts is required
• Customer/trade references
• Insurance - public liability, employers liability and, where appropriate, professional indemnity insurance cover – the required levels of each will vary between organisations.

b) Policy Statements

There are fairly standard formats for each of these – useful links are detailed below. In all cases your local Business link is a good starting point for more information and assistance.

• Health and safety policy - Any company with more than 5 employees is legally obliged to possess a comprehensive health and safety policy. Sole traders may be required to show that they have assessed Health and Safety risks. For a free guide, including two ready-made self-assessment forms for a risk assessment and a health and safety policy, go to:
  http://www.hse.gov.uk/smallbusinesses/index.htm
• Equal opportunities policy – extensive guidance can be found online from the Equal Opportunities Commission on the legal requirements for:
  - equal pay
  - sex discrimination
  - race relations ? disability discrimination
  - employment equality
  - maternity and paternity law
  Download their guide at:
  http://www.eoc.org.uk/cseng/advice/eo_is_your_business_too_gb.pdf
• Environmental Policy – We are all aware of the need to manage the impact we have on the environment. In business this can include:
  - Hazardous materials
  - Waste disposal and recycling (packaging, products, manufacturing waste etc)
  - Energy conservation
  - Water conservation
  - Noise pollution
  - Transport pollution and congestion
  In larger organisations, environmental management systems have become an accepted part of good business practice. Smaller companies may not have recognised this as relevant to the way they do business but an environmental management policy can be no more than a simple written account of how you handle those day-to-day activities that have an impact on the environment and a set of goals to improve.
  You can find out more on the Environmental Agency’s website:
  http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/netregs/?lang=_e
  
  The recognised standard for environmental management is BS 8555. You can obtain the guide on how to implement a BS 8555 environmental management system from BSI at:
  http://www.bsi-global.com/Environmental/Management/bs8555.xalter
  It describes a six-phase incremental approach to implementing BS 83555 and provides guidance on the environmental criteria being set by public sector and major private sector organisations in their contract tenders. However, the document costs £86, so before buying it, do contact your Business Link first to see if they have a copy you can look at.
  

Next page: Quality systems and training policy

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