Frequently Asked Questions

We are using CAESER to engage with all suppliers around the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda in particular sustainable development. We are using CAESER to understand the impacts suppliers have on the environment, especially when providing goods and services for the Home Office. We are planning to use the data to help you and other suppliers improve your sustainability performance.

The CAESER questionnaire assesses an organisation’s awareness of current environmental and social concerns, such as carbon dioxide emissions and working conditions in the supply chain.

The CAESER questionnaire explores 7 key business areas:

• code of ethics
• governance
• personnel
• finance
• supply chain
• operations
• communications

It assesses each business area against a general context of corporate social responsibility, the government’s agenda on sustainable development and how well you as an organisation engage with your stakeholders.

The questionnaire is optional, but we would encourage you to participate as we are keen to understand the corporate social responsibility policies and commitments of our suppliers. If other government departments ask you to complete the questionnaire subsequently, you can advise them that you have already completed it at the request of the Home Office.

Government buying organisations are committed to meeting the Sustainable Development (SD) targets. From a commercial perspective, use of this tool by suppliers, or a demonstration of their commitment to a similar or equivalent tool, is positive, and recognises commitment to the SD agenda. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda is growing in importance in the political arena and the information gathered through use of this toolkit, can be used by you, as a supplier, when tendering for other business.

No, your contract will not be terminated if you decline to complete the questionnaire. However your contract/category manager will explore your organisation’s commitment to this CSR agenda as part of the contract review process. Certification is desirable but not mandatory.

Your answers will be analysed and will assist the buyers of your products and services in developing plans and approaches designed to help you, the supplier, in better understanding and meeting public sector SD expectations.

You can choose to ensure that only your buyers can see your data. Alternatively, your profile may be seen by any registered public sector buyer who may then select to engage your organisation for additional products or services.

Yes, if you email the admin team at admin@caeser.org with a request to complete a new questionnaire, they can advise you how to do this. There may be a charge for this service.

The CAESER Certify questionnaire enables you to provide an annual return in relation to the environmental, social and economic impacts of your organisation's business operations based on what you say you are doing and you will be invited at the end of each 12 month period to update your responses to demonstrate how you have developed during that time. If however, you do not wish to be contacted by CAESER again in the future, please send a formal request to admin@caeser.org.

Don’t worry, try reading the online help. If this does not help, just email the admin team at admin@caeser.org.

Yes, however within the CAESER questionnaire data is captured that is government-specific and it would be beneficial for you to complete the CAESER questionnaire. It only takes a maximum of one hour to complete the questionnaire online.

Your assessment is valid for one year.

Yes.

No, CAESER assess your organisation against many of the current standards and government initiatives such as AA1000 and climate change.

AA1000 is a sustainability reporting standard developed by AccountAbility, an international CSR organisation (also known as the Institute of Social and Ethical Accounting). For more information on AA1000 standard, please visit the AccountAbility website.

By agreeing to the terms and conditions, each supplier is legally bound to ensure that their responses are true and accurate to the best of their ability. Suppliers may also be subject to a random auditing procedure to ensure that the answers they have given are truthful.

Yes, CAESER offers an additional verification service that your organisation may wish to use.

The verification service is an option suppliers can choose in order to have their answers authenticated. It confirms that the information they provide for the self assessment option is true.

Suppliers’ answers may also be subject to a random audit to ensure that the self certification process remains accurate.

Yes, the we are looking for exemplary organisations from within the supplier community which can be showcased. Please see the Supplier Value Award Programme 2009 which includes an award category for contribution to the sustainability.

Yes. When you logout of your CAESER account your answers will be automatically saved. When you log back into your account you can continue with your questionnaire, and edit any of your previous answers if necessary.

The preauthorisation code is used to establish a relationship between a supplying company and a buyer. Preauthorisation codes will be requested during the registration process, but can also be added after registration on the ‘My relationship’ page.

Please note: preauthorisation codes are not passwords.

Yes, you can show other buyers your CAESER score. This can be done via your certificate or your report. Another way is to use a preauthorisation code. A preauthorisation code validates a relationship between you the supplier, and your buyers. This can only be done with buyers who have registered onto CAESER.

We understand your concern and would urge you to complete the questionnaire as best as you can. We will take into account that you are a smaller company, and appreciate that you may not score as highly as the larger companies. The questionnaire has been developed with AccountAbility (an international CSR organisation) and with the University of Bath, who are experts in research around sustainable development and questionnaire design; they have helped ensure that the questionnaire is relevant to all organisations, regardless of size, sector or location.

Unfortunately, due to the interactive nature of the questionnaire, we are unable to give you a copy of the questions. The questions you are asked in the questionnaire can depend on the answers which you give to previous questions; this means that we cannot determine which questions you will be asked. However, you can share your username and password with the relevant people, and allow them to log on and complete the questions they can.

Please note: two or more people cannot log onto the same account at the same time.

This questionnaire is for all suppliers to the Home Office regardless of the service or goods they provide or even the size of organisation.

Your company name appears on the Home Officer supplier file therefore we would assume that you are. If you do not consider yourself to be a supplier to the Home Office please contact THRIDPTYSUPP@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

The data you will provide will be used by us to gain a greater understanding of the supply chain and the impacts our suppliers are having on the environment and their local community. The data you provide is confidential and will only be seen by the Home Office.

They can be found on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) website.

No. Register and complete the questinnoaire then you will receive a certificate and a customised report showing your assessment against AccountAbilitys AA1000 AP standard. The report will highlight both areas of weakness and areas where you can improve the sustainability of your business practices.

A Business Activity Code is a code used by the CAESER system to standardise the classification of goods and services provided by organisations. As part of the registration process, the CAESER system requires the user to add Business Activity Code/s to their account, that best describe their organisations’ business activity.

The Business Activity Codes used within CAESER are based on Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) codes and users should use the same codes as they would do when responding to any EU tender.

To search for relevant Business Activity Codes, users should type in a minimum of three letters. Any words entered into the search box can either be complete or open ended, for example, 'comput' will find business activity codes that contain the words computer, computers, and computing. The user should then select the most relevant code.

Users should select the codes that are most relevant to their business activity. Users can select more than one code to help them better describe the services/products that they offer.
 
The Business Activity Codes are based on a tree like structure with top level categories first, which are then filtered down to more precise codes. If a user is struggling to find a code that accurately describes their business activity, they should select the top level code. They should then search under this code to see if there are any more specific codes to their business activity.

The CAESER Helpdesk is on hand to assist you and can be contacted at admin@caeser.org or on 0845 299 2994.

CPV codes can be deleted, edited, and added if necessary via the procurement code section of the organisation details tab, which can be found on your account homepage.