Business ethics

Cairn is committed to creating value for shareholders while maintaining integrity and high ethical standards in all our business dealings. We comply with applicable legal, regulatory and licence requirements in the countries where we do business and look to co-operate fully with governmental and regulatory bodies.

Code of Business Ethics

Our Code of Business Ethics was updated and rewritten in 2009, and a new comprehensive Whistleblowing Policy was introduced. Compulsory half-hour training sessions were rolled out to staff in Edinburgh and Bangladesh, attended by a total of 41 employees (62%) in Bangladesh and 80 employees (82%) in the UK. All staff, new employees and third-party workers have been provided with copies of the policies and were asked to return a signed declaration confirming that they have read the documents.

The HR induction process also emphasises the importance of our Code of Business Ethics and Whistleblowing policies.

Human Rights

Meeting our responsibility to respect human rights is critical to the development and maintenance of effective relationships with our workers and the communities in which we operate.

We are committed to a culture that supports internationally recognised human rights and seeks to ensure non-complicity in human rights abuses. We do not employ forced, bonded or child labour. We also seek to apply the principles contained within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) within our sphere of influence and activities.

Taxes and Royalties

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) was launched in 2003 to promote transparent reporting by governments of tax and royalty revenues in the mineral resource extraction sector.

Although the governments of countries in which Cairn operates are not signatories of the EITI, we support the principles of this initiative. Consequently, 2009 was the fifth consecutive year in which we have published the details of the tax and royalty payments made to governments around the world by Cairn and its subsidiaries.

Cairn does not engage in party politics or make donations to political parties or candidates.