45
Scottish Enterprise has continued to implement a Sanctions Policy in line with UK Government's Legal Sanctions, and since March 2022 has continued to implement the Scottish Government's additional Discretionary Economic Measures Policy towards Russia, which have the intent to weaken the Russian regime's war efforts. The purpose of the policy is to help ensure that we are not supporting companies or individuals subject to legal sanctions and those companies that retain Russian or Belarusian trading or investment links, where these are able to be divested of.
We are implementing The Fairer Scotland Duty which requires public authorities, including Scottish Enterprise, to address socio economic inequalities. This focuses on ensuring fair economic opportunities in line with Scottish Government's goals. The duty mandates strategic decisions to be carefully assessed, such as economic development strategies. We have integrated procedures and guidance to support colleagues in conducting assessments, aligned with our equality impact process. These requirements are included in our project lifecycle and applied to approvals from January 2019 onwards. A list of our published assessments is available on our website.
This builds on our equality obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and associated Scottish Specific Equality Duties. Further details are contained in our Equality Mainstreaming Report.
We have a comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy that supports our organisational goals and values, ensuring we act as a responsible corporate citizen and play an active role in communities across Scotland. Key elements of this strategy include our volunteering policy and partnerships with charities.
We operate a well-established, colleague supported volunteering programme. Our volunteering policy reflects our commitment to supporting local communities and the environment, while also contributing to the development of our people. To encourage greater participation, we introduced micro volunteering, allowing colleagues to volunteer for short periods (a minimum of one hour), rather than limiting volunteering leave to half or full days. This change has increased accessibility and uptake across the organisation.