C O R P O R AT ERESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JA N UA RY 2 024

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Contents

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

Our purpose is to provide our customers with beautifully designed,
excellent quality products that are well made, safe and responsibly sourced

Page

INTRODUCTION

1

About This Report
About NEXT
Welcome1
1
2

OVE RVI E W AN D G OAL S

3

At a Glance
Sustainable Development Goals
and Other Metrics

3
4

PROTEC TING WORKERS INO U R S U P P LY C H A I N

6TA C K L I N G C L I M AT E C H A N G E

12About this Report
This report details our continuing social, ethical andenvironmental related activities carried out during the 52
weeks ended 27 January 2024. NEXT’s business in the
United Kingdom (UK) and Eire accounted for 84% of ourturnover in the year, although this report also refers to ourglobal operations wherever relevant.

About NEXT

Total Platform (TP) and Investments

NEXT Group is a UK based retailer offering beautifully
designed, excellent quality clothing, footwear, accessories,
homeware and beauty products. NEXT Group employs
approximately 44,000 people. The business has evolved atpace in recent years as it has further developed its licensing,Total Platform e-commerce and distribution relationships,
and acquired a select number of fashion andhomeware brands.

• TP is a service allowing third-party retailers to make useof NEXT’s online software and infrastructure

NEXT Group consists of several different business divisions:• 9 UK warehouses, 7 UK distribution centres
and 3 international hubs

• NEXT has an equity stake in many companies tradingon TP• TP includes businesses such as Joules, Reiss, JoJo Maman
Bébé, Victoria’s Secret UK, GAP UK, and FatFace

NEXT Distribution

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING
AND CIRCULARITY

17

M A K I N G N E X T A G R E AT
PL ACE TO WO R K

24

SUPPORTINGOUR COMMUNITIES

29• 184 franchised stores• Operates in 34 countries

S TA K E H O L D E R S , G O V E R N A N C E
A N D M AT E R I A L I T Y• Global sourcing locations including a Hong Kong Head
Office and manufacturing site in Sri Lanka

33

NEXT Online

Wholly-owned Brands and Licences

APPENDICES

35

Appendix 1: Our Approach to
Corporate Responsibility
Appendix 2: Indices
Appendix 3: PwC Assurance Report

35

NEXT Retail• 464 stores in the UK and Eire

NEXT International Retail• More than 8.4 million active customers globally• NEXT owned distribution fleet

NEXT Sourcing• Designs and sources NEXT branded products• Websites serving over 60 countries• Wholly-owned brands include Lipsy, Love & Roses,
and Friends Like These

NEXT Finance• External licences owned by others where NEXT delivers
sourcing and manufacturing of certain product ranges• £1.5bn of customer credit balances for NEXT customers
to purchase products online and in our stores

52
53
PAGE
1

• Wholly-owned licences where NEXT has acquiredIntellectual Property of other companies (e.g. MADE.com)

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

W E LCO M E TO O U R 2 024
C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y R E P O R T

Welcome• Deliver value to our customers

As an international fashion, homeware and beauty business,
what we do and how we do it has an impact on the people
and the world around us. Our stakeholder relationships are
key to our success and this report summarises what we’re
doing to make our impact a positive one for our people,
our suppliers, our communities and the environment.

• Act in an ethical manner

The principles underpinning our aim to do business
responsibly are unchanged. We seek always to:• Take responsibility for our impact on the environment• Recognise, respect and protect human rights• Develop positive relationships with our suppliers andbusiness partners• Recruit and retain high integrity employees• Provide support to our communities through donations tocharities and community organisations
Global issues, such as responsible sourcing, human rights andclimate change remain key areas of focus. Behind the scenes,a great deal of work is underway to set solid foundations fora realistic and achievable transition plan to reach net zero.
Within this report you can read about:• Progress on our Responsible Sourcing Approach, whichaims to source 100% of our key raw materials throughknown, responsible or certified routes• The activities of our Code of Practice team, who continue
to work with our suppliers worldwide to meet appropriate
labour standards• The progress we have made towards our Science Based
Target Initiative (SBTi) approved carbon emission targets
for Scope 1, 2 and 3• The range of commitments and initiatives we are working
on to improve the wellbeing of our people• Our progress on waste, packaging and recycling
throughout the business.
We continue to implement the United Nations Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights and align our workwith the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) that are most relevant to our business operations
and products.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP (PwC) have performed
Independent Limited Assurance on selected metrics for the
52 weeks ended 27 January 2024. Details of the balances
which have been assured are included on page 13, and their
independent assurance report can be found on page 53.

Responsibility statement
The Directors of NEXT plc confirm that we are solely
responsible for the preparation of the Corporate
Responsibility Report for the 52 weeks ended 27 January2024, including this Directors’ Statement, and for reporting
the selected ESG performance metrics (together the “Subject
Matter Information”) in accordance with the reporting criteria
available online via this link.
We confirm, to the best of our knowledge and belief,that we have:• Designed, implemented and maintained internal controls
and processes over information relevant to themeasurement, evaluation and preparation of Subject Matter
Information that is free from material misstatement,
whether due to fraud or error• Established objective reporting criteria for preparing andpresenting the Subject Matter Information, including clear
definition of the entity’s organisational boundaries, andapplied them consistently• Presented information, including the reporting criteria, in amanner that provides relevant, complete, reliable, unbiased/
neutral, comparable and understandable information• Reported the Subject Matter Information in accordancewith the reporting criteria.

Amanda JamesGroup Finance Director
19 April 2024
PAGE
2

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

AppendicesO V E R V I E W A N D G O A L S AT A G L A N C E

Protecting Workers in Our Supply Chain

Tackling Climate Change

The safety, human rights and wellbeing of the workers in our
supply chain is important to us and must be protected.

We want to minimise any negative environmental impact
caused by our activities by as much as possible. We continue
to review opportunities to reduce the impact of ouroperations while continuing to minimise our carbon footprint.

Our global Code of Practice (COP) team is responsible foreducating, supporting and auditing our suppliers. These audits
are rated and, wherever possible, we support suppliersin successfully remediating critical issues, so that we cancontribute to improving working standards in our industry.
Human rights abuse and modern slavery are complex issues
that can take many forms. We use the UN Guiding Principles
Reporting Framework to help us identify, prioritise andmanage the risks within our supply chain.

Responsible Sourcing and Circularity
Our goal is to design, manufacture and sell products thatare responsibly sourced, as well as manufactured in a waythat makes them long lasting and that minimises waste
and pollution.
We have a clear Responsible Sourcing Approach to source
100% of main raw materials through known, responsible
or certified routes for NEXT own brand products. We havemade significant progress since we launched our Responsible
Sourcing targets in 2018, which were originally set tobe achieved by 2025. We have already met our target
for Feathers and expect to meet our targets for Cotton,
Leather and Timber by 2025. Polyester and Wool have beenchallenging to make progress on due to fibre availability inthe market. Nonetheless, progress has been made and wehave a clear roadmap to accelerate in the next few years.
After careful consideration we have revised our target
deadline to be 2028 for Man-made Cellulosic Fibres (MMCFs)
and 2030 for Polyester and Wool.

MAKING NEXTA G R E AT P L A C E
TO WO R K

PROTECTINGWO R K E R S I N O U RS U P P LY C H A I N

TA C K L I N G
C L I M AT E
CHANGERESPONSIBLE
SOURCING AND
CIRCULARITYSUPPORTINGOURCOMMUNITIESR E S P O N S I B L E B U S I N E S S O P E R AT I O N S

We set ambitious targets to reduce our absolute Scope 1 and2 carbon emissions by 55% from a baseline year of 2016/17.
We are progressing well against this 2030 target.
Our targets have been approved by the SBTi. Our Scope 1 and2 targets are also in line with the Paris Agreement, meaning
they are consistent with the reductions required to keep
global warming to 1.5ºC.

Making NEXT a Great Place to Work
Our success is due to the hard work of our 44,000 employees.
We, in turn, must support their health, safety, wellbeing,development and dignity, and we encourage a diverse
workforce where everyone is treated with respect.
Our Wellbeing Programme is embedded across NEXT andparticularly focuses on mental health. We have supported thecreation of several employee-led networks, which celebrate
the diversity of our people.

Supporting Our Communities
We partner with charities that make a difference.
From strategic collaborations such as cause-related marketing
under our ‘Together with NEXT’ brand, to employee
volunteering, fundraising, and product donations, our businesssupports and creates value for over 225 charities.

Supporting circularity is a growing focus. We know that
we can have a significant positive environmental impact bydiverting products away from landfill, particularly our larger
Home products. We partner with a variety of charities
to ensure that items are reused, while also raising funds tosupport their causes.
PAGE
3

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

AppendicesS U S TA I N A B L E D E V E L O P M E N T G O A L S
AND OTHER METRICS

Double Materiality Assessment
We are currently undertaking a Double Materiality
Assessment as part of our journey towards ensuring
compliance with incoming regulations such as the EU
Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This will
also support the development of a Net Zero Transition Plan.

FTSE4Good
NEXT is listed in the FTSE4Good Index. The index is designed
to measure the performance of companies demonstratingstrong environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.
We are rated AA (Leader) within MSCI ESG Ratings analysis
and achieved B in our CDP Climate response, B- in our CDP
Water Security response and C in our CDP Forest response.

NEXT’s Alignment to SDGs
Our business activities directly or indirectly impact all 17 of
the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We havealigned our reporting against the nine SDGs that are most
relevant to our business operations and products. We:• Recognise our role and responsibility by adopting the UN
Guiding Principles on Human Rights• Take into account our impact across our whole supply
chain and focus on areas where we can make thebiggest difference
We have a role to play in contributing to these SDGs throughour own direct actions as well as through collaborations withothers. We’ve summarised our key activities on the next page.

Task Force on Climate-Related
Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
We are committed to minimising our environmental impact
by reducing both the carbon intensity of our activities andour use of natural resources.
During our initial review, we considered the risks andopportunities posed by climate change and how theymight impact our business. We looked at the transitional
and physical risks and opportunities presented by risingtemperatures, climate-related policy and emerging
technologies, and agreed a methodology for assessing andquantifying financial impacts.
We used the following time horizons for our assessment:• Short term: present day to 2025
• Medium term: from 2025 to 2030
• Long term: from 2030 to 2040
The risks identified in our analysis are more likely to present
themselves in the medium to long term, and in the shortterm we believe there is no material financial risk to ourbusiness model.
However, we are aware that stakeholder expectations andregulatory attention could develop at pace, impacting therate at which the business may need to cut carbon emissions.
We recognise that we will need to keep abreast of futureclimate change legislation, as well as consumer preferences.
The retail sector is faster paced than many, and there are also
likely to be changes in the way retailers do business over the
next few years. We have a strong track record of evolving at
pace and are confident that we can react accordingly.
Our climate scenario analysis helps us explore how potential
climate risks and opportunities could evolve and impact
our business over the medium to longer term. The TCFD
recommends that organisations consider various scenarios,
including a ‘2°C or lower scenario’, which is centred on‘transition’ risks, including changes in policy, technology,
market and reputational risks, needed to cut emissions in linewith the Paris Agreement. They should also consider ‘physical’risks, such as temperature and sea level rise, and changes
to the frequency and severity of extreme weather events,
including droughts and storms. This is most relevant to our
supply chain, the majority of which is based in Asia.
We analysed three climate scenarios against two timeframes
for our analysis: late transition, early transition and hothouse
world to 2030 and 2040, to align with our long-term planninghorizons and the British Retail Consortium commitment to
net zero by 2040.
PAGE
4

Our TCFD reporting can be found on pages 93 to 99 of our
Annual Report.

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)
We have developed our approach following our initial gap
analysis against the SASB metrics for Apparel, Accessories
and Footwear. We completed this analysis in 2020 across thefour areas:
1. Management of Chemicals in Products (Chemicals)
2. Environmental Impacts in the Supply Chain (Environment)
3. Labour Conditions in the Supply Chain (Labour)
4. Raw Materials Sourcing (Raw Materials)
For Chemicals, Labour and Raw Materials we are making
good progress towards full compliance. Having developed
a programme to prioritise our suppliers, last year was thesecond of our three year plan to benchmark our suppliers
against the standards within the Zero Discharge of Hazardous
Chemicals (ZDHC) requirements.
For Labour and Raw Materials, our main efforts were aroundcontinuing to engage our supply chain partners, as we
progress conformity with the SASB standards. Our policies
are available to suppliers via our Supplier Communication
platform, and we host key policies on our corporate website
at nextplc.co.uk.
We have been improving our ability to measure our suppliers’
environmental performance across energy use, chemicals,
waste, water use and discharge, where the main impact is atTier 3 in our supply chain, including over 4,000 fabric andyarn suppliers. Our membership of the Sustainable Apparel
Coalition (SAC) is helping us with documenting our impact
within such a wide-ranging supply chain, which remains asignificant task.
For more detail, please see the Responsible Sourcing andTackling Climate Change chapters on pages 12-23.
Our SASB Report is available here.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

AppendicesS U S TA I N A B L E D E V E L O P M E N T G O A L S
AND OTHER METRICS FOCUS AREAS

NEXT’s SDG Key Focus Areas

Further
information
see pages• Our Code Of Practice team works to ensure that workers in our global
supply chains are paid correctly by their employers

6 to 11• Providing employees with financial wellbeing support in areas such as
managing debt and financial planning25-27• Implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Businessand Human Rights to ensure workers in our supply chain have safe
working conditions

8• Providing health and wellbeing support to our employees and recognising
the importance of specific areas, such as positive mental wellbeing

24-25, 50• Implementing chemical management programmes in line with our
Chemical Policy with product related suppliers for the use of clean
chemicals in the supply chain. As a signatory to ZDHC, we will work
collaboratively with others to develop this further

22• At NEXT, 70% of employees and 41% of our Board directors are female

26• Within our supply chain, gender equality is a fundamental human right.
We are working with partners in Bangladesh, Morocco, India and Turkey
to support women in our supply chain

11• We map our supply chain water use to enable us to identify at-risk
locations and how we can work with suppliers to improve water efficiency

16, 22• NEXT strives to ensure that workers in our global product supply chains
have access to clean water and sanitation

38• NEXT’s Chemical Policy supports the implementation of chemical management
programmes with suppliers for the use of clean chemicals in the supply
chain to manage effluent in order to prevent contamination of waterways

22• NEXT is a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), International
Accord and ACT (Action, Collaboration and Transformation).
These programmes help to address identified human rights and modern
slavery impacts within our supply chain

9, 41-47• We are continuing to support the fight against modern slavery
by implementing the UNGP on Business and Human Rights

8• We are looking for opportunities to help disadvantaged membersof society into employment

27

NEXT’s SDG Key Focus Areas

PAGE
5

Further
information
see pages• We use a large variety of raw materials. Through our Responsible
Sourcing Approach, we are working to ensure these materials are sourced
and produced sustainably and responsibly

17-23• We are providing customers with solutions to recycle difficult to recycle
products, such as mattresses and furniture

23• NEXT works to reduce our direct carbon emissions across the business.
Our target of diverting at least 95% of our waste from landfill by 2020is already being achieved with 96% being diverted for recycling, reuseor energy recovery

12, 15-16, 49• Our Scope 1, 2 and 3 targets have been approved by the Science Based
Target Initiative (SBTi)

12• We have performed an assessment of the risks and opportunities posedby climate change and published these in our TCFD report4• We are a founding signatory to and member of the British Retail
Consortium Climate Action Group and participate in industry discussions

14• We are a signatory to Textiles 2030, a UK textile sector collaboration
aimed at making science-based progress on circularity and climate action

19• NEXT is committed to the protection of natural resources and will source
all land based raw materials responsibly

17-23, 48• Partnerships and collaborations support our responsible
business activities

Throughout
this reportCORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

P R OT E C T I N G WO R K E R S
I N O U R S U P P LY C H A I N
Highlights• 31 factories were assessed in our new building safety
project in Turkey• Gender empowerment programmes established in
Morocco, Turkey and Bangladesh• Worker grievance app, TIMBY, extended to factorycommunities in Pakistan, India, and Myanmar• Engaged our top 35 NEXT suppliers and top 20 Lipsy
suppliers in one-to-one listening, ethical complianceand supplier relationship-building sessions• Continued to onboard our Total Platform partners into
our Code of Practice (COP) approach

Aligned SDGs

Our Commitment
We will not tolerate any instance of modern slavery in ourbusiness or in our supply chain. NEXT products should bemade by workers who are treated honestly and fairly for thework they undertake and whose human rights and wellbeing
are respected.

Our Approach
Our approach to protecting workers in our supply chain,
when we first started operating, was focused on NEXTown brand products. As the business has evolved toinclude wholly-owned brands, licensed and Total Platform
Partners, we are reviewing our approach across these areas
and aligning minimum requirements where appropriate.
This section focuses on the progress we have made to dateacross NEXT own brand and licensed products, Lipsy, JoJo
Maman Bébé, and Reiss.

