Audits of suppliers (self-reporting):
'2,117 Code of Practice (COP) audits performed
in the year across 41 countries' - 2
'Our in-house COP team carried out 2,117 audits in the year.' - 3
'GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK & POLICIES
Due Diligence
Our COP auditing process is a vital due diligence tool as it delivers assurance that our suppliers and their factories understand their responsibility to comply with our ethical standards. We also invest time and resources to support effective communication and work collaboratively with our suppliers to prevent issues arising or help resolve issues we have identified. We use the UNGP Reporting Framework to help us build a more detailed picture and better understand the salient human rights issues across our business (i.e. those human rights that stand out because they are at risk of the most severe negative impact through the Company’s activities or business relationships). For more details please see our Corporate Responsibility Report at nextplc.co.uk.' - 4
'RISK ASSESSMENT & DUE DILIGENCE
Due Diligence & Action Taken
Concerns regarding modern slavery generally
originate from one of the following sources:
• COP audits
• Whistleblowing
• Employee or third party communications' - 7
On-site visits (self-reporting):
'RISK ASSESSMENT & DUE DILIGENCE
Key Activities This Year
Unauthorised subcontracting
As our COP teams start to increase the physical audits, they are better able to identify unauthorised subcontracting cases and work with suppliers to remediate.' - 6
'Due Diligence & Action Taken
During 2021/22 76% of audits were on-site visits and 24% were virtual. In total 63% of our audits were announced and 37% unannounced, which reflects the fact that all of our virtual audits have to be announced and our teams were still faced with travel restrictions during the year. During these audits we identified 19 factory sites with modern slavery related risks. Of these 19 factories, 11 have been successfully remediated or have an agreed plan to remediate and 8 have been disengaged. Our priority is to support factories to resolve issues, but we will not continue to work with them indefinitely if there is no willingness to improve.' - 7