What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Corporate Social Responsibility demonstrates a company's ability to be accountable for its policies and practices. This means producing tangible results that benefit all stakeholders and make a positive impact on the economic, social and environmental aspects of the local community in which the company operates.

All businesses have a responsibility to align their values and behaviour with the expectations and needs of their stakeholders. Marston Group's stakeholders are:

  • clients
  • customers (debtors)
  • employees
  • local communities
  • investors

Marston Group seeks to ensure that the interests of all stakeholders are considered in its corporate decision-making process. By doing so, the sector benefits from improving standards.

Mission Statement

As the UK's largest provider of High Court and civil enforcement services, Marston Group believes that it has a responsibility to support local communities and to make a positive difference to those who work for, or in partnership with Marston Group.

Our mission statement reflects our values and goals, namely to:

  • establish the highest standards of ethical and professional enforcement practice
  • operate at all times within the letter and the spirit of the law
  • be a partnership builder that is innovative, safe and secure
  • be the enforcement agency of choice for local authorities, the courts service and High Court users (including legal practices and private companies)
  • maximise recovery rates for clients whilst maintaining respect for those against whom we enforce

This ensures that Marston Group endeavours to promote and deliver a service that represents the company, its clients and the sector in a professional, ethical and fair manner.

Our ability to innovate and lead the sector in a new direction has continued to produce successful results. So far, we have achieved:

Ethical Audit:

In February 2007, Marston Group engaged Rockpools, an ethical audit consultancy, to assess its facilities and practices against recognised Audit Commission benchmarks. The assessment involved reviewing Marston Group's policies and standards and determining how it delivers an ethical service for its customers (debtors), clients and staff.

As part of the assessment, anonymous surveys were completed by staff, which produced the following results:

  • a high level of job satisfaction
  • a strong awareness of our equality and diversity policies
  • a thorough understanding of Marston Group's procedures and of its duties to behave responsibly

The audit report concluded that:

'Marston Group is an open and honest organisation that is seeking to improve its accountability. We can confirm that Marston is doing the right things and is seeking to do them in the right way'.

Rockpools' in-depth analysis and quality of work has helped us to firmly embed ethical frameworks into our business model. We remain committed to refocusing and refreshing our practices and work environment through continued review.

News articles

Fee reform campaign:

Private sector enforcement of distress warrants and liability orders is a public service that delivers important, tangible benefits to society. In the 2007/08 fiscal year, for example, an estimated £635m was recovered by private contractors on behalf of central or local government bodies - at no cost to the taxpayer.

Given the public service benefits obtained at minimal cost by use of private enforcement agencies, it is important that service providers are able to generate reasonable returns from successfully executed warrants, writs and liability orders. It is equally important that those fees are structured in a way that:

  • is transparent
  • promotes ethical behaviour
  • reduces potential for dispute
  • incentivises conclusion of enforcement at the earliest possible stage
  • passes on a proportional cost to debtors that do make payment

Marston Group has been at the forefront of the reform process. Gareth Hughes, Deputy Chief Executive, wrote the ACEA/ESA submission on fee reform that was presented to Ministry of Justice in November 2008. In 2009, he was appointed to the two Ministry of Justice working groups convened to consider how enforcement fees could be better structured. He is also a member of the Enforcement Law Reform Group, as is fellow director Paul Caddy and John Marston, Marston Group's chairman.

The current fee schedules:

  • have inherent potential for dispute, as they are based on charges per actions undertaken, and these are not always easy to evidence
  • create ambiguity in relation to reasonable costs and charges, resulting in different companies charging different amounts for the same service
  • are complex to calculate and difficult for debtors to understand, which encourages a mistrust of the sector

The key desired outcomes of the proposed public debt fee schedule are

  • Simplicity - easy to calculate and for debtors to understand
  • Consistency - applicable across all types of public debt
  • Transparency - no scope for different contractors to charge different amounts for identical actions
  • Certainty - fees applied per enforcement stage, not per action
  • Proportionality - debtors charged a proportionate cost in respect of enforcement
  • Fairness - contractors appropriately remunerated for providing the service to taxpayers
  • Contractors - incentivised to conclude enforcement at the earliest possible stage

To read more about our campaign go to ICM-Article.pdf and news articles

Charitable Trust

In July 2008, Marston Group Charitable Trust was created. Registered as an official charity by the Charity Commission, the principal objective of the Trust is to provide grants to local community organisations within the regions in which Marston Group operates. Marston Group's staff and its Joint Consultative Committee can make recommendations to the Trust in respect of potential grants. This commitment is now being extended to enable community members to make direct applications to the Trust.

In 2011, Marston Group selected a new champion charity, The Synergy Theatre Project:

The Synergy Theatre Project ("Synergy") is an important charity that works towards rehabilitation of prisoners, ex-prisoners and young people at risk through theatre, writing and live performance.

It produces plays in prisons which are performed, staged and often written by prisoners or ex-offenders, most of whom have had no previous experience of theatre. Professional productions are also regularly staged at venues across the country, including the famous Soho Theatre.

Marston chose Synergy as its Champion Charity due to its unique and creative approach in rehabilitating ex-offenders. Active participation in Synergy's projects develops practical, psychological and social skills that are essential to rehabilitation and social integration. In addition, Synergy provides training and some paid employment to ex-prisoners in order to increase employability and help break the cycle of offending.

By also presenting work in the public arena, Synergy aims to challenge perceptions and create opportunity for dialogue between prisoners and the public. On average, 80 per cent of Synergy's audiences attend post-show discussions.

Environmental

As a commitment to minimising its environmental impact and making resource efficiency a core requirement of its operations, Marston Group achieved the ISO 14001:2004 accreditation for its Environmental Management System in 2010.

Prior to achieving the accreditation, we had already introduced handheld computers that reduced paper-based records, improved accuracy and increased the speed of information to our enforcement agents at the same time. We also included low emission vehicles to our fleet that reduced our carbon emissions.

Through obtaining the accreditation, the following objectives were achieved:

  • minimise waste and pollution
  • use post consumer recycled paper; where possible
  • minimise the need for transportation and to use fuels that are ecologically sensitive, such as unleaded petrol or low-sulphur diesel
  • conserve energy by correct use and maintenance of heating, lighting and office equipment

Train to Gain Initiative

Marston Group has created an initiative to encourage staff to complete an NVQ qualification as part of its commitment to the government's Skills Pledge. The Train to Gain scheme offers work-related and competence-based qualifications that complement day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

Employees can receive training on vocational subjects such as Customer Care, Business Administration and Leadership & Management. Through NVQs, employees achieve:

  • a widely-recognised qualification
  • a sense of motivation to maximise their potential
  • recognition that they can do their jobs to a national standard
  • improved career prospects and employability

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