We want to help our suppliers to resolve issues, but we will
not continue to work with them indefinitely if there is no clear
willingness on their part to improve.
Our priorities are to:• Develop and improve workers’ conditions, including safety
and human rights• Communicate and support the achievement of compliancewith our ethical standards by all our suppliers• Support our suppliers to achieve continuous improvement
through partnership• Implement sustainable programmes and initiatives with
suppliers to improve their capacity and ability to deliver
within our ethical requirements• Continue to develop opportunities to work in collaboration
with other brands and retailers, governments, trade unions
and NGOs
To support our suppliers and provide assurance that ourworkers are being treated fairly, we have an in-house COPteam of ethical auditors. The COP team comprises 52
employees who are based in our key sourcing locations
around the world. Our ethical trading programme is based on
the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code and International
Labour Organization Conventions.
The COP team supports the protection of workers in our
supply chain by:• Ensuring our COP Principle Standards are up-to-date.
These standards set out the minimum requirements forour suppliers in relation to worker safety, human rights,
employment and working conditions• Inducting, training and supporting our suppliers to makesure they understand our expectations. Working with
suppliers to raise their standards rather than terminating
the relationship delivers a better outcome for workers andthe supply chain as a whole• Ensuring our suppliers are aware of our Auditing Standards
to help them fulfil their obligations. Compliance with thestandards is a contractual condition of business for all
product suppliers

PAGE
6• Auditing our suppliers’ compliance with our standards.
In 2023/34, 93% of our audits were unannounced. Our audit
plan is risk-based, taking into account geographic location,
ethical reputation, the type of manufacturing process andthe factory’s most recent audit rating• Drawing up Corrective Action Plans (CAPs) where we findareas for improvement during an audit. The plan is agreed
with the supplier and factory management and follow-up
reviews monitor progress• Running training initiatives for our employees, suppliers,
business partners and service providers to develop
knowledge and awareness• Holding supplier conferences and regular meetings
with individual suppliers to share best practice andbuild relationships
We work with suppliers and external experts to resolve issues
within our supply chain and raise standards. In addition,
we ensure that all the information our suppliers need tounderstand our policies and requirements is available via our
Online Supplier Portal.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

P R OT E C T I N G WO R K E R S
I N O U R S U P P LY C H A I N C O N T I N U E D
Our Supply Chain

COP Audit Ratings

From raw material sources to final products, our supply chain
comprises five tiers and is diverse and dynamic. In 2023 wesourced NEXT brand products from 39 countries. Our top ten
sourcing countries are as follows:

During 2023/24, the COP team carried out 2,416 audits.
This year for the first time including key supplier sites of our
Total Platform partners JoJo Maman Bébé and Reiss, of which
99.7% were on-site visits and 0.3% were virtual audits.

In total, 93% of our audits were unannounced and 7%
announced. During these audits, we identified 28 cases ofmodern slavery-related risks. Of these, five cases have beensuccessfully remediated, 13 factories have been disengaged
and the remainder are working on an in-progress CAP.
Timeframes for corrective action vary by factory. To readmore about our approach to supplier auditing, see page 40.

The figures represent the percentage of the value of our business and the numberof factories per country.

It is vitally important to us that workers in our supply chain
are protected. Workers must:• Not be forced into work
• Have good, safe working conditions• Not be discriminated against by their employers• Receive a fair salary for the work they do
We believe that the violation of human rights anywhere in
our operations is unacceptable, and we deal firmly with any
infringements identified in our supply chain.

Graphic shows breakdown of audits by category rating along with a definition for each category
PAGE
7

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Overview
and Goals

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

P R OT E C T I N G WO R K E R S
I N O U R S U P P LY C H A I N C O N T I N U E D
United Nations Guiding Principles

Country Risk Analysis

NEXT takes any allegation of any forms of human rights
abuse seriously. We are committed to ensuring thatpeople are treated with dignity and respect. We uphold
all internationally recognised human rights principles
encompassed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on
Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

Our internally developed country risk analysis heat map helps
us to assess any human rights and modern slavery risks inour supply chain. This combines our identified salient humanrights risks with other factors such as geographical location,
vulnerability of impacted groups, frequency of issues andlevel of mitigation already in place. We use these factors
to produce an overall risk rating for each sourcing locationand to help identify future projects to reduce risks in our
supply chains. We also use this analysis to assess if we needto collaborate with relevant organisations to bring about
meaningful improvements. During the year we developed
specific country risk analysis for Egypt and Ethiopia, as our
product teams were exploring possible new sourcing routes.

Following the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs) on Businessand Human Rights helps us to recognise and manage the riskof harm associated with unsatisfactory working conditions,discrimination, modern slavery, human trafficking andforced or bonded labour, particularly in relation to the mostvulnerable and exploited groups, such as women and children.

UNGP Reporting Framework Index
This report aims to align with the UNGP Reporting
Framework. The Reporting Index is designed to identify how
and where the framework disclosures are addressed.

Training and Awareness
Our Code of Practice team holds regular training sessions forour employees;•

Our key indicators for potential human rights and modern
slavery risks include:• Wage retention• Child labour•

In total, 5,321 NEXT UK employees have completed
the modern slavery training, along with 855 Next
Sourcing employees•

We hold regular training sessions for our productteam members to explain what the Code of Practicedepartment does and why it is important to NEXT

• Discrimination• Restricting freedom of movement• Employment fee being charged• Unauthorised deductions from workers’ pay

In 2023, 1,200 new employees completed ourmodern slavery e-learning course and 1,121 NEXT UK
employees completed the modern slavery e-learning
refresher course• Forced labour• Unregistered workers

PAGE
8

Capacity building and supplier engagement
Supporting our suppliers to raise awareness and improvetheir management, technical, HR and financial skills isfoundational to help improve working conditions andopportunities for their workforce who manufacture our
products. Together with local factory representatives,
our COP team deploy a variety of programmes to build
supplier capacity and resilience, including sustainability
activities, addressing worker grievances and improving
worker-management dialogue.
In Pakistan we have had a programme ongoing since
2018 with a small number of factories who demonstrate
a positive attitude towards transparency and open
communication. Instead of carrying out formal COP
audits, we visit the supplier each month to monitor
progress against six agreed initiatives including worker
management dialogue, grievance mechanism processes,
capacity-building training programmes, environmental
and sustainability activities.
During 2023 we held a series of supplier engagement
conferences, training and in-country presentations inIndia, China, Turkey, Poland, Bangladesh, Tunisia, andMorocco. This year, a new financial due diligence tool
we developed for our COP and product teams to use insupplier discussions has been instrumental in helping to
identify areas where we can support suppliers.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

P R OT E C T I N G WO R K E R S
I N O U R S U P P LY C H A I N C O N T I N U E D
Grievance Mechanisms and Worker Voice

Collaboration

Our approach to grievance mechanisms is in line with
the UNGPs. Since 2021 we have been expanding theimplementation of an effective worker voice mechanism
using an app called TIMBY (This Is My Back Yard), which
provides an accessible channel for workers to raise concerns
or grievances. Cases are categorised into six areas covering
wages, harassment, discrimination and forced labour, working
hours, health and safety and ‘other’. There is an agreed formal
process to ensure a consistent approach to the managementof cases.

Collaboration across the garment manufacturing industry isimportant to help improve working conditions throughout
our supply chain. We work with the following organisations totackle challenges in our global supply base, share knowledge
and best practice, while helping to find solutions:

An initial successful TIMBY trial was extended through theyear with two factories in Pakistan, 16 factories in South India(with our partner SAVE) and in three factories in Myanmar
with plans to extend to Turkey and UAE in early 2024.
To date, 101 grievances have been raised and 99 of theseresolved, with remediation managed by the factory and
COP team, and occasionally with local NGO partners.
The two remaining cases are currently in remediation.

To read more about each of our partners listed above, andmany others that we work with, see pages 41-47.
Some of our partner collaborations from 2023:• A new local Bangladesh-based partner, Phulki, is working
with us to pilot a gender programme in three factories.
This aims to address a number of issues including training
and upskilling female leadership to help promote a moregender-inclusive workplace culture, and improve employee
safety through a functional grievance mechanism• In Turkey we agreed a new partnership with MUDEM –a Refugee Support Centre – to establish a grievanceproject. We will start piloting the work with five factories
in early 2024
• We continued to engage our suppliers face-to-facethroughout the year including in-country presentations
in Morocco, Tunisia, and Poland, as well as with our Total
Platform partners through sessions in India, China, Turkey
and Bangladesh for Reiss, Joules, and MADE.com. We also
held one-to-one strategic review meetings with our top 35
NEXT suppliers and top 20 Lipsy suppliers: an opportunity
to hear directly from our suppliers, understand theirperspectives and agree on collaborative approaches tocommon issues

PAGE
9

Supporting children and young people• Our supply chain touches some of the world’s more
vulnerable communities, including migrant workers
and their families, who may work from home orin one of our partner factories. Supporting theirchildren to receive schooling and education is a key
method to build resilience in these communities andhelp avoid child labour. For example, as part of ourMorocco gender empowerment programme, from
November 2023 we have begun literacy and children’s
support sessions.
• We continue to work with AIDER, our NGO partner in
Gurgaon, Northern India. We have now reached morethan 9,500 workers through our worker helpline andcommunity visits since the project first began.
• AIDER provides support in the local community,
holding in-person interactive sessions for workers andtheir families, including mentoring and counselling forvulnerable individuals. They have been working to link
homeworkers to government medical schemes like
Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Account (ABHA Card).
Helping workers to access healthcare services further
supports their overall well-being and that of theirfamilies. Approximately 180 cards have been issued
to date.
• Further AIDER partnership successes for 2023 include
52 enrolments in pre-school; 50 students receiving
general tuition; 65 students receiving sewing skills
tuition and 94 students placed on computer courses.
A ten-month programme of workshops, training, danceand yoga classes has been given to students, including
self-defence, nutrition and health. Personal items suchas clothing, shoes and feminine hygiene kits have also
been distributed to over 2,024 young people.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

P R OT E C T I N G WO R K E R S
I N O U R S U P P LY C H A I N C O N T I N U E D
Situation in Myanmar

Concerns About Forced Labour

Policies and Tools Available to Our Suppliers

In 2021, a military regime took charge in Myanmar. This regime
has since been accused of human rights violations.

We continue to closely monitor developments in relation
to allegations of forced labour in the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region (XUAR) of Western China. Our Cotton
Sourcing Policy bans the use of cotton from the XUAR.

Our Online Supplier Portal has a number of policies and tools
available to support our suppliers and help them to address
any issues. Policies and guidance available on our supplierportal include:

We do not work with any supplier based in the XUAR or
directly source products from the region at Tier 1 (productfactory), Tier 2 (subcontractor to a Tier 1) or Tier 3 (fabric/
yarn suppliers and spinners). Our work to ensure that
products made or sourced for NEXT are free from forced
labour is undertaken by our COP team and covers Tier 1 and
2 suppliers.

• Code of Practice Principle Standards and AuditingStandards

We have considered not sourcing from Myanmar and while
it could send a clear signal that government policies andpractices are unacceptable, it can also do huge damage tolocal communities and workers, depriving them of investment
and wages. For now, we have limited our orders to a small
number of factories with which we have a longstanding,meaningful business relationship and continue to closely
monitor the situation.
Our own directly employed team based in Myanmar works
with our suppliers and factories to ensure compliance with
our standards on workers’ human rights, safety and working
conditions. The team carries out regular, unannounced audits
on all of these factories to ensure workers human rights arerespected. Further details, including how we are continuing
to remediate an instance of child labour discovered througha 2022 audit, can be found in our Modern Slavery Statement.

Traceability of our full supply chain is a key area of focus
given that we do not directly source raw materials. We areworking closely with our suppliers and industry stakeholders
to identify the most effective and accurate ways to trace raw
materials through our supply chain – see page 19. To monitor
compliance with our Cotton policy and its implementation
through our supply chain, we increased the number of tests
during 2023 through our regular testing programme with
Oritain; see page 20 for more information.

• Modern Slavery Guidance Booklet – provides information
on how to spot the signs of potential modern slavery risks• Migrant Labour Policy – follows the Employer Pays Principle
and outlines the responsibilities of suppliers and factories
for ensuring that migrant workers are treated with due
respect and in accordance with NEXT’s Principle Standards
and applicable local laws. In 2023 we updated thesemigrant labour guidelines for suppliers• Child Labour Policy – confirms requirements whenmanaging a child labour issue, as well as detailing theremediation process and specific actions for involving
specialist stakeholders to support the child and their family
until the child reaches the legal working age• Wage Retention Policy – confirms workers’ wages must be
paid in full and on time, and that wages cannot be withheld
for any reason• Shared Premises Policy – provides guidance on premisesthat may present a risk if they involve shared occupancy
and states our expectations for how our suppliers should
manage these risks• Critical Issues Assessment and Site Tour Checklist – enables
suppliers and factories to check for any critical issues prior
to an audit taking place, allowing the COP team to offer
guidance and support• Financial Due Diligence – we have developed a tool for ourinternal teams to use in discussion with suppliers to flag
potential issues of financial challenge in the supply chain

Supplier Payments
NEXT is a voluntary signatory to the Prompt Payment Codeand, as such, uploads the relevant supplier data on to thegovernment portal.

PAGE
10

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

P R OT E C T I N G WO R K E R S
I N O U R S U P P LY C H A I N C O N T I N U E D
Gender empowerment in our supply chain
In many of our top sourcing countries, women make up
the majority of the workforce. Recognising and addressing
the specific challenges women face in their working life ispart of our approach to developing and improving workers’
conditions, including health and safety, and human rights.
For example, Bangladesh’s ready-made garments (RMG)
sector is a crucial driving force of the economy, but womenare significantly under-represented in management. To help
address this, we partner with Phulki, a local not-for-profit
development organisation working with people in poverty
and inequality to help realise human potential. From late2023, three of our Bangladeshi factories piloted training
programmes to raise awareness of and mitigate workplaceharassment issues, establish sustainable grievancemechanisms and introduce leadership and supervisory skills
training programmes for women. The programme aims toequip potential female mid-management leaders with thenecessary skills and knowledge to succeed in leadershipand supervisory roles. Participants learn how to effectively
communicate, resolve conflicts, build and motivate teams
and make informed decisions. It also aims to promote
diversity and inclusivity within the RMG sector and foster amore gender-inclusive workplace culture.

In Tamil Nadu, India, we launched the fourth phase of
our work with NGO partner SAVE (Social Awareness andVoluntary Education), along with other retailers, to maintainsix migrant resource centres in the region. The programme
provides community-based training for women, men andyoung people who want to work in textile and spinningmills and includes computer training and financial literacy.
Awareness programmes emphasising children’s rights,
labour law and the importance of remaining in school
have also been run. Subsidised feminine hygiene products
are offered, as well as sessions on menstrual health andhygiene, and general health and wellbeing. The numberof people engaged and who joined training sessions since
Phase One inception in 2018 has been over 55,000.
Key achievements of Phase Four include:• Total outreach from January 2023 to January 2024 was
18,509 people• Sessions for 2,375 individuals in reproductive health andhygiene awareness• Trained 2,373 members on financial literacy and helped
them connect with their local banking system• Labour rights awareness sessions for 3,158 individuals

In Morocco, in a first for NEXT, we are working with a new
NGO partner, BCC, to establish guidelines and activities
for an innovative gender empowerment programme inthree factories, together with a programme of on-site
assessments and engagement with worker representatives.
First to start is a series of literacy and support sessions forworkers’ children.

Buildings safety project, Turkey
Ensuring the workers in our supply chain have safe,
healthy working environments is fundamentally important
to us. We established a Shared Premises Policy in 2021
for our suppliers and factory owner partners which setsout our expectations and standards for building safety,
due diligence and compliance with local regulations.
Following the tragic earthquake in Turkey in 2023, eventhough none of our factories were affected, we took theopportunity to further enhance our work by initiating a
new building safety assessment process in partnershipwith a local independent engineering company.
31 factories were assessed in the region and out of these,seven were identified as ‘high risk’, so remediation plans
were developed together with suppliers and factoryowners to address the identified concerns. This willcontinue to be monitored by our Turkey team.

Looking Ahead:• Continue to roll out our Gender Empowerment
Programme in Morocco, Bangladesh and Turkey• Continue to extend grievance mechanisms in our top
ten sourcing countries• Work towards ensuring Total Platform partners areenrolled into our COP approach• Hold in-country supplier sessions in the Far Eastand Europe

PAGE
11

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

TA C K L I N G C L I M AT E C H A N G E

Highlights• Our energy efficiency optimisation programme has
saved £4.1m and over 10 million kWh of electricity• LED programmes rolled out across 418 of 464 stores
and aim to have the balance of stores' lighting replacedby the end of March 2024
• Renewable energy coverage across 97% of our estate

Aligned SDGs

We focus on improving the operational energy efficiency of
our sites and offices; identifying opportunities to minimise
waste and increase the amount of it diverted for recycling;increasing the efficiency of our owned delivery fleet; andidentifying opportunities to further reduce our use of
packaging and improve its sustainability.
Our carbon reporting boundary incorporates our own
operations, plus those of businesses where we have themajority stakeholding. Full details can be found in ourreporting criteria.

Targets and Progress

Reduce Scope 1 and 2 absolute carbon emissions by
55% by 2030 against a 2016/17 baseline

Our Commitment
We are committed to minimising our environmental impact byreducing the carbon intensity of our activities and the natural
resources we use.

• Progress – achieved 46% A Scope 1 and 2 carbon
emission reduction against a 2016/17 baseline(47% in 2022/23)
Reduce Scope 3 carbon emissions by 40% by 2030
against a 2019/20 baseline per £1m sales

Our Approach• Progress – achieved 28% reduction (29% in 2022/23)

The complex global challenges of climate change and natural
resource scarcity impact all businesses and their supply
chains and we take our responsibilities in this area seriously.

