Marks and Spencer 2012 Annual Report Download - page 73

Governance Marks and Spencer Group plc Annual report and financial statements 2012 71
Overview Strategic review Financial review Governance Financial statements and other information
Equal opportunities
The Group is committed to an active equal opportunities policy
from recruitment and selection, through training and development,
performance reviews and promotion to retirement. It is our policy
to promote an environment free from discrimination, harassment
and victimisation, where everyone will receive equal treatment
regardless of gender, colour, ethnic or national origin, disability,
age, marital status, sexual orientation or religion. All decisions
relating to employment practices will be objective, free from bias
and based solely upon work criteria and individual merit. The
Company is responsive to the needs of its employees, customers
and the community at large. We are an organisation which uses
everyone’s talents and abilities and where diversity is valued. We
were one of the first major companies to remove the default
retirement age in 2001 and have continued to see an increase in
employees wanting to work past the state retirement age. Our
oldest employee is 85 years old and joined the business at age
80. The Company once again featured in The Times Top 50
places for Women to work in April 2012 and consider this
highlights how equal opportunities are available for all.
Employees with disabilities
It is our policy that people with disabilities should have full and fair
consideration for all vacancies. During the year, we continued to
demonstrate our commitment to interviewing those people with
disabilities who fulfil the minimum criteria, and endeavour to retain
employees in the workforce if they become disabled during
employment. We will actively retrain and adjust their environment
where possible to allow them to maximise their potential. We
continue to work with external organisations to provide workplace
opportunities through our innovative Marks & Start scheme and
by working closely with JobCentrePlus.
Essential contracts or arrangements
The Company is required to disclose any contractual or other
arrangements which it considers are essential to its business.
We have a wide range of suppliers for the production and
distribution of products to our customers. Whilst the loss of, or
disruption to, certain of these arrangements could temporarily
affect the operations of the Group, none are considered to be
essential, with the exception of certain warehouse operators
and the provider of the Company’s E-commerce platform.
Groceries Supply Code of Practice
The Groceries (Supply Chain Practices) Market Investigation
Order 2009 (“Order”) and The Groceries Supply Code of
Practice (“GSCOP”) has been in force since February 2010.
The Company operates a number of systems and controls
to ensure compliance with the Order and GSCOP including
the following:
–the terms and conditions which govern the trading
relationship between M&S and those of its suppliers that
supply groceries to M&S incorporate GSCOP;
–new suppliers are issued with information as required by
the Order;
–The Company has a Code Compliance Officer as required
under the Order, supported by our in-house legal
department; and
–employee training on GSCOP is provided, including annual
refresher programmes and new starter training.
Under the Order and GSCOP, The Company is required to
submit an annual report detailing its compliance with GSCOP
to the Audit Committee for approval and to the Office of Fair
Trading. The Company submitted its report to the Audit
Committee on 11 May 2012 covering the period from 1 April
2011 to 31 March 2012. There were no disputes relating to
GSCOP during the financial year ended 31 March 2012.
Creditor payment policy
For all trade creditors, it is the Group’s policy to:
–agree the terms of payment at the start of business with
that supplier;
–ensure that suppliers are aware of the terms of payment; and
–pay in accordance with its contractual and other legal
obligations.
The main trading company, Marks and Spencer plc, has a
policy concerning the payment of trade creditors as follows:
–general merchandise payments are received between 25
and 60 days after the stock was invoiced;
–food payments are received between 19 and 25 days after
the stock was invoiced; and
–distribution suppliers are paid monthly, for costs incurred in
that month, based on estimates, and payments are adjusted
quarterly to reflect any variations to estimate.
Trade creditor days for Marks and Spencer plc for the year
ended 31 March 2012 were 26 days, or 17 working days
(last year 26 days, or 17 working days), based on the ratio
of Company trade creditors at the end of the year to the
amounts invoiced during the year by trade creditors.
Market value of properties
The directors believe that the open market value of the
properties of the Group exceeds their net book value.
Charitable donations
During the year and in line with our Plan A commitments, the
Group made charitable donations to support the community
of £11.4m (last year £12.3m), excluding management costs and
memberships. These principally consisted of cash donations
of £6.9m (last year £6.9m) which included Breakthrough Breast
Cancer, Macmillan Cancer Support, Great Ormond Street
Hospital, UNICEF, Groundwork, WWF, MCS, our Marks & Start
programme and local community donations. We also donated
£1.3m (last year £1.3m) of employee time, principally on
fundraising and volunteering, Marks & Start and school work
experience programmes. As a business we have reduced our
waste in the last five years and now do not send anything to
landfill. This reduction in waste is reflected in our overall
reduction in waste stock donations to a variety of charities,
£3.2m (last year £4.1m) including Oxfam, The Newlife
Foundation and Shelter.
We also had another successful year supporting a number
of our charity partners in raising funds of £8.5m (last year
£10.9m). This principally consisted of funds raised from
customer clothing donations to Oxfam through The Clothing
Exchange, funds raised by Groundwork as a result of M&S
support and employee and customer donations.
Political donations
No political donations were made during the year ended
31 March 2012. Marks & Spencer has a policy of not making
donations to political organisations or independent election
candidates or incurring political expenditure anywhere in the
world as defined in the Political Parties, Elections and
Referendums Act 2000.
Events after the reporting period
The details and impacts of events after the reporting period
can be found in note 29 on page 106.