Governance

Together… we raise standards and transparency, building enduring trust

2019 Highlights

100% of our employees committed to adhere to our code of conduct

Our total tax contribution was £526m

We appointed a non-executive director responsible for supporting employee engagement

It’s vital that we have integrity and transparency in how we operate, building trust in both our business and sector. As an investor, this is what we expect of investee companies and it is our focus operationally.

Stakeholder views

We interact with numerous stakeholders. Their expectations, about our role and contribution to the common good, are rising. Our Board engages with many different stakeholder groups to understand and represent their views. One of our non-executive directors, Melanie Gee, took on a new role in 2019, to represent the employee voice. This programme encompasses face-to-face sessions with colleagues across the business and deep-dive surveys on particular topics.

A key part of our sustainability approach is understanding our stakeholder expectations through our materiality matrix.

> More in our sustainability report 2019

Ethical conduct

Our global code of conduct describes the principles and standards that we hold ourselves to and ask all our employees to consider in every decision and action they take.

Our supplier code of conduct sets out the standards and principles we require our suppliers to follow, and that we expect them to demand from their own supply chains.

Tax strategy

Our tax strategy sets out our approach to governance over tax matters, our attitude to tax risk, our attitude to tax planning and how we work with tax authorities.

Information and cyber security

Everybody in our global business is trained to understand our risks, accountabilities and expectations regarding information security and cyber security.

We work together to protect our people, our clients and customers and their assets against harm by implementing and maintaining robust and resilient layers of cyber-defence. Our approach prioritises detection and prevention of incidents, but we are also prepared to respond and recover efficiently and effectively.

We also have a data protection policy which adheres to global data protection laws including Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.

Our Board is committed to complying with global regulation and acting in accordance with best practice principles. This commitment applies throughout our business and in all countries in which we operate.