Divert at least 95% of operational waste from landfill

We take a whole value chain approach to climate risk andmitigation and are committed to reducing the carbon
intensity of our activities and the natural resources we use.

Our Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon reduction targets have been
set in alignment with the Science Based Target Initiative(SBTi) approach and methodology. Our Scope 1 and 2
target is consistent with efforts to limit the global averagetemperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels
and is in line with the SBTi pathway.

As a signatory to sector initiatives such as the Sustainable
Apparel Coalition, Textile Exchange and ZDHC, we work with
our supply chain partners to understand the impact of theiroperations and implement sustainable sourcing decisions,aiming to reduce the environmental impacts of the products
we sell. You can read more about what we are doing in our
Responsible Sourcing section.

• Progress – achieved 96% reduction (95% in 2022/23)

Global Carbon Footprint
Due to the nature of our business, most of our carbon
footprint falls outside of our direct control and is reported
under our Scope 3 emissions. Our Scope 3 total emissions
disclosure (CO2e) covers the complete lifecycle of all the
products we sell, including branded items sold through
LABEL and Total Platform. This extends from the productionof raw materials, through to manufacturing, transport,
customer use and care, and eventual end of life treatment.
PAGE
12This year we have seen an increase in Scope 1 emissions,largely due to an increase in use of our own delivery fleet
instead of third party distribution. However, we haveincreased our use of more efficient, double-decker trailers on
our own distribution vehicles. These allow us to move larger
volumes of stock between depots and consequently rely
less on third party distributors. Third party distribution has
reduced as a result but is a much smaller proportion of our
Scope 3 footprint, so has minimal impact on the overall figure.
Within our Scope 1 emissions, we also saw an increase in theuse of refrigerant gases (used for HVAC – heating, ventilation
and air-conditioning) in our store portfolio which was largely
due to six air-conditioning failures that required significant
refrigerant gas input. We are working to install more energyefficient air-conditioning units across our store estate, aiming
to mitigate the risk of a similar issue in future.
Our Scope 3 increases have been predominantly driven by
an increase in air freight distribution; a rise in business travel(post-COVID 19); and purchased goods for new acquisitions
such as Joules and Reiss. Purchased goods remain ourbiggest category of impact. You can read more on ourcontinued focus on uptake of more responsible materials,
as well as our work in our supply chain in our Responsible
Sourcing chapter.
The chart below shows a breakdown of our Scope 3
emissions sources.
Purchased goods and services

61%

Use of sold products

25%

Upstream transportationand distribution

6%

Downstream transportationand distribution

3%

Other

5%

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

TA C K L I N G C L I M AT E C H A N G E
CONTINUED
NEXT Group Global CO2e Emissions
NEXT Group CO2e Emissions

2024
Tonnes2023
Tonnes%ChangeScope 144,001 A

43,404 RS1

1

Scope 2 – Location Based

43,373 A

43,3230

Scope 3 – Assured Subtotal

74,459 A

72,7302

161,833

159,457

2

Scope 3* – Non-assured Subtotal

2,200,930

2,047,006

8

Total Carbon

2,362,763

2,206,463 RS1

7Total – Assured

33,219NEXT owned cars

1,675

1,690 RS1

-1

7,502

7,810
32,054-4
4Machinery (LPG)
Building(diesel oil, refrigerant gases)

54

61

-12

1,552

1,789

-13

Scope 2 – NEXT Group Energy
Consumption

43,37343,323

0

1,519

1,489

2

13,072

5,428

141

Scope 3 – Assured Subtotal
Business travel
Downstream transportationand distribution

59,86865,813-9

Scope 3* – Non-assured
Subtotal
1,394,622

1,316,108

6

Use of sold products
Upstream transportationand distribution

574,636559,2233

135,475

81,087

67

Employee commuting

26,252

20,93325

Fuel and energy activities
End of life treatment of soldproducts

24,031

26,811-10

25,182

19,26831

Capital goods

20,732

23,576-12Purchased goods and services*Scope 3 – Non-assured Subtotal: emissions embedded in all the products wesell, including branded items, and extends from the production of raw materials,
manufacture, transport, customer use and care and end of life. We have excluded
franchises from our reporting boundary at present due to challenges in obtaining
accurate and reliable data.

A – This data was subject to external independent limited assurance byPricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). For the results of that assurance, see PwC’s
assurance report on page 53 and NEXT’s 2024 Reporting Principles and Criteria which
can be found here

Although the UK has been excluded from the list, the RE
guidance provided grandfathering provisions for contracts
with operational commencement dates before 1 January2024, allowing for the UK to continue to be recognised within
the single market in Europe. The operational commencement
dates of our contracts occurred prior to 1 January 2024,
therefore we have applied the grandfathering provisions
when calculating our market based emissions.

NEXT Group Global Scope 1 and 2 CO2e Emissions
2024
Tonnes2023
TonnesScope 144,001 A

43,404 RS1

Scope 2 – Location Based

43,373 A

43,323

Total Scope 1 and 2 – Location Based

87,374 A

86,727

RS1

Scope 1
Gas heating(stores, offices, warehouses)
NEXT owned
distribution vehicles

Waste generated in operations

Note: The methodology used to calculate our emissions is set out in our Reporting
Principles and Criteria that can be found on our corporate website via this link.
Carbon emissions in 2022/23, and the baseline, excluded Joules. In 2023/24, Joules is
included, as well as Reiss product that has travelled through our warehouse as a result of
being a TP client. See our Reporting Principles and Criteria via this link for further details.

– Restated from prior year due to the incorrect application of the conversion factor
used to convert the raw data into tCO2e resulting in an understatement of the balancein the prior year. This changed the emissions for NEXT owned cars from 1,450 to 1,690
which is above our 5% materiality threshold for restatement. This category of Scope
1 emissions sits across multiple data lines in the table, causing multiple numbers to
be restated.

The methodology used to calculate our emissions aligns
with our global direct carbon footprint and is measured inalignment with the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting
and Reporting Standard and RE100 reporting parameters.
We adopt the conventional approach in calculating ourcarbon emissions through the collection of primary,secondary, or tertiary data in their source units (e.g. kilowatthours (kWh), litres (L), kilograms (kg), kilometres (km) etc.).
The consumption figures relating to each energy source areconverted into carbon. Please see our Reporting Criteria linkfor further details.

Scope 2 Emissions Market Based and Location BasedIn addition to the location-based figure required by UKlegislation (and most GHG benchmarks), we also calculatea market-based figure that reflects our purchase ofrenewable energy. This lower market-based figure can beshown in voluntary reporting if certified renewables arepurchased. As members of RE100, our approach is informedby the RE100 quality criteria and GHG Protocol guidance.
RE100 requires claims to use of renewable electricity to
be based on generation occurring in the same market for
renewable electricity that use is claimed in, this includes the
single market in Europe. The revised RE guidance publishedin December 2022 provided an updated list of countries thatmake up the single market.

PAGE
13

Intensity Metric – Location Based tonnesof CO2e/ total sales (£m)

15 A

16

Scope 2 – Market Based

3,184 A

5,638

Total Scope 1 and 2 – Market Based

47,185 A

49,0428 A

9Intensity Metric – Market Based tonnesof CO2e/total sales (£m)

NEXT Group Global Energy Usage
2024

2023

%
ChangeElectricity usage kWh

200,167,830 A

209,139,917-4

Gas usage kWh

41,009,976 A

42,784,844-4

Total kWh

241,177,806

251,924,761-4

Total Energy
Consumption kWh

393,529,771 A

400,076,707-2

Total Electricity andGas Tonnes CO2e50,87546,8639

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

TA C K L I N G C L I M AT E C H A N G E
CONTINUED
External Benchmarks, Collaborations andMemberships
We participate in the CDP Climate change externalbenchmark annually. For our submission in 2023/24, we
achieved a B Grade. We also achieved a B- Grade for our
Water Security submission and a C Grade for our Forests
submission. Our submissions cover NEXT brand only.
Our latest submissions can be found here.

Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC)
When we became a member of SAC in 2021, we requested
that our largest suppliers adopt and complete the Higg
Facility Environment Module (Higg FEM) to help measure our
supply chain's impact. We are prioritising onboarding our Tier
3 suppliers who produce fabric and operate wet processes,
such as dyehouses and printing facilities. During 2023, oursecond reporting year to SAC, we onboarded 485 Tier 1 sites
and 585 Tier 3 sites within the top 90% of suppliers to NEXT
(Tier 1 and 3) by business volume.
Our suppliers are also completing the Facility Social andLabour Module (FSLM). This allows NEXT to have visibilityof supply chain management of social issues further down
our supply chain, which will allow the business to identify key
areas of concern within our manufacturing suppliers.
We will report the results of our supply chain engagement
annually to SAC.
Since 2019, we have completed the Higg Index Brand andRetail Module (BRM) to review our own actions and impact
regarding social and environmental matters across allareas of our business. We then review hotspots and areasof continuous improvement to continue to develop ourown business practices, including where we are meeting
expectations and where we can strengthen internal policies
and processes.

British Retail Consortium (BRC)
NEXT participates in industry discussions as part of the
BRC. These cover GHG data, renewable energy, low carbon
logistics, sourcing sustainably and helping employees andcustomers live low carbon lifestyles to collectively deliver on
the industry’s net zero ambition. As a founding signatory, we
work with other retailers, Government and other stakeholders.

Energy Efficiency
Our priority is to improve our energy efficiency as thisreduces both carbon emissions and costs. We actively track
and review energy performance; electricity consumption datais passed through half-hourly modem meters and automatedmeter readers (AMRs) installed in our sites to ensure they areoperating efficiently. Gas is used predominantly for heatingand has been removed from all stores where it is no longer
needed. During the year we have:• Completed the fitting of additional solar PV panels at ourwarehousing sites.
• Continued to invest in high efficiency LED lighting which
is now in 90% of our retail stores. This reduces our lighting
energy consumption by around 75% in comparison to
the lighting replaced. These LED lighting solutions are
fitted in new stores as standard. At the end of 2023/24
we had refitted 418 out of 464 NEXT stores, and aim tohave the balance of stores’ lighting replaced by the end of
March 2024.
• Solar panel installation is complete at our Elmsall 3
warehouse. The renewable electricity generated across all
our sites in the year was 5.1m kWh.
• Undertaken strategic energy reviews, working closely with
our energy provider and other parties to actively identify
opportunities for further energy efficiencies.

Energy Optimisation in Stores
In 2023 we continued to roll out our retail energy
optimisation programme to drive efficiencies in theheating and cooling systems in our stores to reduce
the amount of electricity we use. Over 431 stores have
had this work completed and a Buildings Management
System installed. It is estimated that this programme has
saved £4.1m. We are also extending the opportunity to bepart of this efficiency programme to our Total Platform
partners Victoria’s Secret and Joules for their retailspaces in 2024.

PAGE
14

NEXT is a signatory to RE100, a global initiative led by
The Climate Group in partnership with CDP (Carbon
Disclosure Project) and we have set a 100% renewableelectricity target for our global operations by 2030.
The electricity we purchase directly for our UK and Eire
operations is 100% renewable, backed by the Renewable
Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs) scheme andGuarantees of Origin (GOs) scheme, and accounts
for 97% of our global usage. The oustanding 3% is
mostly from our manufacturing operations in Sri Lanka.
Our RE100 target covers NEXT brand, Lipsy and Joules.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Tackling
Climate Change

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

TA C K L I N G C L I M AT E C H A N G E
CONTINUED
Distribution Efficiency
We have nine UK warehouses, seven UK depots and threeinternational hubs. Our distribution network serves our retailstores and online customer deliveries for both NEXT and
third-party branded products. We endeavour to use ourvehicles as efficiently as possible by focusing on optimisationof delivery schedules and driver training.
To learn more about our distribution efficiency, please see
page 49 in Our Approach appendix.

We are a signatory to EV100, a global initiative led by
The Climate Group in partnership with CDP (Carbon
Disclosure Project). As a strategy to help deliver our
carbon reduction targets, we will electrify our owned
company car and van fleet of 1,000 vehicles by 2030
where realistically possible. We are also installing electriccharging points across all NEXT employee sites and all
customer sites where our stores have sole use of the carparks. We run a car sharing scheme for our Leicesterbased employees. At January 2024, we have 858
Company Cars in our UK fleet (2023: 731), of which 212(25%) are fully electric (2023: 63, 8.6%). We have 360
charging points across our network (2023: 242), with 69
at Head Office.

NEXT Group Global Waste and Recycling
Waste and Recycling

2024
Tonnes2023
Tonnes% Change3

Total waste

35,108 A

34,013

Materials diverted for recycling
and energy recovery

33,561 A

32,297

4

General waste sent to landfill

1,547

1,716

-10

% diverted from landfill

96% A

95%

1

During 2023/24, we diverted 96% of the waste materials
we created to recycling, reuse or energy recovery. This year,
the figures have been updated to reflect global waste data.
We remain committed to reducing the amount of waste we
generate from within our operations, even when we growas a business, and to reuse or recycle more of the waste we
do produce.

Our EV100 commitment covers NEXT, Lipsy and Joules.

PAGE
15

Within our retail stores, our employees play a vital role inseparating and segregating recyclable materials for return to
our in-house recycling centre. We work closely with our waste
contractor and packaging suppliers, identifying opportunities
for circularity. This includes using plastic transit packaging
as a feedstock for our Online delivery bags and creating
new boxes from the cardboard collected from our storesand warehouses.
To read more about our in-house recycling centre, seepage 49.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

TA C K L I N G C L I M AT E C H A N G E
CONTINUED
Water UseOur main water stewardship actions are in our extended supply
chain, given that raw material sourcing and operations, such as
laundries, mills and tanneries, use large quantities of water andits responsible management is vital to ensure there is sufficientsafe, clean water for local communities. We work directly with
our suppliers through the ZDHC programme. To find out more
see page 22 of our Responsible Sourcing section.
For NEXT, our direct operation is not a major consumer of water,
however, we have expanded the installation of Automatic Meter
Reading (AMR) technology to 244 stores. These AMR systems
help us investigate out of hours water usage, particularly in our
retail stores, to identify and resolve any leaks to help reduce
unnecessary water consumption.
During 2023/24 we directly used 345,032m of water in our
UK and Eire operations (2022/23: 295,837m3). In addition, thethird-party café concessions operating within our stores useda further 95,235m3 of water (2022/23: 89,898m3)), totalling
440,267m3 (2022/23: 385,735m3). The increase in water
consumption in 2023/24 compared to 2022/23 is due to an
overestimation invoiced by the water companies in the current
year, leakages that occurred in the current year, and credits thatwere received in 2022/23.
3

Packaging
While packaging has its own carbon and resource impact,
it is essential to protect products from damage during transit
to our customers. Unless the right balance is found, reducing
too much of it can result in spoiled and wasted products.
For our NEXT products, by 2025 we aim to eliminate
avoidable plastics in product packaging and to investigate
opportunities to reduce packaging throughout ouroperations. The targets we are using are aligned with the
WRAP UK Plastics Pact and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Our 2025 targets are:

We are signatories to the WRAP UK Plastics Pact initiative
and the On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) Scheme.
These collaborations support our work to reduce the amountof waste produced by ourselves and our customers.
Our ultimate goal is to achieve a circular system where weuse less plastic, and any that is used gets reused or recycled.
Our aims are to:• Eliminate unnecessary or problematic packaging withoutcompromising quality• Increase the recyclability of packaging by working towards
all packaging being reusable or widely recyclable• Reduce our environmental impact by working to eliminate
more damaging materials, such as PVC, acetate andpolystyrene, which are harder to recycle• Include labels on NEXT customer-facing packaging, offering
clear recycling information to help customers
All of our online shipping plastic packaging and carrier bags,
excluding handles, contain a minimum of 30% recycledcontent. To read more about our approach to plastic carrierbags, see pages 49-50 and the case study on our work with
the Microfibre Consortium.
During the year, we:• Collected 1,758 tonnes of flexible film through collection
bins in 450 stores, warehouses and Head Office, forrecycling and reuse• Collected 591 tonnes of hangers from stores for recycling
and in collaboration with our hanger supplier, the material
was reused to make new ones. In 2023/24, we reused 143
tonnes of hangers within the supply chain and 448 tonnes
were granulated to be remade into new hangers• Removed the plastic bag outer from NEXT bedding ranges
sold instore, saving 139 tonnes of plastic from goingto landfill• to reduce the use of virgin plastics by 50%• to reduce overall packaging (relative to sales) by 25%• 100% of packaging to be reusable or recyclable• 100% of plastic packaging to contain at least 30%
recycled content
PAGE
16

Funding The Microfibre Consortium
NEXT has donated some of the proceeds fromthe 2023 sale of its carrier bags to The Microfibre
Consortium (TMC), a not-for-profit organisation
focused on the global issue of microplastics and fibre
fragmentation from the textile and apparel industry.
Funds went to significantly upgrade their microfibre data
portal, allowing for more detailed and efficient analysis
and assessments along with better reporting back tosignatory members to help support product changes.

