Tips for implementation

There are three practical steps that should be followed in the procurement process in order to ensure sustainability and/or legality of your sources: informing, requesting, and verifying the evidence provided.  In practice this means:

Step 1 – Inform your suppliers

If you are a public sector buyer procuring timber or wood derived products, ensure that the contract under tender includes the supplementary condition to the general condition of contract relating to legality and the variant specification for sustainability.

If you are a supplier or contractor who has tendered for, and won a public sector contract where you will be supplying timber or wood derived products to the public sector, ensure that the contract between yourself and your supplier includes a condition that states the supply must meet the UK Government’s definition of legality. You may use the model contract conditions described above.

If you have tendered against the sustainablity variant ensure that the contract between yourself and your supplier includes a condition that states the supply must meet the UK Government’s definition of sustainability. You may use the model contract conditions described above.

In order to draw attention to these conditions, public sector buyers should explicitly reference them in the Invitation to Tender letter. A model paragraph has been provided for your convinience. If no such letter exists, you should ensure that suppliers are aware of the policy and what they must supply in order to meet the contract requirements. You may wish to direct them to the UK Government Policy section of the website.

If you are are subcontracted to supply for a public sector contract (or are tendering to), but the contract does not have a condition relating to the provision of timber from a legal source, please request clarification from the contractor as the condition should appear in contracts for all departments, their agencies and sponsored bodies. You may wish to provide your contact with the CPET information sheet.  This approach is advised as their have been instances where evidence of legality and/or sustainability has been requested despite the lack of inclusion of relevant conditions of contract. Please note some Local Authorities do not follow this policy as it is not mandatory for them. 

Step 2 – Request Evidence

When procuring timber, you should ask for evidence of sustainability as part of the tendering process. You should not ask for evidence of legality as part of the tendering process, though you may choose to do so after the contract has been signed, or prior to the invitation to tender.

Check that the proposed evidence meets the government’s policy:

If you want to use certification as assurance (Category A evidence) check that the chain of custody certificate meets the government’s requirements.

If you want to use other evidence as assurance (Category B evidence) please check what types of evidence you should ask for and where to get advice on it's adequacy.

If you are a contractor or supplier to the public sector, you should proceed as above to assure the evidence that has been provided to you is adequate. You will also need to provide assurances of your role within the supply chain: the evidence you provide should be as above.

Step 3 – Verify the evidence

You may wish to check the validity of the evidence prior to the delivery of the materials, but you will also need to confirm that the materials received match the materials promised/covered by the evidence. Please read  Using Certification As Assurance (Category A)  and Using Other Evidence As Assurance (Category B)  to learn how evidence can be verified.