Corporate political engagement

We’re committed to maintaining a high standard of corporate political engagement worldwide. We do this by assessing and making our policies, procedures and practice visible, with reference to Transparency International Guidance.

Transparency International areas of focus

We’ve provided details below that relate to the four key Transparency International areas of focus – control environment, political contributions, responsible lobbying and revolving door.

Control environment

We recognise that the control environment sets the tone for a company. This includes:

  • the integrity, ethical values and competence of employees

  • the philosophy and leadership style of management

  • the assignment of authority and responsibility for global political activities.

We have clear guiding principles for our political activities, an integrated management approach and Board accountability and oversight. We can demonstrate that we manage activities on a Group-wide basis and have management approval, monitoring and compliance processes in place to support this.


Control environment documents

The documents below set out our control environment in more detail.

Our guiding principles underpinning political activities

A statement on our associated monitoring, management approval and assurance of political activity

Our Code of Ethical Business Conduct – with particular reference to pages 24-25

Our Stakeholder BMS Standard

Anti Fraud and Bribery Practices Policy

The Audit & Risk Committee Terms of Reference – this body oversees our compliance on ethics and business conduct which includes lobbying. The internal audit and compliance teams monitor and reports to the Audit & Risk Committee, which in turn reports to the Board


Useful links

Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) Code (UK)

The Bribery Act 2010 Guidance (Ministry of Justice [UK])

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (US)

Lobbying Disclosure Act (US)

Federal campaign finance law (US)

Political contributions

We have a clear policy of prohibiting political contributions, including by another entity on our behalf. Find out more in the documents below.

National Grid Statement on Political Contributions

Role of the AGM on Political Contributions

Responsible lobbying
Revolving door

Read our policy and information relating to the movement of directors and employees between positions in public/private sector. This includes our guidance on 'cooling off' for staff joining from the private sector.

Our policy

Register of Staff on Secondment to or from Public Bodies


More information

Transparency International (TI) is a global civil society organisation whose purpose is to take action to fight corruption.

Transparency International (Global) 

Transparency International (UK)

If you have any questions about our corporate political engagement, please send us an email.

The content of the Transparency International web pages (Global and UK) and corresponding documentation was reviewed by the National Grid Corporate Affairs team and is up to date as of Thursday 1 November 2018.