Looking Ahead:• Continue to expand our use of solar andrenewable energy• Continue our work to reduce our impact through our
packaging and our products• Continue uptake of EVs within company car fleet

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING
AND CIRCULARITY
Highlights• In 2023 NEXT became one of the first major brands
to be Brand Certified by Textile Exchange, which
manages the traceable chain of custody of ourcertified materials, so that we can confidently label
them as coming from certified sources• NEXT was awarded ‘Aspirational Level’ in Zero
Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC)’s Roadmap
to Zero programme, the highest category of success,for our progress onboarding wet processors into the
ZDHC programme

We will also be addressing how we report on progress in the
future. This section focuses on the progress we have made todate across our NEXT own brand products.
Our products must be:• Sourced in line with our Responsible Sourcing Approach• Free from harmful substances• Excellent quality• Safe, functional and fit for their intended purpose
Our key focus areas are:
• Responsible Sourcing – we provide clear sourcing guidance for
our Product teams as well as suppliers and third party brands• We source all viscose, modal and lyocell Man-madeCellulosic Fibres (MMCFs) from Canopy ‘Green Shirt’
rated producers as a minimum• Supply Chain and Traceability – we are working to increase
the level of supply chain transparency, which will give us more
visibility of our supply chain emissions, water use and impact
on biodiversity and natural ecosystems. This includes avoiding
deforestation and improving soil health through cotton
farming practices.
• Chemical Management – we are a signatory to the Zero
Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) programme, andcommit to reaching zero hazardous discharge from our textile
and leather supply chains. Our Chemicals Policy also sets out
our own standards for the use of chemicals in the making ofour products• Animal Welfare – we work to source products with minimal
impact on animals
To read more about how we ensure our products are safe andcomply with relevant legislation, see page 48.

Aligned SDGs

Our Commitment
We are committed to responsible sourcing andensuring traceability.

Our Approach
Our key raw materials for NEXT own brand products are cotton,polyester, MMCFs (such as viscose), wool, timber and leather.
We recognise these come from the world’s natural resources,
with a wide range of associated environmental and social risks
in their production and extraction, contributing to issues suchas deforestation, water stress and climate change.
When we set out our Responsible Sourcing Approach in 2018,
the focus was on NEXT own brand products. As the businesshas evolved to include wholly owned brands, licensed andTotal Platform Partners, we are reviewing our approachacross these entities and aligning minimum requirements
where appropriate.

PAGE
17

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING
AND CIRCULARITY CONTINUED
Targets and Progress
We have made significant progress since we launched our
Responsible Sourcing Approach in 2018, originally set to beachieved by 2025. We have met our Feathers target and are
currently on track to meet Cotton and Timber by 2025.
When reviewing our progress this year, we recognised thatfor MMCFs, Polyester and Wool, it will take longer thanour original timeframe to meet our ambitious sourcing
targets. In view of this, we are moving to a new timeline thatremains ambitious but realistic in light of current quality andavailability challenges, particularly for Polyester and Wool.
We continue to share progress to support these targets
and our Responsible Sourcing Approach and work with our
suppliers to help reduce the impact of manufacturing on theenvironment and local communities around their sites.
We have a suite of policies that detail our approach andprovide clear guidance for our Product teams whendeveloping their ranges: products must meet theserequirements in order to be identified as using responsibly
sourced materials, either on product labelling or in marketing.
To see a list of our Responsible Sourcing policies, seepage 48.
During 2023/24, 59% (2022/23: 54%) of NEXT brand textile
products and footwear met our Responsible Sourcing criteria
in relation to cotton, polyester, MMCFs, wool and leather.

To accelerate our progress, we have:• Launched an interactive Responsible Sourcing Progress
dashboard, which gives Product teams the ability to see
their progress against targets. This enables teams tounderstand the impact of their sourcing decisions without
waiting for a formal report• Developed roadmaps with commercial teams to identify
further opportunities• Continued to work closely with our suppliers to understandtheir challenges and support their move towards using
lower impact fibres

PAGE
18

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING
AND CIRCULARITY CONTINUEDOur Supply Chain and Traceability

Collaborations and Memberships

The graphic below sets out our diverse and global supply
chain, which comprises five tiers from raw materials to
final products.

Collaboration within industry and between peers is crucial todevelop responsible sourcing approaches in complex global
retail supply chains and we are members of several leading
initiatives, including:

We do not source raw materials directly, and the complexityof global supply chains means that traceability to Tier 5 canbe challenging, but we are committed to increase our visibilityof suppliers and raw materials. We have published a list of
our suppliers to Tier 3 on our corporate website, and we arecontinuing work to extend this to include Tiers 4 and 5.
In order to avoid sourcing from areas that do not meet
our standards:• We clearly set out sourcing requirements, approved
fibre producers and any region or country bans in ourfibre policies• We have management systems that capture informationfrom our suppliers to support traceability of materials• We are reviewing the best approach to capture supply
chain traceability• We are members of Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC)and use the Worldly platform, which helps us gain visibilityof our supply chain’s impact. For more information on thisplease see page 14

Some examples of our collaborative work include:•

A signatory to WRAP’s Textiles 2030 initiative,
collaborating on carbon, water and circular textile
targets. Together with peer organisations we aresupporting the development of solutions which will help
minimise the impact clothing and home textiles haveon the environment. For example, we are members of
the Textiles 2030 Durability group, helping to researchmethods of monitoring and benchmarking materials
durability across industry. To read more on our workwithin Textiles 2030, see the case study on the right.

PAGE
19

•

We are working with Reverse Resources, helping
to collect and reuse textile waste in Bangladesh.
This waste is being collected by five of our final productmanufacturers and is sold to fibre producers to make into
new yarns for the apparel industry, helping to strengthen
the market for recycled fibres. In 2023 these suppliers
collected nine tonnes of material, with 99% going to fibre
to fibre mechanical recycling. We are looking to replicate
the programme with key suppliers in India.

•

We are members of the Circular Fashion Innovation
Network to help support the move to a morecircular industry.

Textiles 2030
NEXT is a founding signatory
partner to WRAP’s Textiles
2030, a voluntary UK textile sector agreement.
Signatories collaborate on sustainability targets and by2030 we aim to reduce our combined greenhouse gas
emissions by 50%, in line with the UN trajectory to reduceclimate change. The Textiles 2030 footprint calculator allows
signatories to measure progress in a consistent manner andshow progress against carbon targets per tonne of clothingsales at both individual and combined signatories levels.
We use the tool to calculate embodied emissions over thewhole product lifecycle.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING
AND CIRCULARITY CONTINUEDOur Raw Materials
During 2023/24, the composition of our total textile fibre
footprint (by weight) was as follows:
Cotton55%

Polyester30%

Man made cellulosics

6%

Other

3%

Polyamide / Nylon

3%

Acrylic

2%

Wool

1%

CottonOur most significant raw material is cotton, both in terms ofthe volume we use and the associated environmental andsocial issues linked with its production; conventional cotton
farming uses large amounts of water and pesticides. We define
responsible sources of cotton as those which have beencultivated to meet at least one of the following principles:• Lower water use• Reduced use of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers• Improved social conditions for farmers• Supporting the economic sustainability of farmers• Improved visibility of its country of origin
Our policies state our banned regions for cotton sourcing,which are Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and the Xinjiang region ofChina due to forced labour in farming in these areas.
Target: source 100% of our cotton from responsible sourcesby 2025, which we define as Better Cotton, certified recycled,certified organic, certified organic in conversion or US cotton
through the US Cotton Protocol Trust. During 2023/24,
we sourced 81% (2022/23: 67%) of our cotton throughthese routes.
Better Cotton – We have been a member of Better Cotton
since 2016. In 2023/24, we sourced 78%* (2022/23: 65%) of
our cotton as Better Cotton.

US Cotton Trust Protocol – We are members of the US
Cotton Trust Protocol (USCTP). This helps us to trace thecotton we source from the US all the way to the finishedproduct, and to access robust environmental metrics alignedwith climate science. It enables us to assure responsible
sourcing in a way our customers can trust with on-productlabelling, clearly identifying the origin of the cotton.
All of the cotton used in our Spring Summer 2024
Womenswear denim programmes (Essential, Pull on sculpt,
Jersey leggings) will be sourced through USCTP.
Recycled Cotton – All recycled cotton in NEXT products
in 2023 was post consumer verified using RCS Textile
Exchange certification.
Organic Cotton farming – We are committed to a four-year
programme with Arvind, one of our suppliers in India, working
with 1500 farmers with a total of 1800 hectares, to convert
them from conventional to organic cotton farming. Since thefarmers started the programme, many of them have alreadyseen positive differences to the water-holding capacity andbiodiversity health of their soils. The farmers themselves
have reported a rise in income due to the cost savings on
agrochemicals and the receipt of an additional organic
premium as they switched to organic practices.
Managing our Cotton Risk – We carry out due diligencetesting across a selection of our products using geochemical
profiling. This enables us to verify the absence of cotton
originating from risk areas and, where possible, leverage thetesting to verify the declared country of origin.
Where non-compliance with our policy is identified, we workwith Oritain and our suppliers to rectify this and ensure they
are sourcing in compliance with our policy. This gives us theopportunity to engage further down the supply chain, beyond
the Tier 1 final product manufacturers with whom we contract.
The cotton supply chain is long and there are many
opportunities for cotton to be mixed with that of unwanted
origin. We have identified higher risks in certain production
locations and product types and focus our testing tomaximise our understanding of risk.

*	Our calculation method is by product weight, which differs from Better Cotton’s
calculation in Cotton Lint.

PAGE
20

Polyester
Polyester is a synthetic material that is widely used because ofits durability, versatility and quick drying properties. However, likeother synthetic fibres, it poses challenges to the environment.
In 2023/24, polyester made up approximately 30%(2022/23: 31%) of our total textile fibre mix. We are working tomove from conventional polyester to more responsible polyester
alternatives and only accept and recognise post-consumer
recycled polyester certified to the Global Recycled Standard(GRS) or Recycled Content Standard (RCS) or certain verified
branded fibres.
Target: 100% of the polyester we use to make our products
to be from recycled sources by 2030. During 2023/24 weachieved 22%.
We are members of the Textile Exchange Recycled Polyester
Round Table to collaborate with others to drive improvements
for recycled polyester.

Man-made Cellulosic Fibres
Wood is the main raw material used to make these fibres,such as viscose, lyocell and modal. The wood is pulped andthen undergoes a chemical process to transform it into fibres.
All of the MMCF fibres we buy meet our minimum MMCF
Policy requirements of Canopy Green Shirt rated. A textile
producer audited and assessed as being at low risk, or which
has taken substantive action to eliminate known risk ofsourcing rayon and viscose from ancient and endangered
forests, gets Canopy’s ‘Green Shirt’ rating.
Target: source 100% of our MMCF fibres from branded
sources that move beyond meeting our minimum
requirements by having both verification and traceability by
2028. During 2023/24, we sourced 37% (2022/23 23%) of our
MMCF fibres through these branded routes.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING
AND CIRCULARITY CONTINUED
Microfibres
Understanding microfibre pollution, its sources and effects, is an
ongoing challenge for the whole textile industry.
We are a signatory to The Microfibre Consortium (TMC)
Microfibre 2030 Commitment and Roadmap. Collectively,
our goal is to pool data and knowledge to establish minimum
requirements across the industry. We continue to work with themand donated proceeds in 2023 from our carrier bag sales, readmore on this on page 16.
Through our UKAS (the UK Accreditation Service) accredited
in-house laboratory, we are also supporting the developmentof a new testing methodology to assess fibre shedding
from different materials. This is helping to develop a better
understanding of fibre fragmentation, enabling TMC and its
members to work collaboratively towards robust industrybased solutions.

Leather
In addition to animal welfare concerns, tanning leather uses
significant amounts of water and energy and is a chemicallyintensive process.
Target: 100% of leather from LWG audited tanneries by 2025.
We collaborate with the Leather Working Group (LWG), aninternational multi-stakeholder organisation that promotes
environmental best practice within leather manufacturing.
As a member of LWG:
• 84% of the tanneries we use for footwear, clothing, leather
accessories and upholstery have undergone an LWG audit• 91% of the leather we sourced for footwear, clothing andleather accessories (bags, belts and wallets) comes from
LWG audited tanneries• 100% of the leather we sourced for upholstery comes from
LWG audited tanneries• We use LWG’s environmental audit protocol to assess ourleather supply chain and ensure tanneries operate in a waythat is safer for people and the environment• LWG traceability scores help inform our sourcing decisions.
For example, we do not source leather from cattle raised in
the Brazilian Amazon Biome where there have been casesof illegal deforestation• LWG is aligned with ZDHC and, in 2023, we enrolled
our main Tier 3 finished leather tanneries into our
ZDHC programme

Timber and Deforestation
Responsibly sourced timber is critical to limiting
deforestation. Our Timber Sourcing Policy details ourcommitment to ensuring compliance with regulations andresponsible sourcing.
Target: deliver 100% of our timber origin products from
responsible or certified responsible sources by 2025. This year
we have continued to work with our suppliers to:•Collect – collecting timber traceability information•

Risk assess – risk assessing this information•

Mitigate – mitigating risks by working with our third
party experts and developing corrective action plans
with suppliers•

Conduct due diligence – species testing to monitor
compliance to our policy

Over the past 12 months this has been a key area of focus,
and during this time we have reviewed our data collection andreporting to improve accuracy. This has enabled alignment
between how our buying teams procure and how we capture
data for reporting, resulting in better visibility of progress.
We now measure timber at supplier level, by each uniquewood source, and are pleased to report that 60% is certified
or responsible. We are on track to meet our 2025 target.
We are monitoring the upcoming EU Deforestation
Regulation (EUDR) and have set up an internal EUDR
Working Group with stakeholders across the business todevelop and implement EUDR compliance policies andprocesses. We are also working with our longstanding
partners to support us in complying with EUDR.

MetalsAs part of expanding beyond our key raw materials, during2023/24 we incorporated recycled metals into our NEXTjewellery range.

PAGE
21

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING
AND CIRCULARITY CONTINUEDNEXT achieves
Textile Exchange
Brand Certification
We are Textile Exchange members and use their PreferredFibre and Material Matrix to support our Responsible
Sourcing Approach.
In May 2023 NEXT Retail became one of the few UK brands
to achieve Textile Exchange Content Claim Standard (CCS)
certification, used to establish the validity of the chain ofcustody and product claims. We successfully completed
the audit with the support of wider teams and ourwarehouse network, ensuring that we can make accurate
certification claims on our products.
Products sourced to meet the requirements of our
Responsible Sourcing Approach must be sourced throughresponsible routes and are certified to a recognised
independent standard. Products meeting theserequirements and containing 50% or more of an approved
raw material can carry NEXT Generation labelling, giving
customers visibility of the credentials of our products.

in the supply chain to manage effluent in order to prevent
contamination of waterways. See section below on Chemical
Management. We aim to reduce the water footprint of
new products sold by 30%, in line with our Textiles 2030
commitment, by switching to more responsible fibres andprocesses aligned to our Responsible Sourcing targets.
Read more about our approach to water on page 16.

Chemical Management
Our products must not contain chemicals that could be
harmful to our customers, the workers who make our
products, or the environment.
We are a signatory to the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero
programme which aims to eliminate harmful chemicals fromthe fashion industry’s global supply chain. We collaborate on
promoting industry-wide change in responsible chemical andwastewater management in textile and leather production
processes (such as dyeing, printing and laundering textiles,
and tanning and dyeing leather).
Our Chemicals Policy covers all stages, from production todisposal, and sets out substances banned from intentionaluse in any facilities that process materials for NEXT
brand products.
Our chemicals policy covers four key standards that our
suppliers must adhere to:• Restricted Substances Standard (RSS)Water
The majority of our water used is within our supply chain.
This year we achieved a B- in our CDP Water response.
We conducted a risk assessment for the top 25% of our wet
processors (dye houses, laundries) by volume, as our largest
consumers of water and chemicals. We used the WWF
Water Risk tool for this process, which is primarily used to
identify and review current water risks facing supply chains.
We are using the results of this to inform and prioritise theassessment of water data captured in the Worldly Facility
Environmental Module. In addition, NEXT’s Chemical Policy
supports the implementation of chemical management
programmes with suppliers for the use of clean chemicals• Restricted Substances List (RSL)• Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (ZDHC MRSL)• ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines (ZDHC WWG)
We have a thorough due diligence programme which checks
for compliance with our RSS.
As part of our ZDHC commitments, we build knowledge
and capability in our supply chain year on year, and track
and report progress across the platforms and solutions
being used. Our technical teams work with supply chain
partners to ensure that they adopt and implement all relevant
ZDHC requirements.

