We consider it both illegal and unethical to offer or accept improper payments in order to gain or retain business. We do not condone any payments we feel to be improper and take particular care when offering or receiving gifts and hospitality. We strive to ensure our business partners and third parties share our commitment to eliminate bribery and corruption.

Conflicts of interest can arise when personal interests compete with Spirit Energy’s interests and impact our ability to make objective decisions. We will never use our position, influence or company information, assets or resources in any way that improperly benefits ourselves or others.

We respect and observe the trade controls of all countries in which we operate; including economic sanctions, and import and export laws. This helps ensure that we do not do business with any countries, people or businesses that have trade sanctions or controls imposed against them.

We protect Spirit Energy’s products and services from being used for the purposes of money laundering and terrorist financing. We evaluate businesses we want to work with by following relevant due diligence procedures and ensuring that business partners, customers, merger / acquisition partners and other third parties are screened against global restricted parties’ lists.

We are committed to the prevention, detection and investigation of fraud, and do not tolerate it in our business. All forms of fraudulent conduct or dishonest behaviour are prohibited and we will report any serious matters to the relevant authorities.

Where we have access to unpublished, price-sensitive information about Spirit Energy and our business partners we do not use it for our own or another’s benefit.

We deal with our competitors and business partners in a fair and ethical way and do not engage in any activity that is anti-competitive. We want the markets we operate in to be fair and competitive, and will therefore be objective and independent when we decide those we operate in, how we operate and the prices we charge. Agreements or communications with competitors and business partners which lead to sharing markets, fixing prices, limiting production or collusive tendering are prohibited by law and we do not engage in these activities.

We want to extend positive social and environmental impacts beyond our immediate operations. We proactively engage our supply chain to ensure standards are upheld and take action if we find our business partners and third parties failing to meet expectations.

We believe in responsible tax management. This means paying and collecting the correct amount of tax in the right jurisdictions, and on time. It also means providing the information to tax authorities they require, such as country-by-country reporting. And the tax we pay reflects the underlying commercial transactions across our business. This not only fulfils our legal obligations, but also, we think it’s the right thing to do. 

Deciding these matters can involve interpretation of rules and forming judgements. So we try to be open and transparent about our approach, our decision-making processes and the outcomes achieved. This is in keeping with how we are operating with integrity at Spirit Energy. 

Our approach to responsible taxation applies both to the taxes levied on the business directly and to amounts which we are required to collect from those with whom we do business, such as customers, employees and commercial partners. All our subsidiaries are liable for corporation tax in the country in which they were incorporated.

We understand the increasing demand from many stakeholders for more transparency about the tax affairs of large companies like Spirit Energy. As part of the Centrica Group, we apply the Centrica Group Tax Strategy which can be found here.