Governance
The Board is committed to achieving high standards of governance designed to protect the long-term interests of all other stakeholders, while promoting the highest standards of integrity, transparency and accountability.
Corporate Governance Report
Our Corporate Governance Report, along with information in the Strategic and Remuneration Reports, explains how the principles and provisions of the U.K. Corporate Governance Code 2018 (‘the Code’) have been applied.
Bribery and corruption
We have implemented effective systems to advocate our zero-tolerance approach to bribery and corruption. To ensure we only work with third parties whose standards are consistent with our own, all agents and distributors are obliged by written agreement to comply with the standards set out in the Code of Conduct. Both our Code of Conduct and Anti-bribery and Corruption policy can be found on the policies page.
Modern slavery
We are fully committed to respecting the human rights of all those working with or for us. We do not accept any form of child or forced labour and we will not do business with any party who fails to uphold these standards. We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and are committed to acting with integrity in all business dealings and relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective measures to ensure modern slavery is not taking place in the business or its supply chains.
Our Modern Slavery Act Statement can be found on our policies page.
Human rights
We are fully committed to respecting the human rights of all those working with or for us. We do not accept any form of child or forced labour and we will not do business with anyone who fails to uphold these standards.
Board and internal governance
We seek to ensure diversity in the composition of our Board; gender diversity, ethnic and social backgrounds, and personal skills.
Female representation across our Executive Board and direct reports is 19% and we are committed to improving this in the future. Across all employees, we have achieved a ratio of 44.8% (416 out of 928) female and 55.2% (512 out of 928) male.
You can find more details of our Board composition in our 2023 Annual Report.