PAGE
22

ZDHC Award
During 2023, following the annual
assessment in the ZHDC Brands toZero Leader Programme, we achieved ‘Aspirational Level’,
the highest category of success, awarded to brands
that not only achieve a sufficient total score across all
KPIs in the Leadership Programme, but also meet key
milestones of the Roadmap to Zero Programme and fulfil
selected KPIs determined by ZDHC. The KPIs are focusedon assessing the way ZDHC Guidelines, Platforms andSolutions are embedded into a brand’s corporate strategy
and implemented in their value chain practices.
By 2025, our goal is to have all of our core textile wet
processors fully engaged with ZDHC.
As a ZDHC Signatory brand we work with ZDHC to provide
training to our suppliers (notably our key fabric mills andwet processors) to educate on best practices in order tohelp reduce and eliminate the discharge of any hazardous
chemicals from production processes into the environment.
If any products fail to meet our standards, we remove
them from sale and they may be recalled from customers.
Corrective action plans are put in place to ensure any
non-conformant chemical is removed or substituted at the
supplier’s facility.
By December 2023, 591 of our textile wet processors (dyers,
printers and laundries) were signed up to the ZDHC Gateway,
the platform used to share key information. These suppliers
accounted for 87% of products that were sold during the year.
In addition, 73% of products we bought were from suppliers
producing ClearStream Wastewater reports, 68% were fromsuppliers producing InCheck Chemical Inventory reports
and 71% were from suppliers who had completed Supplier toZero certification.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING
AND CIRCULARITY CONTINUED
Animal Welfare
Our Animal Welfare Policy offers clear guidance regarding
any animal-derived materials used in our products.
While these make up a very small percentage of the total
raw materials we use, we recognise the significance of theseproducts to our consumers, which is why, for example, wool
is one of our key raw materials.
We continue to not use real fur, and all feathers and down
used for filled products are certified to a third party standard
such as the Responsible Down Standard (RDS). In addition,
all merino wool is from non-mulesed sources. For our own
brand cosmetics and toiletries, we do not support testingon animals and have never carried out any animal testingor commissioned others to do so. Raw materials tested onanimals after a cut off date of 1998 are not permitted in
our products.
Target: 100% of wool sourced certified to the Responsible
Wool Standard (RWS) by 2030. During 2023/24, 11% of wool
(2022/23: 4%) was RWS sourced and continue to explore
opportunities to increase the amount we source as RWS
or recycled.

For Our Customers
Home products, such as mattresses, sofas and furniture,
can be difficult for our customers to manage when theywish to dispose of them. Mattresses are particularly tricky
and so we offer a service, together with partners at The
Furniture Recycling Group (TFRG), where customers canrequest we recycle their old mattress when their new one isbeing delivered. In 2023 we recycled over 2,500 mattresses,
diverting over 79 tonnes from landfill. Since 2014, when
we first started working together, TFRG has recycled over
30,000 NEXT mattresses.
Another partner is Clearabee, who provide an affordable,
convenient and sustainable furniture recycling service for ourcustomers, collecting items from their homes for recycling,whatever their condition.
We also partner with charitable organisations, such as the
British Heart Foundation (BHF), to provide local solutions
to our customers and help raise funds for the charity.
Our customers’ donated furniture and home products havehelped BHF raise over £1.79 million since we started to workwith them in 2016.

Moving Towards Circularity
In Our Supply Chain
As part of our Responsible Sourcing Approach, we recognise
we must work to lower the environmental impact of ourbusiness activities. Part of our strategy to do this is to work
towards a more circular economy; embedding circularprinciples into our approach, including producing and selling
products that minimise pollution and waste, and helping tokeep materials in use for longer. For example, we are working
to reduce packaging, and to reuse customers’ returned
packaging to create new packaging or useful materials
like liners for our courier bags. We are also collaboratingwith partners on circularity initiatives in our supply chain.
Read about these partnerships on page 19.

Looking Ahead:• Collaborate with our TP partners to establish minimum
standards and share best practice across Responsible
Sourcing topics• Review opportunities to go beyond our main
raw materials• Continue to engage our product teams, starting with
updated training in April 2024
• Increase supplier engagement through both online andin-person formats

PAGE
23

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

M A K I N G N E X T A G R E AT
P L AC E TO WO R K
Highlights• Launch of Digicare+ Workplace to the whole workforce• Launch of ‘Together We Are NEXT’ internal brand forour employee-led communities• Expanded three hour virtual ED&I workshops for newly
promoted and new into the business managers, with
1,534 managers participating to date
• New wellbeing programme for our employees at our
Sri Lanka manufacturing site

Aligned SDGs

Our People

Our Commitment
To ensure we attract, retainand develop the very best
people to build a diverse
and talented team, recognising that every individual’s
unique background, experience and ability contributes toour success.
We want to create an inclusive and inspiring environment
where individuals feel valued and respected, and where
people can belong, thrive, achieve their full potential andbe their very best; whoever they are.

We Create
an inclusive environment where everyone is welcomed,valued and feel they belong.

We Recognise

Our Commitment
We want to provide an environment where our workforce is:• Safe, supported and respectedthat diversity of talent makes us more innovative, morecompetitive and more creative.

We Promote

Our 44,000 people are integral to our success. We aim
to attract, retain, and develop the very best people to build
a diverse and talented team, recognising that every
individual’s unique background, experience and ability
contributes to our success.
In return, we want people who are committed to working
together and who support our culture of honesty, respectand encouragement.

Health, Safety and Employee Wellbeing
We want NEXT to be a safe place for everyone with aculture that enables all our employees to maintain positive
mental wellbeing.

Health and safety
We review our Company safety statement and safety
objectives every three years, including safety programmes
and objectives for each division of the business. These arereviewed regularly at divisional safety meetings and twicea year by our Executive Safety Meeting.

a team culture that’s open and transparent and where wetreat everyone fairly and with respect.

Our safety objectives were launched in 2022, focusing on
three pillars:• Motivated to achieve their full potential

We Encourage• Health, Safety and Wellbeing Engagement
and Communication

Our Approacha workspace where everyone can feel supported to bethemselves whoever they are, so they can succeed andthrive to do the best work of their lives.

• Developing our Health and Wellbeing offer forour employees

We Ensure

The three pillars are designed to ensure that we have aculture with effective safety leadership, clear direction frommanagement and well-briefed employees who know how tomanage all aspects of our business safely.

• Treated fairly and taken care of• Listened to

Our priorities are in the areas of:• Health, safety and wellbeing• Equality, diversity and inclusion• Reward, fair pay and employee share ownershipeveryone is aware of and empowered to fulfil theirpersonal responsibility to question discriminatory or
inappropriate behaviours.

This section reports on the progress of our Great Place
to Work activities at NEXT and Joules only.

We Uphold• Training and development

a commitment of zero tolerance towards unacceptablebehaviour, harassment, discrimination, bullying
or victimisation.

PAGE
24

• Ensuring a Safe Workplace, with a focus on key risks

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

M A K I N G N E X T A G R E AT
P L AC E TO WO R K CO N T I N U E D
Mental Wellbeing
At NEXT, we firmly believe that if our people are healthy,
happy and engaged, their performance will be optimised,benefiting both themselves and our business. Our programmeof support, guidance, events, and activities is available acrossthe whole organisation to help provide an environment
where workplace psychological safety is carefully consideredalongside health and safety risks.
Our Mental Wellbeing Charter, available on our wellbeing
site, encourages an environment where mental wellbeing is
discussed openly to eliminate stigma, fear and discrimination.
The key commitments set out in the Charter include:• Making sure all employees have easy access to informationor services to make helpful decisions about theirmental wellbeing• Treating people fairly and with compassion• Helping everyone to recognise that for some people,
maintaining positive mental wellbeing can be challenging• Regularly monitoring our performance, assessing progress
and taking action to improve the opportunities forsupporting positive mental wellbeing
To read more about our Mental Wellbeing Charter, seepage 50.

We have an established Mental Health First Aider (MHFA)
network of 165 trained colleagues in all divisions who help
provide a supportive workplace environment. Employees canfind details of our MHFAs on the company wellbeing site,which includes the THRIVE app and a wellness action plan
template. The action plan helps employees consider personal
ways to keep well at work, understand any triggers forbecoming unwell, and detail the support they would like toboost their own wellbeing or aid recovery. Employees areencouraged to use the action plan to open up a dialogue with
their managers on mental wellbeing.

Wellbeing initiatives• Early in the year we launched a new online Wellbeing page
which showcases all our wellbeing support services, useful
information and details of MHFAs• For several years we have been running regular mental
health training for managers across the business; this also
includes regular training and check-ins with our MHFAs• We have launched an Open Minds network group for our
MHFAs, meeting quarterly, to help support, guide andupskill them in their role. We have also established a chatforum for all the MHFAs on our wellbeing site so we cangauge team capacity and trends, which helps to direct
future internal campaigns• Throughout the year we run campaigns and signpost
support services available for our employees, including
our Employee Assistance Programme, which offers
independent counselling and support for a variety of life
challenges and events• We have established a new local Wellbeing Manager at
our manufacturing site in Sri Lanka to support the 3,200
employees who work there. Services we provide include a
medical facility, oral health checks and wider assistance forthe nearby community including clean water supplies andfunding for schools and a library• 2022’s Financial Wellbeing tool and support networkroll-out has been successfully taken up by 13,559
colleagues to date

PAGE
25

As part of our wider Wellbeing programme, helping us to
identify and provide support to people at much earlier stagesof ill-health, we have five lifestyle checkpoint machines whichmove across our different sites. Employees in warehousing,
Head Office and our UK call centres have used these to findout information about their current physical and mental
health and they have helped several to address potentiallylife-threatening conditions.

• In early 2023, through our healthcare partnership with
Aviva, we launched Digicare+ Workplace to the whole
workforce. This wellbeing service App allows all employees
free access to an annual health check, Digital GP, second
medical opinion, nutrition consultation and mental healthand bereavement support. We have had over 3000
employees sign up for the service since it launched, and,apart from the health check, all services are available totheir family members• Employees at our Head Office in Leicester benefit fromaccess to fitness classes on site, and we partner with Gym
Pass to offer all employees discounts on fees for gym
plans with gym access nationwide• We are a Founding Partner of GenM, working to champion
menopause awareness, education and support for
employees across the business, including six free sessions
on menopause education through Digicare+ Workplace.
For two consecutive years, we have won a Driving
Menopause Action in the Workplace award from GenM
• We launched a new Family Leave internal website as a
one-stop shop for all Family Leave information and support
resources for employees, including a partnership with ‘Work
Baby Life’ offering free programmes of virtual group classes
and workshops to expectant parents. As part of this, we
collaborated with our charity partner Anthony Nolan toraise awareness and drive employee registrations for cord
blood stem cell transplants. Read more on page 31

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

M A K I N G N E X T A G R E AT
P L AC E TO WO R K CO N T I N U E D
Financial Wellbeing
When our employees are physically and mentally well, weknow they are more engaged, productive, and motivated tocontribute their best. We also recognise that concerns about
personal finances can have a detrimental impact on physicaland mental health. Ensuring that we provide the right kind of
support for colleagues around both is part of our approach tobuilding a positive work environment.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
We are an equal opportunities employer and offer career
opportunities without discrimination. We treat all employees
fairly regardless of gender, sexual orientation, marital status,
race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origin,age, disability or union membership status. We believe thathaving a diverse and inclusive working environment is vital tosupporting the health and wellbeing of our employees. To findout more about our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy,
see page 50.
Although we don’t set specific targets for diversity, womencurrently represent 46% of our Board, 50% of our seniorleadership and 70% of our total employees. In relation to
our senior management and their direct reports, NEXT was
ranked third in the 2024 FTSE Women Leaders Review:
Achieving Gender Balance. Our annual Gender Pay Report
can be found on our website via this link.
During the year, we expanded and updated our mandatory
virtual training sessions on equality, diversity and inclusion for
all our managers. To date 1,534 have undergone this training.
The sessions aim to explore unconscious bias, identify theorganisational consequences of unconscious bias, discuss
examples of inappropriate behaviour, discrimination andharassment, and provide guidance on how to positively
influence the behaviour of others. A further 3,000 Head
Office employees have gone through a 30 minute equality,
diversity and inclusion e-learning module which is mandatory
for all new starters.

Together We Are NEXTWe have brought together our employee-led
communities under a new brand: Together We Are NEXT.
These include communities of employees championing
LGBT+ issues; cultural diversity; diversity in tech andIT, and championing, connecting and celebrating
disability and neurodiversity at NEXT. The heads of thesecommunities regularly meet and discuss programmes,
issues and opportunities to engage the wider business.
A number of employee-led networks have now been
established to enable employees to work collaboratively withNEXT to deliver positive outcomes:• Pride@Next: an LGBT+ network which works to raiseawareness of LGBT+ issues at NEXT and helps shape ourpolicies. For example, with input from Pride@Next we havedeveloped a policy to support transgender employees• Unity: created to celebrate the cultural diversity
represented at NEXT. This includes working within
the business to champion talent and provide
more career opportunities for people from underrepresented background• Able: Our most recent network, launched in October 2022,
Able is our disability network group which champions,connects and celebrates disability and diversity at NEXT

Our Diversity Partners
As we develop our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion agenda,
it is important to us that we connect with key not-forprofit organisations to support and guide our employee-led
communities and wider business. Collaborating with charity
partners lends strategic expertise and credibility to ourprogrammes, and brings wider mutual value for our partners
and our employees through engagement in educational talks
and fundraising events.
• We continued to work with Business in the Community(BITC), in particular to initiate employee listening circles
about Together We Are NEXT, to ensure that we reachand engage the whole business, regardless of workplacelocation and in 2023 we participated in their Behind theScenes campaign to support 10,000 Ukrainian refugees
who are unemployed and looking to utilise their skills andinsights in different businesses and available roles• We are a signatory to BITC’s Race at Work Charter• We are a Level 2: Disability Confident Employer.
The Disability Confident Scheme supports employers tomake the most of the talents that disabled people can bringto the workplace• We continued to partner with Carers UK, having signed
up to the Employers for Carers digital platform to provide
employees with access to dedicated resources for carers• We are a member of Stonewall’s Global Diversity
Champion network• We continued our five year charity partnership withThe Terence Higgins Trust

In 2023 we signed the Armed Forces covenant todemonstrate our support to the Armed Forces community
and introduced a new entitlement of up to five days paid
leave for any reservist employees wishing to take time off toundertake territorial or reserved forces duties.

PAGE
26

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

M A K I N G N E X T A G R E AT
P L AC E TO WO R K CO N T I N U E D
Training and Development

Internships

Employment Programme with the Prison Service

We believe that offering relevant learning and development
opportunities will help our employees to feel valued, equipthem to carry out their roles to the best of their ability
and support them in developing their career at NEXT.
Our employees are able to access a range of development
tools and training through our training teams within each areaof the business. These teams support:

We offered six week summer internships in 2023 to threeinterns who came to us through our partnerships with
not-for-profits Leonard Cheshire, 10,000 Black Interns andUpReach. The intern who came to us via 10,000 Black Interns
has been offered a trainee developer role when they graduate
in 2024.

• Job role-specific training covering technical, operationaland skills training

Our apprenticeship programmes continue at pace; wenow have 400 apprenticeships in place. We have 34
apprenticeship programmes ranging from warehouse
operations and retail roles through to Masters equivalent
programmes. 230 people completed their apprenticeships
in the last year.

Now in its sixth successful year, one of our warehousesites runs a programme in association with a local prison
to support a small number of low risk prisoners to gain
meaningful work experience as part of their rehabilitation
process. NEXT Furniture Manufacturing in Doncaster partners
with HMP Lakeside to run a 12 week programme in a bespoke
frame assembly production facility for selected offenders
to learn the skills and techniques to become skilled frame
assemblers. At the end of their sentence, they are offereda full-time contract with NEXT if they have successfullycompleted their training programme.

• Individually tailored training to address both employees’
individual needs and specific business requirements• Health and safety, first aid and manual handling training toensure our employees work in a safe environment

Apprenticeships

In January 2023, building on our ‘Respect in Retail’ customerfacing campaign, a new ‘Diffusing Difficult Situations’ training
was rolled out to all Retail colleagues, with over 17,000
colleagues completing it to date to support them to better
manage challenging customer behaviour. This training iscompleted by all new staff after their first six weeks in role.

A new career pathway for employees launched in 2023 was
the Warehouse to Wheels programme whereby anyone in anyrole can become a Large Goods Vehicle (LGV) driver throughapprenticeships and Government-funded ‘bootcamps’.
Our in-house LGV Driver Academy has seen 55 new drivers
pass through training this year.

Working with external partners, we reviewed our grievance,
conduct and disciplinary processes, to help reduce the timeand associated costs spent on these. This saw the launchof a new process, Resolution, to better facilitate mediationand early conversations to rebuild relationships. With over
600 store managers trained face to face, and a further 1,500
trained virtually, year on year we have already seen a 40%
reduction in the number of grievances in Retail.

Local Schools and Colleges

Lifelong Learning
We continue to offer our employees the chance to take aLifelong Learning course with the Union of Shop, Distribution
and Allied Workers (USDAW) including Maths, English, IT
and British Sign Language to build skills within the businessto support our deaf employees. Our Head Office Learning
Hub offers additional training and development support on
management and recruitment topics.

Teams in our Distribution division work with schools inthe vicinity of our Yorkshire warehouses to help bringalive different career opportunities within our business.
Through recruitment workshops, careers fairs and site visits,
students get a glimpse of where support and development
offers could take their future careers. Our senior HR business
partners work directly with local schools as Enterprise
Advisors to help attract student interest for full or part-timeroles as well as apprenticeships at NEXT.

PAGE
27

Recruitment
Ensuring we are attracting the best talent to work for us isa priority, and throughout 2023 we continued to drive ourearly careers initiatives across our main functional areas for
Head Office, including new placements for graduatesin Finance, building on a similar successful approach in Techand e-commerce. We want to make sure we are able tobenefit from hiring international talent and have consolidated
our in-house support for candidates and new hires, including
relocation services.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

M A K I N G N E X T A G R E AT
P L AC E TO WO R K CO N T I N U E D
Employee Engagement

Rewards and Benefits

We have a number of engagement activities in place acrossNEXT Group to collect feedback and ideas from colleagues.
This includes employee forums for each business area
made up of elected representatives who attend meetings
at least twice a year with directors and senior managers.
These forums encourage open discussion on business issues,policies and the working environment.

