Ethical Partnership Policy
Executive Summary
The Society of Land Referencers (SoLR), as the industry body for land referencing practice, has a duty to its members and those who interact with SoLR, to uphold high standards of professional and ethical behaviour. This Ethical Partnership Policy sets out SoLR's ethical guidelines and best practices to follow regarding its partnerships and associations with third parties. It also describes how the process of consideration of the suitability of partners will be conducted. This will give SoLR members and others the reassurance that SoLR is associated with third parties that will not compromise the standards required to maintain SoLR’s professional standing and provide SoLR members with a mechanism to raise any concerns in the knowledge that appropriate action will result to resolve concerns.
Adopted by the board: 5 June 2024.
Index
1. Introduction
SoLR exists to advance professional land referencing practice and in doing so fosters a supportive and inclusive community of professional land referencers and others with a professional interest in the projects requiring land referencing services. This professionalism extends to third parties (individual and organizations) SoLR has dealings with such as suppliers and sponsors, etc.
2. Guiding Principals
SoLR is an organization that enables land referencers and others from a breadth of related disciplines with an interest in land referencing and the industry it supports to flourish through respectful, inclusive and equitable treatment of others.
​
SoLR wishes to maintain scrutiny of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance in SoLR’s associations with third parties. Different terms may be applied to strategies and policies guided by values, including responsible, sustainable, ethical, values and environmental social governance (ESG). SoLR wishes to engage only with third party individuals and organizations that adhere to these values, however expressed. This extends to contractors working on behalf of SoLR, suppliers, sponsors of SoLR events or any third parties whose associations with SoLR might bring SoLR’s reputation into question.
2. Procedure
SoLR operates from the premise that its principal overall responsibility is always to act in the best interests of SoLR. With regard to SoLR’s Ethical Partnership Policy, SoLR holds that third parties that clearly depart from acceptable environmental, human rights, social, moral or commercial policies are unlikely to be able to present themselves to SoLR as suitable partners. SoLR endeavours to avoid association with such individuals and organizations.
​
Whilst SoLR does not have the means to conduct detailed checks, it attempts to only engage with third party individuals and organizations it has no reason to believe fails to meet responsible and ethical standards. The SoLR Board also periodically reviews the performance of regular partners and any partners with or from whom SoLR makes or receives significant or regular financial investment or with whom any association might reasonably be believed to present a potential reputational risk. Furthermore, any suggestion, received from any quarter, of a third party with direct dealings with SoLR falling short of these standards is treated seriously, regardless of the profile of the third party involved, and is investigated.
Such reviews and investigations are conducted by a SoLR member appointed by the SoLR Committee, to whom they report. These reviews are made be against the SoLR Committee members’ own benchmarks. The findings of these reviews and investigations are reported to the SoLR Board as necessary. Where necessary the SoLR Board would take appropriate action.
For transparency, the SoLR Board maintains a list of all third parties with whom it has significant financial dealings, all sponsors and any with whom it has entered formal or informal partnerships or arrangements where such associations might potentially reflect upon the reputation of SoLR. Whilst commercially sensitive, this list nevertheless describes the nature of the dealings or association and is available upon request to the Chair of the SoLR Board.
​
A key principle of the procedure is fairness. This means that when any third party’s credentials are found to fall short of the standards required, having been examined by whatever means are reasonably available, the association will be terminated by the SoLR Board. If deemed necessary, the association may be suspended with immediate effect pending the outcome of the investigation. The third party may be given the opportunity to respond to questions raised.
​
If any member or non-member of SoLR believes there is a breach of this policy, then they should contact the Chair of the SoLR Board at chair@SoLR.org.uk and be assured that their communication will be dealt with in a sensitive and timely manner.
3. Methodology
In conducting reviews and investigations the appointed member of SoLR may be guided by the following diagrammatic methodology.​
Our published Ethical Partnership Policy can be found here.