We believe in rewarding all employees with fair andcompetitive salaries, along with the opportunity to gain
additional pay in the form of a bonus depending on
the Company’s financial (or in some cases, store orindividual) performance.

In 2023 we launched our third Group-wide employee
engagement survey, Your Voice Counts, which also this year
included Lipsy, GAP, NEXT Beauty and Victoria’s Secret(Head Office and Retail) employees. Colleagues were invited
to give their feedback and suggestions about working life atNEXT Group. We were pleased with significantly improved
participation rates, an improved completion rate of 74% (upfrom 56% in 2022) and a Group engagement score of 7.4 out
of 10 (compared to 7.1/10 in 2022). All of the core businessarea engagement scores increased or remained the same
versus prior year.
Priority areas for improvement our employees would like us
to focus on included reward, strategy communication andmission. Our top strengths were perceived as performancerecognition and organisational fit in terms of equality andhealth. A key immediate output from the Retail teams’ survey
feedback has been the equalisation of rate of pay for all four
new team members under the age of 23 with colleagues whoare 23 and older, effective from November 2023.

Employee share schemes: We operate a Sharesave scheme
to encourage employees to own shares in NEXT. All UK
employees have the opportunity to save money overthree or five years to buy NEXT plc shares at a discounted
price. At the end of the savings period, participants canbuy the shares at a price fixed at the start of the scheme.
We also operate a share option scheme which extends toapproximately 2,100 management participants.
NEXT Steps Nursery: Our architect-designed, state of theart Head Office childcare nursery, “NEXT Steps”, continues
to go from strength to strength. This is part of our on-goingcommitment to supporting our employees with pre-school
childcare arrangements. The nursery is currently rated by
Ofsted as “Outstanding” and is run in accordance with all
Ofsted Early Years Foundation Stage and safeguarding
requirements. Any accidents are recorded and reported
through standard NEXT procedures.

Radio NEXTOne of our new initiatives to connect with and engage
our employees was the launch of a new radio station,
Radio NEXT, in our South Elmsall warehouse sites in 2023.
Broadcasting a four-hour show of music, interviews,
shout-outs, competitions and site-related news forboth day and night shifts, it has been reaching around
4,000 people.

PAGE
28

PLACEHOLDER
IMAGE
Looking Ahead:• Talent Management: We aim to attract, retain, anddevelop talent across all levels within NEXT. We will
utilise various methods to attract a diverse poolof candidates, with a particular emphasis on early
career opportunities.
• Inclusive Culture: We are dedicated to fostering
an environment where everyone feels valued andrespected. We’ll actively promote our inclusive culture
and ensure our employees feel motivated to contributeto NEXT’s success• Employee Development: We’ll provide ample
opportunities for our employees to enhance theirskills through on-the-job training, coaching, mentoring
programmes, and specialised management andleadership courses• Employee Wellbeing: We support the mental health,wellness, and overall wellbeing of our employees.
Our environment and practices will be designed tosupport a happy and healthy workforce, ensuring that
employees feel motivated and engaged to help us
achieve our business goals

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIESHighlights• Total NEXT Group charitable contribution – £2,861,266• Seven new Together with NEXT collaborations• Total number of charities supported – 225

Aligned SDGs

Our Commitment
We want to support causes that make a real difference.
We particularly focus on supporting charities andorganisations that have an impact in the countries andcommunities we source from and operate in.

Our Approach
While we support a broad range of charities in a variety ofways, we aim to develop longer-term, strategic partnerships
with a carefully selected number of charity partners where wenot only provide financial support, through donations, causerelated marketing, or employee fundraising, but we can work
together to develop shared mutual value, leveraging eachother’s assets and skills.

Our charitable giving policy supports:

Charitable Donations• The promotion of health and support of end of life andemergency care services

To ensure we measure our total community contribution,
we calculate the value of our non-financial contributions
from products donated by the business. This figure is added
to our financial contributions, to arrive at a total sum for theyear. Our charity and sponsorship programme is made up of
donations to:• Developing education, life and work skills and youth
amateur sport• Environmental protection or improvement• The reduction of inequality, by supporting the promotion ofdiversity, inclusion, human rights and the prevention
or relief of poverty
Our Charity Committee meets four times a year to oversee
the distribution of donations to ensure they meet ourcharitable giving policy. Each of our business areas is given
an annual charity budget and engages with their teams todetermine how funds are distributed.
Our Giving at NEXT website supports employees both atwork and in their own time to make their own contributions tochosen charities. The website, accessible to both colleagues
and the public via https://giving.go.next/home, enables ourpeople to volunteer online or physically, get involved withsustainability and wellbeing challenges, run fund-raisers onbehalf of their chosen charities and take part in payroll giving.
This section reports on our progress supporting Communities
at NEXT only.

Our teams support our charity partners through productdonations, personal payroll giving or sharing their professional
expertise, knowledge and time. We also raise funds throughthe redistribution of carrier bag levies and other similar
government mandated payments. Likewise, our charity
partners provide our colleagues with valuable opportunities
for education and awareness-raising, meaningful selfdevelopment and team-building, through volunteering,creative campaigning and fundraising for causes which theycare about.

PAGE
29

• Registered charities – we offered support to around 225
charities during the year
• Commercial support and sponsorship – we offer
commercial support and sponsorship to a small number oforganisations. We also support local sporting teams of allages, especially where there is direct employee involvementwith the team• Individual requests/local and national groups andorganisations – we are able to help groups andorganisations that do not have charitable status throughthese donations and we take extra care to verify
these donations
A summary of our charitable giving is set out below.
NEXT Plc has offered financial support to:

2024
£000

2023
£000

Registered charities

1,173

1,177

Commercial support and sponsorship

060

Individual requests, local and national groups
and organisations

3

5

This support has been supplemented withthe following activities:

2024
£000

2023
£000

Gifts in kind – donations of products

1,488

1,608

Charity link sales

164

298

Employee fundraising/charity events

33

77

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIESCONTINUED
Payroll Giving
We offer a scheme that is available to all UK based employees
and allows them to make tax-efficient donations to any UK
registered charity. During the year, our employees donatedaround £100,000 to charities of their choice.

Community Support
As part of our target to divert our waste from landfill, we
continue to identify and divert products that otherwise may
have been disposed of via landfill, and offer them for reuse to
local registered charities and social enterprise organisations.
These organisations can reuse and recirculate these products
and materials, as well as create value from the products tobenefit their mission.

Carrier Bags
NEXT continues to support and encourage our customers
to reduce the use of carrier bags and we offer a reusable
carrier bag for customers to purchase, with proceeds raised
going to our nominated charities across England, Scotland
and Wales. In Northern Ireland, the monies raised are paid
directly to the Government who use the proceeds to fundenvironmental projects.

Our partnership with British Heart Foundation

Together With NEXTWe partner with British Heart Foundation to support
and promote blood donations and their ‘Restart a Heart’campaign across the business. We have installed bloodpressure monitors in all NEXT retail stores and promote
the Restart a Heart RevivR app to our employees so thatthey can learn CPR in 15 minutes. To date, 152 employees
have completed the training.

Last year, we established a new strategic charitable
collaboration venture, Together with NEXT, through oneof our designers, Genna Douglas, who has early onset
Parkinson’s disease. In previous years, Genna worked with
Parkinson’s UK and well-known designers to curate a
range of products for sale where the profit was donatedto Parkinson’s UK. The project was so successful that
Genna now focuses solely on growing our collaborations
with charities and designers to create and sell exclusive
ranges which both raise awareness of societal issues
and much-needed funds for the charities. In 2023 we
continued partnering with Parkinson’s UK and launched
new collaborations with Dementia UK, Andy’s Man Club,
The Prince’s Trust, Rainbows, Terrence Higgins Trustand the Children’s Air Ambulance. 100% of profits fromthese Together with NEXT products go to the charities.
In summer 2023 we held a successful Together withNEXT Charity Showcase event in one of our London
studios to raise awareness and gain feedback about ourpartnerships and the exclusive ranges of merchandise.

Doncaster Refurnish
NEXT has worked in partnership with Doncaster
Refurnish to support their work for 16 years. This year,
our partnership has been able to divert 378 tonnes ofwaste from landfill for it to be reused by the charity tocreate £783,911 of earned income. This income makes
possible the delivery of much needed services within ourshared community.

Customers can return these reusable carrier bags to ourstores when worn out. They will be replaced for free, andwe will recycle the old ones through our in-house recycling
centre. In partnership with one of our suppliers, we are now
closing the loop on this material by reusing it in our own
online order packaging. Most of our reusable carrier bags are
made from over 90% recycled materials. Our special edition
bags, such as Christmas and Summer bags, are made from30% recycled material.

PAGE
30

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIESCONTINUED
Our partnership with Anthony Nolan

Our partnership with Andy’s Man Club

Our partnership with Dementia UK

It is important to us that when we launch strategic
partnerships with charities that there are relevant
touchpoints with our employees and local communities.
For example, in July 2023 we announced a new twoyear partnership with Anthony Nolan, the stem-celltransplant charity. Fewer existing patients from ethnic
minorities who need a stem cell transplant have asuitable donor already registered: working together with
Anthony Nolan we are aiming to address this inequality.
Leicester Hospital is a leader in research for Anthony
Nolan, and one of the first activities we undertook
in partnership with our employee-led community
for cultural and ethnic diversity, was to hold donor
recruitment events at our Head Office site in Leicester tofind more potential stem-cell donors from people fromethnic minorities.

Supporting a workplace environment where mental
wellbeing is discussed openly to eliminate stigma, fearand discrimination is one of our key strategies to help
make NEXT a great place to work. As a natural fit withthis strategy, we partnered with mental health charity
Andy’s Man Club to help them on their mission to stopmen from taking their own lives.

Dementia is on the rise in the UK, with around 900,000
currently living with the condition. As we strive to
become a more disability-friendly employer and retailer,
we launched our new collaboration with Dementia UK
internally and externally on World Alzheimer’s Day in
September 2023 to help raise awareness and funds forthe work of the charity. Working with Dementia UK’s
specialist nurses to produce a product which would
appeal to dementia patients, our design teams refined
the look and feel of a limited-edition, highly textured andembroidered cushion. The cushion’s message, Loved, isa positive reminder of enduring support for those livingwith dementia and their families, and 100% of the profit
from its sale will go to Dementia UK.

Our partnership launched on Suicide Prevention Day
in September 2023 and collaborating together withdesigners from Hype, we designed an exclusive rangeof merchandise including a limited edition t-shirt, waterbottle and backpack to raise funds for the charity andshare positive messages that #ITSOKTOTALK.

PAGE
31

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIESCONTINUED
Our partnership with Children’s Air Ambulance
As one of the charities our employees care passionately
about, we have been supporting the Children’s Air
Ambulance charity for 18 years through fundraisingand donations. In September 2023 we announced
a new collaboration to help raise funds and awarenessto enable them to continue to provide their high-speed
helicopter intensive-care transfer service to criticallyill children and babies in the UK to help them get tospecialist care. A helicopter shaped rug, and children’st-shirt were designed for online retail and all profits
from this collection will go towards more lifesavingtransfer missions continuing to provide vital support
to the NHS free-of-charge. As part of our employee
engagement efforts in the new collaboration, childrenof NEXT colleagues were invited to visit the Children’s
Air Ambulance base in Nottinghamshire.

Looking Ahead:• Introduce further collaborations with charities throughour “Together with NEXT” programme• Continue to build relationships with charities tounderstand their objectives and help them achieve
their targets, as well as harnessing their knowledge
and resources to support NEXT colleagues
where appropriate• Continue to update and develop our processes within
the department to streamline our Charitable Giving
and make it as accessible as possible

PAGE
32

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

S TA K E H O L D E R S , G O V E R N A N C E
A N D M AT E R I A L I T Y
Stakeholder Engagement
We have a wide range of key stakeholders and formal
and informal engagement with them is important to ourbusiness. Our teams play an important role in managing
our stakeholder engagement in a proactive, respectful
and professional manner. We aim to ensure that new andemerging issues, risks and requirements are carefully
considered, assessed and appropriately acted upon.
This section reports on our Stakeholders, Governance andMateriality for NEXT, Lipsy and Joules only.

Key Stakeholders

How we engage

Key Stakeholders

How we engage

Suppliers• Visits and meetings at NEXT offices
and their factories

Local, Devolved
and National
Government
and Regulators• Responses to Parliamentary
Committees’ inquiries such as theEnvironmental Audit Committee• NEXT COP supplier audits• Training workshops• Conferences

Customers• Customer feedback via
online messaging• Communication with NEXT
Customer Contact Centres

Our key stakeholders and engagement activities are
summarised in the following table:• Direct customer contact andmarket research• Social media• Monitoring customer returns

Workforce• Workforce communication forums• Workforce engagement surveys• Training and development

Environmental
and civil society• Visits and meetings withEnvironmental Non-Governmental
Organisations (eNGOs)• Representation on trade association
working groups• Participation in surveys

Localcommunities• Support and collaboration witha range of charities to assist their
ongoing work
• Respond to requests for assistance

Shareholders• Meetings and investor roadshows• Respond to queries and requests
for information• Ethical investment surveys;
sustainability benchmarks
and indices
PAGE
33• Meetings and dialogue withtrade associations• Local MP meetings

Governance and Risk Management
A robust governance structure, clear risk management andinternal controls framework are embedded throughout
the business and are core to our Corporate Responsibility
approach. As part of the NEXT risk management process,detailed risk registers are maintained by 20 distinct
operational and functional areas, where local business risks
are identified, assessed and managed. Specific corporate
responsibility risks are recorded, considered and handled aspart of this process. In addition, the impacts of corporate
responsibility risk factors are included, where appropriate,in the NEXT plc directors’ assessment and review of NEXT’s
principal risks. NEXT’s principal risks are detailed in theStrategic Report section of our latest Annual Report.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

Our Governance Framework

as well as the Head of Code of Practice and the Head of
Product Legislation & Sustainability.
GROUP
F I N A N C E D I R E C TO R

N E X T P LC B OA R D

N E X T P LC
AU D I T CO M M I T T E E

ESG STEERING GROUPB U S I N E S S A R E A S / D E PA R T M E N T S

ESG Governance Framework
Our straightforward governance structure to support ESGrelated activities is simple to navigate. This allows emerging
issues and matters for decision to be escalated in an
efficient manner. The Board has delegated oversight of ESG
activities to the Audit Committee which is coherent with theCommittee’s broader remit given the increasing focus on thepotential risks and financial impacts associated with climatechange in particular. ESG is a standing agenda item at each
Audit Committee meeting. The Committee’s remit includes:• Monitoring progress against climate-related targets and key
performance indicators• Reviewing the Group’s ESG risks and opportunities• Reviewing the materiality of climate-related risk and its impact
on the financial statements• Monitoring adherence to externally applicable sustainability
codes and principles
There are wider governance arrangements in place to support
the Audit Committee, and ultimately the Board, in undertaking
their responsibilities. An ESG Steering Group meets quarterly
to oversee the delivery of our action plan and improvement
roadmap, ESG targets and emerging ESG risks.
The Steering Group is chaired by the Legal and ComplianceDirector. It is cross-functional; members include senior
management from the Central Finance and Product teams

The Group Finance Director, Amanda James, is the executive
sponsor of ESG activities and directs the activities of theSteering Group. She meets regularly with key members of theSteering Group, receives updates throughout the year and ispresent at Audit Committee and Board meetings to discuss
ESG matters that arise. The Audit Committee receives reports
from the ESG Steering Group at each of their meetings.
The Audit Committee Chair subsequently updates the Boardand makes appropriate recommendations.
As the Company continues to realise growth opportunities
through transactions, our governance structure evolves as
we integrate the activities of new companies and partners.
The straightforward approach provides flexibility to facilitate
this and underpins our approach to ensuring our own highstandards are consistently applied across a growing business.
This in turn allows effective oversight by the Board, via the
Audit Committee, of ESG activities and associated risks
and opportunities.
Our Corporate Responsibility reporting provides detailed
information on where and how we focus to meet ourenvironmental and social responsibilities. In the year ahead, ourfocus is to further build our data, place policies in the publicdomain and continue to embed ESG into our day-to-day
business decisions.

Understanding Materiality
NEXT has determined materiality as the threshold at which
environmental, social, economic and governance related
issues become sufficiently important that they should be
included within this report.
This threshold is determined by understanding:• How important these issues are to our key stakeholders• The impact of these issues on our businessWe are currently undertaking a Double Materiality
Assessment in order to update our approach as the businesshas evolved and to ensure compliance with incoming
regulation such as CSRD.

PAGE
34

Importance to Stakeholders

S TA K E H O L D E R S , G O V E R N A N C E
A N D M AT E R I A L I T Y C O N T I N U E D
High	Included in our CR Report 1
	Included in our CR Reportand internally assured

Medium	Managed but not included
in our CR Report	
See Reporting Principles,
Criteria and Methodologies
for details of externallyassured data.

1.

Low

Low

MediumHigh

Impact to NEXT

Legal ComplianceDuring the year we had no environmental or health andsafety prosecutions and no work-related fatalities in our
direct operations.

Assurance over selected carbon and waste data
Selected carbon and waste data, indicated by the A symbol,
was subject to external independent limited assurance byPricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). For the results of thatassurance, see PwC’s Assurance Report on page 53 andNEXT’s 2024 Reporting Principles and Criteria as referred
to below.

Reporting Principles, Criteria and Methodology
For further information on this please refer to:
nextplc.co.uk/corporate-responsibility

Further Information
For further information on certain areas of this report you
will find a direct link to additional details in the appendixed
section to this report called Our Approach. Alternatively, theinformation can be found on our corporate website,
nextplc.co.uk

Contact Us
We welcome your comments and feedback on our corporate
responsibility performance. Contact us via our corporatewebsite accessible via this link.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y
1. Our Salient Human Rights Issues Explained
Salient Issue identified

Why it is important to NEXT

Our key activities

Freedom of Association (FoA) andCollective Bargaining

In a number of countries we source from the freedom to join an
independent trade union is restricted either by law or not recognised bymanagement attitudes and practices. This restricts the ability for workers
to have a voice within their place of work and to contribute to theimprovement of working conditions and practices.

• Continued membership of ACT (Action, Collaboration, Transformation)
along with 19 other brands and the global trade union IndustriALL• ACT developed the Interim Dispute Resolution Mechanism (DRM) in
2020 to support access to remedy for issues relating to wages andFreedom of Association (FoA). The purpose of the Interim DRM is toensure that disputes over the FOA Guidelines implementation can beheard and resolved in a fair and predictable manner• During the year, two new cases were submitted, one of which isalready resolved

Health and Safety(including Mental Health)

Health and safety is a concern in all of our sourcing countries and across
our own business operations. Fire and industrial accidents continue
to be a risk within our extended supply chain, impacted by the quality
and management of appropriate building design and structure, fire
prevention, machinery, chemicals and abrasives.

• Our in-country Code of Practice (COP) teams carry out supplier training
before audits to ensure suppliers’ factories are aware of our standards on
Health and Safety• Signatory to the Pakistan Accord from 2023
• Achieved remediation of 94% in NEXT active lead brand sites (44 sites).
140 NEXT sites have now achieved 100% remediation with support from
our in-country COP team, which is confirmed via recognition letters fromAccord/RMG Sustainability Council• Identified 49 cases of extremely hazardous working conditions
through our COP audits. We worked with 30 factories to remediate theissues and disengaged with 19 who were not willing to work with us
on improvements.

PAGE
35

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E DSalient Issue identified

Why it is important to NEXT

Our key activities

Children’s Rights

It is estimated that approximately 160 million children are in childlabour with 79 million children, nearly half, engaged in hazardous work.
Each year our COP auditing team uncovers a small number of instancesof persons too young to work within factories making our products.

• Identified one case of child labour (one child in total) during the year,
aged 14 years 7 months, working in the sewing section of a factoryin Cambodia where the legal working age is 15 years old. The factory
worked with Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) on appropriate
remediation including paying living compensation to the child, ensuring
their enrolment in vocational school and committing to hiring themback once they had reached legal working age. The remediation was
successfully completed in the second half of 2023 and monitored by our
Far East COP team• As part of new supplier inductions we carry out training on child labourrisks and our approach to managing any cases, including our Child
Labour Policy and supplier guidelines• Continue to implement our incident response procedures whereby weengage a relevant Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) to consult
and support the child and their family. They will continue to monitor thesituation until the child reaches legal working age to ensure they remainin education

Modern Slavery(including Wage Retention)

Instances of forced labour or modern slavery in our supply chain cantake place in all countries, including the UK. Workers must receive all
wages they are owed; suppliers are not allowed to retain any wages.
With bonded labour comes a negative impact on all other labour rights
and risks are higher if migrant workers are employed. Some of oursourcing countries hire migrant workers from overseas and such workers
can be vulnerable to exploitation.

• Over 6,100 NEXT employees globally have completed our bespoke
online training course, with around 1,200 new employees completing thetraining during the year
• In 2023, we disengaged 13 factories where remediation on issues
relating to modern slavery had not been achieved to an acceptable level.
Ten cases were in relation to wage retention• Worked with five factories to remediate identified modern slavery
risks. An additional ten sites are being supported through an agreed
remediation process• Provided training to suppliers via our in-person supplier presentations incountries such as Morocco, Tunisia, Poland, India, and Turkey

PAGE
36

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E DSalient Issue identified

Why it is important to NEXT

Our key activities

Wage Levels

Our Code of Practice teams ensure that workers in our contracted supply
chain are being paid in line with a country’s legal wage levels.

• In Bangladesh, we have worked with factories to resolve wages andbenefits payment issues as follows:− Maternity pay delays (12 factories)− Wage payment delays (18 factories)− Severance payment delays (19 factories)− Service benefit payments (83 factories)− Deposits refunded to third party staff such as security guards andcleaners (five factories)− Workers’ severance payments (39 factories)− Annual leave provision (102 factories)• Our on-the-ground COP team offered support and guidance to ensurethat the issues were resolved. This was subsequently verified throughour COP audit process• In India during 2023 we worked with factories where non-conformities
were identified in relation to wage payment, severance payments andsocial security payments, resolving issues for 603 workers• There has been a lot of activity with ACT this year including the
successful roll out of the second round of Purchasing Practices surveys
in the first half of the year – the Purchasing Practices Assessment wascompleted by 136 of our suppliers and the Purchasing Practices SelfAssessment was completed by 56 internal colleagues, a very similar levelof participation the last time the surveys were run in 2021. A detailed
report comparing ours and other ACT brand members’ results to theprevious survey results will be produced in early 2024

PAGE
37

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E DSalient Issue identified

Why it is important to NEXT

Our key activities

Harassment and Discrimination

Women represent the majority of workers in our supply chain. In many
countries, the risk of discrimination against women is greater in relation
to equal opportunities, age or marital status. This can lead to harassmentof workers, and also impact upon a range of other human rights. It canbe difficult to identify in COP audits as it is less tangible than some of ourother salient human rights issues.

• Carry out training with suppliers to raise awareness of these issues andto understand root causes. Where issues are identified through our COP
audits, we work with suppliers on remediation• We identified one case of discrimination in the form of pregnancy testingin a factory in China during 2023. This was a repeat occurrence following
an initial audit the previous year. We had worked with the supplier andfactory to try and resolve the case via a remediation plan, supported
by our regional team and we had hoped to see changes to practices onsite. Unfortunately, the factory was not able to implement the necessary
improvements and we made the difficult decision to disengage fromthe site• One case of discrimination was identified in Bangladesh where a pregnant
worker was forced to resign from their job, therefore denying them ofmaternity leave and benefits. Our COP team worked with the factory
to agree a remediation plan involving the support of an appropriate third
party expert organisation. Improvements have been observed throughour follow-up COP audits and we will continue to monitor the factory
via our on the ground team

Water, Sanitation and Health

We source products from parts of the world which encounter frequent
periods of water scarcity. Where this occurs, there is an increased riskthat communities may not have access to clean, safe water which canbe linked to poor health. Our extended supply chain includes operations
such as laundries, mills, dye houses, and tanneries; these facilities
carry a particularly high risk of water contamination where untreatedeffluent can be discharged into rivers used by local communities.
People negatively impacted can include both supply chain workers aswell as communities located close to sites manufacturing NEXT products.

PAGE
38

• During our COP audits the team verifies that clean drinking water isavailable for all workers• To read more about our Water and Chemical Management in sourcing,see page 22.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E DSalient Issue identified

Why it is important to NEXT

Our key activities

Working Hours

We rely on the workforce of our suppliers and factories to meet order
requirements. Sometimes this can lead to excessive working hours that
can impact the workers’ wellbeing.

• Provided training to suppliers to raise awareness of these issues andunderstand root causes. Where issues are identified through our COP
audits, we work with suppliers on remediation• We have established a piece of work focused on analysis of working hours
in a select number of factories where we observed during COP auditsthat employees had worked excessive weekly hours. Through this analysis
we aim to identify the root causes of the hours worked. Following theanalysis report, we meet the factory management, agree a plan on how
to reduce working hours gradually so that changes are sustainable
and monitor this on a monthly basis. Currently, we have identified
four factories and our on the ground teams are closely monitoring
their progress

Privacy and Data Security

Our operations are highly reliant on data and our IT systems and there
is a growing risk of cyber crime and therefore the need for us to protect
our systems from security threats, loss of data and unauthorised
disclosure. Protecting the personal data of our customers and employees
is of paramount importance to NEXT. Customers and employees trust us
to process their data in a responsible manner and maintain the securityof their data, we take this responsibility very seriously.

• We are committed to ensuring we protect our customers’ and employees’
personal data and dedicate significant resource to the maintenance andsecurity of our systems• Systems vulnerability and penetration testing is carried out regularly toensure data is protected from corruption or unauthorised access or use• We have extensive employee training and awareness programmes inplace with regards to data protection and information security• We have dedicated teams continuously monitoring our systems forsecurity threats, overseeing our data protection obligations and providing
advice to the business

PAGE
39

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D
2. Our Auditing Approach

As we continue to bring on board our TP Partner brands,
where it is agreed that the Next COP approach is tobe embedded, our teams work to ensure that all COP
requirements are communicated and implemented within
the relevant supply chains.

Prior to an audit being carried out, our on the ground teams
take a number of steps including:• Provide access to a variety of documents, policies and tools
in relation to the COP audit

A CAP report summarising all findings, agreed actions
and remediation timescales is provided to the factory forthem to implement. The NEXT team then works with the
supplier and factory to implement these. This helps build therelationship between NEXT and its supplier, and helps convey
to the supplier that NEXT is here to support progress over the
longer-term.

• Opportunity for questions in advance of the audit

The auditing process is a vital due diligence tool:

The COP audit provides a picture of how well a supplier andits factories are complying with our requirements. The audit
day typically involves the following:• Providing assurance that our suppliers understand their
responsibility to comply with our ethical standards

Our aim is to ensure new suppliers understand ourrequirements before they commence working with NEXTand existing suppliers take responsibility for maintaining
compliance within all their production locations.

• Holding one-to-one meetings with suppliers and factories
to ensure an understanding of the COP approach• Opening meeting with key participants in the audit
e.g. management, worker representatives, business owner• Site tour
• Documentation review• Worker interviews – we speak to workers confidentially,both individually and in groups, both on-site and off-site
and include a cross-section of ages, job roles, gender andlength of service. Our team speak the workers’ language
wherever possible and we also engage translators.
We know this is critical to building a relationship of trust
between the auditor and the workers• Closing meeting – the auditor provides verbal feedbackon any action points that have been identified and agrees
the Corrective Action Plan (CAP) which we agree with the
supplier and factory management, and conduct regular reaudits to verify improvements• We seek to conduct all audits on an unannounced basis
as this means we are more likely to see a true picture of
how a factory operates• We support suppliers to improve whilst maintaining thebusiness relationship. We will work with their factories,
wherever we can, to bring them up to our standards rather
than walk away and terminate the relationship. This delivers
a better outcome for the workers• Where we find areas for improvement, we createa CAP• Our priority is always to support factories in resolving
issues, but we will not continue to work with them
indefinitely if there is no willingness on their part to address
the issues and improve• Post-audit, as well as working with the supplier and factoryon their CAP, our in-country teams provide support inaddressing non-conformities and providing guidance on
best practice, as well as maintaining regular communicationand follow-up on progress

PAGE
40

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D
3. Partnering for Change

Some examples of our collaborative work are:Organisations

Background and Benefits

Activities in 2023

AccordThe RMG Sustainability Council (RSC) performs independent factory inspections in
Bangladesh focusing on three key areas; fire risk, electrical installations and structural
condition of buildings.

• We continue to engage with Bangladesh Accord and RSC who are doing
regular inspections for fire, electrical and building safety in our supply basefactories and also conducting Occupation Safety Trainings for all the workers
to understand the safety requirements and raise concerns to report against
unsafe workplace safety

We are signatories to the new agreement, called the International Accord for Healthand Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, which commenced in September 2021.
In Bangladesh, the agreement is already implemented by the independent national
tripartite RSC consisting of brands, unions and industry.
Find out more at: internationalaccord.org• NEXT has maintained its full support for the Bangladesh Accord as it has
transferred its operations into the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC). The RSC,
of which NEXT was an initial signatory, now includes representation frombrands, unions and RMG manufacturers and has commenced managing theworkplace safety programmes at the 1600+ Bangladesh Readymade Garment
factories previously covered under the Bangladesh Accord. The RSC’s work
will include factory inspections, remediation monitoring, safety training and an
independent health and safety complaints mechanism available to workers in
RMG factories. The agreed goal of the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC) is toeventually cover all RMG exporting garment factories globally• We are a signatory to the Pakistan Accord for 2023 and carried out a numberof sessions during the year with our Pakistan suppliers to communicate
our position

PAGE
41

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D

Organisations

Background and Benefits

Activities in 2023

ACT

ACT is the first initiative on living wages in the garment sector that provides both ameans of negotiating better working conditions as well as productivity improvements.
ACT members commit to supporting productivity improvements and reviewing theirown internal buying practices and their potential impact on workers. 19 member brands
alongside IndustriALL, the global trade union, have agreed the following principles:• There has been a big focus on Cambodia as a priority country, with progress
made in the negotiations leading towards a Collective Bargaining Agreement.
This industry-wide CBA would be the first of its kind in the garment industry,
and with the potential to include a wage element in the CBA it would be a real
proof of concept for ACT. The Member Council Meeting (MCM) held in Phnom
Penh in September 2023 included productive tripartite meetings between
Brands, Employers and Unions meaning that negotiations of the CBA have
now moved towards the final stages and ACT members could potentially see
an agreement signed in the first half of 2024

• a joint approach where all participants in the global supply chain assume theirrespective responsibilities in achieving freedom of association, collective bargaining
and living wages• agreement on a living wage should be reached through collective bargaining between• We attended four quarterly MCM meetings in Amsterdam (Jan 2023), online
employers and workers and their representatives, at industry level(June 2023), Phnom Penh (Sept 2023) & London (Dec 2023), with the next
• workers must be free and able to exercise their right to organise and bargain
meeting taking place in Paris in February 2024, the same week as the OECD
collectively in accordance with ILO conventions
forum where the ACT secretariat hope to be able to share the news of theCambodia CBA being signed with a wider group of industry stakeholders
As part of our membership we have made five purchasing practices commitments:• to include wages as itemised costs within a cost price• fair terms of payment• better planning and forecasting• to undertake training on responsible sourcing and buying• to practice responsible exit strategies
Find out more at: actonlivingwages.com

PAGE
42

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D

Organisations

Background and Benefits

Activities in 2023

AIDER

The créche is run by the NGO AIDER, and currently supports children of homeworkers
in the region of Badarpur, India. In addition, students can attend the computer centre
at the crèche, where they can study for a certificate in basic computer and typing skills
as well as attend a tuition centre focusing on academic skills.

• We work with AIDER to support and protect vulnerable homeworkers andtheir families with a programme which aims to improve transparency in thispart of the supply chain. As well as regular visits to the centre by the COPteam based in India, in 2023:• Enrollment included:• Preschool – 52 students• Computer courses – 95 students• General tuition – 50 students• Sewing skills – 65 students• 34 female students have gained employment in a variety of organisations.
• A 10 month programme of workshops, training, dance and yoga classes
have been provided to students, including self-defence, nutritionand health.
• Five medical camps were run:
• Dental x4 (232 beneficiaries)• Breast care x4 (100 beneficiaries)• Nutritional x5 (468 beneficiaries)• Eye/Ear, nose and throat x2 (211 beneficiaries)• Skin x1 (35 beneficiaries)

Benkacem
Consulting (BCC)

A Moroccan local institution for consulting services that was launched in 2018, it works
to support, train and strengthen the capabilities of the private and public institutions aswell as civil society organisations. It works on developing capacity-building plans andorganising thematic training courses in addition to providing advice and study projects.
They specialise in the implementation, supervision and tracking of projects, such as
capacity building in the field of social entrepreneurship, enhancing citizen participationand improving the quality of life, in addition to strengthening collective resilience in theface of various societal challenges.

Activities in 2023:• Partnered with BCC to launch the Gender Empowerment Project for the
benefit of the female workers in our supply chain focusing on: illiteracy;
providing equal opportunity to progress in their careers within the factory• Support for children of workers in the form of tutoring; gender integration
within factories; and a grievance mechanism in the form of listening, guiding
and psychological support• In the second half of the year, a survey to determine the specific needs ofthe female workers within the factories was launched to adapt the projectto their needs• The grievance mechanism has received 30 calls since its launch at the endof 2023• Literacy courses have been adapted to the workers needs and werelaunched in December 2023 both virtually and in person

PAGE
43

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D

Organisations

Background and Benefits

Activities in 2023

British Retail
Consortium (BRC)

Brands’ ethical experts work collaboratively on the welfare and treatment of workers
in the retail supply chain to develop and agree ways of working.

• Attended meetings of the Ethical Labour Working Group. Main topics of
discussion included developments in legislation relating to forced labourand human rights due diligence, best practice on addressing modern
slavery, and risks in the shipping and logistics sector, as well as government
policy developments and horizon scanning of upcoming issues

Find out more at: brc.org.uk

ETI

The ETI is an alliance of companies, NGOs and trade unions, working collaboratively
to ensure working conditions and rights of workers producing for the UK market meetor exceed international labour standards. NEXT continues to be a committed memberof the ETI which we joined in 2002. The ETI is one of the principal ethical communities
where NEXT regularly engages with multiple stakeholders through meetings andworking groups focusing on specific issues.

• During 2023 we have worked with and contributed to the ETI on:• Gender risks and associated due diligence• Forced labour risks in the global supply chain• Apparel and Textiles group meetings• Best practice in relation to the ETI Corporate Transparency Framework

Find out more at ethicaltrade.org
FAB-L

Fashion Workers Advice Bureau Leicester (FAB-L) is a community outreach projectthat offers free advice and support for garment, textile and fashion workers in Leicester.
The project is led by a senior community engagement and outreach worker and acommunity engagement support worker.
Find out more at: highfieldscentre.ac.uk/fabl/

Activities carried out by the project during its second year include:• Successfully launched English classes, delivering over 40 sessions for
local people• Supported 30 workers with work/employment rights issues ranging
from unfair dismissal, redundancy and bullying at work. The FAB-L teamprovided signposting to appropriate resources, referral to unions or accessto remediation through FAB-L and member brands. None of these cases
related directly to Next’s supply chain• Providing a safe space for garment workers to drop in and access advice
and support or to report any concerns and issues. This is in addition toa FAB-L phone line and WhatsApp service. These drop-in sessions are
regularly attended by garment workers, with over 300 people utilising
the service• Employment support given to more than 50 workers since FAB-L entered
its second year. We have supported with CV writing, provided 1 to 1
support and progressed some workers into employment or education/
vocational training• Over 30 events held in the local community to raise awareness of FAB-L• Conducted factory visits to engage with workers directly

PAGE
44

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D

Organisations

Background and Benefits

Activities in 2023

Impactt

Impactt supports companies to have a positive approach on human rights in the supply
chain, putting workers at the centre of what they do.

• During 2023, Impactt supported our work in relation to an identified childlabour case in Myanmar in 2022. More information can be found in our
Modern Slavery Statement.

Find out more at impacttlimited.com.
KADAV

KADAV is a women’s solidarity NGO in Turkey which supports community workin areas such as gender-based violence, migrant women and female labour rights.
Syrian refugees continue to migrate to Turkey, one of our key sourcing markets.
Many have travelled to garment production hubs such as Istanbul where they seek
employment to support their families. Recently, KADAV has supported victims of the2023 earthquake in Hatay, Turkey.

• KADAV activities for 2023:• Following the earthquake in Turkey in early 2023, a ‘Solidarity Bus’ wasorganized as a safe space where individuals could rest, access emergency
hygiene materials, discuss and consult with professional team members
about their needs• Produced underwear, nightwear, tracksuits and baby clothes for women andchildren in KADAV production workshops in Istanbul. They delivered a totalof 1350 products to the earthquake zone
• Employed a Social Worker to provide psychosocial support toearthquake victims• Volunteer trainers provide preschool, primary and secondary school
education support to around 700 children

Phulki

Phulki is a local NGO that provides training on a range of topics such as health issues
and woman rights, as well as vocational training for caregivers and to increase women’s
financial stability. It has established childcare facilities in the workplace for womenthat are employed in garment factories in Bangladesh. The organisation combines
corporate social responsibility and commercial ventures to benefit society. Any profits
are channelled into projects which support disadvantaged communities. Phulki provides
diverse consultation and training services.
Find out more at https://phulkibd.org/

PAGE
45

Activities in 2023:• We began working with PHULKI at the end of 2023, when they conducteda baseline survey in four of our factories to identify the needs andexpectations of female workers. This survey was the first step of our
Womens’ Empowerment Program. Further activities will commence in thefirst half of 2024 with our local COP team supporting the Phulki teams

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D

Organisations

Background and Benefits

Activities in 2023

SAVE (Social
Awareness andSocial Education)

SAVE is a non-profit societal reconstruction organisation. SAVE carries out
developmental programmes towards uplift of socio-economically poor andmarginalised communities.

• There are six resource centres operating across Tamil Nadu, where newmill workers are employed in significant numbers. These centres support
workers as well as surrounding communities by providing them withtraining prior to their departure for work at the mills, support in addressing
their grievances and providing awareness on financial literacy, health andhygiene and labour rights. They also facilitate linking the workers or theirfamilies with government-sponsored social welfare schemes. Through theseresource centres our centre managers are also focusing on the vulnerable
dalit community and extending support for their welfare• Three of the centres were set up specifically to support intra- and interstatemigrant workers• Supported migrant workers’ children to enrol in local government schools.
COP team has supported these children and the school by helping provide
the required infrastructure• Organised training sessions in supply chain factories on fair recruitment
practices and challenges with migrant workers; life skills training for midlevel management and workers; health camps on breast and cervicalcancer, drug and alcohol issues, HIV and also personal counselling for thosestruggling with addiction• Supported the roll out of a grievance redress platform in workers’communities, local industrial zones, and villages to enhance a worker’s
ability to raise concerns and seek access to remedy (see page 9 formore information)

United Work

United Work is an independent organisation based in Turkey who support
Syrian refugees registered with the Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs to findlong term employment.

• Our local COP team in Turkey speak to factories about the work that
United Work does and that the organisation can help them with finding
new workers• During the year, United Work supported 25 people to obtain appropriate
work permits

Unseen• We maintained our partnership with Unseen during 2023 and are in
Unseen is a UK-based charity providing the UK-wide Modern Slavery and Exploitation
discussions about potential collaborative work in the UK supply chain
Helpline. Through sponsoring the hotline we gain insight of potential modern slavery
for 2024
risks and how forced labour situations are being reported. This collaborative approach isimportant to help us mitigate risks and manage emerging threats.
• We continue to monitor potential issues in our supply chain through regularcontact with Unseen and the Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline,
Find out more at: unseenuk.org
which allows us to carry out proportionate due diligence where appropriate• During the year, no cases were raised through the helpline that related to
Next suppliers

PAGE
46

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D

Organisations

Background and Benefits

Activities in 2023

The European
Chamber ofCommerce
in Myanmar

The organisation serves as the voice of European business in Myanmar. Its focus is to
advocate member interests and support European businesses in navigating Myanmar’s
business climate.

• We joined EuroCham in December 2022 and have continued to attend
regular meetings of the Brands Working Group

Find out more at: eurocham-myanmar.org• Joined calls with EuroCham team to discuss their MADE (Multistakeholder
Alliance for Decent Employment) programme and explore opportunities forcollaboration on grievance mechanisms• NEXT representatives attend regular meetings of the Brands Working

TIMBY (This Is My
Back Yard)

TIMBY (This Is My Back Yard) provides access to a suite of digital tools and trainingthat help teams tackle complex problems such as transparency, compliance andhuman rights in a secure way. This is done via a reporting app and an investigation
dashboard, which can then be utilised to build a narrative around a particular issue.
We have worked with TIMBY to roll out an independent grievance mechanism in a
number of factories across our global supply base. TIMBY provides us with the platform
for factory employees to disclose grievances they may have, independently of any
internal procedures. This gives us a deeper insight into the potential issues workers arefacing as well as giving workers a voice and an independent avenue to be able to raise
their concerns. We review and assess all issues disclosed to us to identify potential
root causes and explore the most appropriate steps to take to tackle concerns raisedby employees.
Find out more at timby.org

PAGE
47

Activities in 2023:• To date we have successfully rolled out the grievance mechanism in India(16 factories), Pakistan (two factories) and Myanmar (three factories)• During 2024 we plan to roll out it out in more of our sourcing locations,with potentially the UAE as the first country• Over the past year we have had 101 grievances though the TIMBY platform• Myanmar: 2 cases received, both remediated• India: 5 cases received, 4 resolved and 1 in remediation (30 further cases
received through the platform but not related to NEXT; our partner SAVE
has taken these forward to work on remediation)• Pakistan: 94 cases received, 93 resolved and 1 currently in remediation

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D
4. Product Safety and Legislation Compliance

Working closely with our buyers, designers and suppliers, ourteam of specialist technologists is responsible for ensuring:• All products sold by NEXT are safe and comply with
relevant legislation• Our suppliers meet the required safety and performancestandards detailed in our product specific technical manuals• We work with and use the expertise of independent safety
specialists to ensure the products we sell achieve therequired standards
Suppliers to NEXT have direct access via our online
supplier portal to our full range of technical manuals andquality, safety, ethical and responsible sourcing standards
and requirements.
In order to have visibility and monitor the development ofboth new legislation and changes to existing legislation ata United Kingdom, European and global level, we work closelywith trade associations, British Standards and government
departments. We also contribute to and support legislation
development by giving our views and ideas. We are membersof various industry committees and groups, such as the
British Standards Institute Technical Committees and theBritish Retail Consortium. Through these we are able toparticipate with other stakeholders in policy debates, tocontribute to their development and ensure NEXT productis compliant with relevant legislation.
Our product safety standards have been developed tocomply with relevant consumer legislation and compliancerequirements. Technologists in our Product teams work
closely with our suppliers to provide expert guidance so
the right materials are chosen to manufacture high quality,
durable products in factories with robust product safety
processes. Our technologists from UK Head Office andour global sourcing offices visit our suppliers to monitor
production. Products are inspected upon receipt into our
UK warehouse to ensure they meet our specifications.
The safety of children is an issue that is of very highimportance for many retailers and suppliers. Through BSI(British Standards Institute) and CEN (European Committee
for Standardisation), NEXT is an active participant in theworking groups responsible for developing standards toensure the safety of children’s clothing. Our Childrenswear
division focuses on safety throughout all stages ofdevelopment and production; starting at the design stage
with a risk assessment to ensure all products achieve thestandards we require.
Our safety standards are based as a minimum, on the highest
legal British and European standards. If we are not satisfied
with a product’s safety, or if a product fails to comply withlegal requirements, NEXT has an established procedure inplace to recall a product as the safety of our customers is ourpriority. Through the Product Safety Forum, chaired by ourBusiness Risk Manager, any product recalls are reviewed toensure the corrective actions undertaken are robust.
Our in-house UKAS and SATRA accredited product testinglaboratory, based at Head Office, is used to undertake
testing for our Product teams to support their assessment
decisions and product reviews to ensure products perform to
our requirements.
1

1.

United Kingdom Accreditation Service

5. Responsible Sourcing and Raw Materials Policies
We have policies covering our approach to sourcing key
materials. To see all our available policies, follow this link.
Our policies covering key materials include:• Timber Policy• Cotton Sourcing Policy

For example, agreeing which tools and data to use toachieve a credible baseline water footprint data and forgeneric fibres to allow the differences in water, carbon andwaste to be visible when using more responsible versionsof fibres• The Metrics Group also review potential new improvement
actions for inclusion in the tool against robust criteria andscrutiny of the group• The Metrics Group guide the Advisory Board using metrics
and measurable data to inform direction and give theagreement on data to measure progress towards targets

Circularity
We continue to participate in developing the Textiles 2030
Circularity Roadmap and benefit from the tools and resources
created to build into our own circular business approach.

Advisory GroupWe are part of the Textiles 2030 Advisory Group andinfluence the priorities and roadmap of the programme.
The benefit of collaboration created within the programme isa shared understanding and learnings from pilots, methods,
research and holding the industry to account.

7. Measuring our Climate Impacts

We aim to make our operations more efficient and work to
reduce our impact through, for example, reducing energy
consumption and waste.

• Chemical Policy

Our global direct carbon footprint is measured in alignment
with the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and ReportingStandard and includes emissions from:• Animal Welfare Policy•

Properties – stores and warehouses in the UK and Eire,
our UK Head Office, our global offices, customer contact
centres, NEXT Steps Nursery and owned manufacturing
facility in Sri Lanka•

Distribution – (upstream transportation and distribution)
our distribution of products to Retail stores or customers’
homes in the UK and Eire in NEXT owned and third-party
vehicles; delivery of Online products to our Internationalcustomers via third-party providers• Protecting Forests through Fabric Choices Policy

6. Textiles 2030 Working Groups
Metrics Groups

We continue to be an active member of Textiles 2030 and theMetrics Group and are involved in developing the footprinting
tool that allows us and other signatories to calculate carbon,
water and waste impacts of the products we create.
• The Metrics Group allows the industry to come together
and agree on consistent methodology to measure baselines
and improvements and actions taken to reduce impacts.
PAGE
48

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D• Waste – from our UK and Eire stores, UK warehouses, UK
Head Office, our global offices, customer contact centres
and owned manufacturing facility in Sri Lanka• Business travel – by NEXT employees globally including air,rail and road travel• Purchased Goods and Services – emissions associatedfrom cradle to gate (when the finished product leaves the
suppliers facility in country of manufacture)• Downstream transportation and distribution – the transportof imported goods to our UK warehouses from our global
suppliers by sea, air, rail or road• Driver performance analysis against the planned route,distance and fuel used
• Trial vehicles, trailers, accessories and systems that
potentially offer improved efficiencies; trial use ofalternative fuels, performance and driver safety; and basedon the results achieved will invest to improve the fleet in
the future• We have brought 55 new drivers into the business throughour LGV Driving Academy• Use of sold products – how our customers launder and carefor their products

Driving safely is a priority for the business, both for our
drivers as well as other road users. In addition to thetraining and assessments undertaken by our drivers we use
equipment to support them whilst driving, such as:• Other – including the end of life treatment of sold products,
employee commuting and fuel and energy activities• In-cab cameras provide an alert back at the depot should
an incident occur during the journey

8. Distribution Efficiency• An early warning system for lane departure that canalso warn the driver about hazards around their vehicle,
read road signs and even apply the vehicle brakes
where necessary• Double-deck trailers are used for direct deliveries to our
distribution centres around the UK, as well as our stores
both in the UK and Eire to maximise efficiency as we canmove up to 50% more products and increase fuel efficiency• A safety feature to help eliminate the danger of a forward
collision, ensuring the NEXT lorry maintains a safe distancefrom the vehicle in front by scanning the road ahead. If thevehicle in front brakes heavily or another vehicle cuts infront of the NEXT vehicle, it will automatically slow down oreven stop• With over 50% of our UK Online customers choosing tohave their order delivered to a retail store to collect, we areable to maximise the efficiencies achieved by our fleet• The majority of Online customers prefer to return theirunwanted orders back to a store as it is more convenient forthem. We aim to maximise efficiency of returning vehicles
from stores to warehouses by carrying returned items aswell as back-hauling waste materials to our recycling centre,
and collecting deliveries from some of our UK suppliers
Driver Training is crucial to the overall efficiency of the fleet
and we operate a number of initiatives such as:• A four-seater training vehicle which supports teamtraining and allows the trainers to provide their support
more efficiently• Improving driver style and fuel efficiency with one-toone training

9. Waste and Recycling

Our in-house recycling centre located at one of our UK
warehouses receives materials for recycling from around
400 of our stores. The materials include cardboard,polythene, returned carrier bags, Online packaging, broken
clothes hangers and used gift cards. Once the materials
are received they are segregated and baled, before being
sent for recycling. Improved procedures within the recycling
centre have ensured we have been able to control how thesematerials are handled when they are received to ensure we
maximise the quantity to be recycled.

• Engines fitted with three minute idle cut off mechanism tosave fuel10. Product Lifecycle Management

Our unsold or returned stock falls into three categories, being
items which are:
1. Never sold – Products which are not sold in our stores orOnline at full price are discounted in our mid-season, Black
Friday or end of season sales. Remaining products are thensold through our own discount routes, both online and in
our Clearance stores, before being sold to NEXT authorised
third party wholesalers who then sell the products within
their operations. In addition, we work with charity partners towhom we donate unwanted products either for reuse to help
people in need directly or to be sold to generate funds.
2. Returned as faulty – All returns are inspected, thefault categorised and findings fed back to our team oftechnologists to work with our suppliers to eliminate similar
faults occurring on future products. The faulty items, if
possible, are either sold through our Clearance operationor donated to charity partners who are able to reuse themwithin their operations.
3. Online returns – A significant percentage of clothes wesend out to our Online customers is returned to us in linewith a customer’s consumer rights under the Distance Selling
Regulations. This is a very normal part of doing businessonline. Items that are returned are inspected, refurbishedand available to be sold. The items are returned for various
reasons including being ordered for choice, not liked,
incorrect/wrong or a small percentage are returned as faulty
product. The faulty products are segregated to be soldthrough our Clearance operation (as detailed in 2 above).

11. Carrier Bags

We are working to reduce the amount of packaging usedon our products and to eliminate the materials which cannot
be recycled.
Our carrier bags are classed as reusable bags in line with the
Carrier Bag Legislation as we will take back worn out bags
from our customers and replace them whilst recycling theworn out bag.
We have explored and rejected using carrier bags and otherfilm packaging made from oxo-degradable materials (which
incorporate a chemical additive to initiate degradation by

PAGE
49

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D
light, heat, mechanical stress and moisture over a period oftime) as they are not suitable for recycling with mainstream
plastics as they cause contamination and wider environmental
impacts are uncertain.
We recognise the most effective way to reduce theenvironmental impact of carrier bags is to:• Reduce the consumption by encouraging consumer
behaviour change and reuse• Communicate and support the reuse message in aconsistent manner• Be transparent; we list our donations on our
corporate website

12. Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Policy

Our Diversity, Inclusion and Equality Policy, commits NEXT to:• Actively supporting diversity and inclusion, to ensurethat all our employees are valued, treated with dignity
and respect• Promoting an environment where individual differences
and the contributions of everyone is valued• Not tolerating any form of intimidation, bullying
or harassment• Promoting equality in the workplace• Ensuring that decisions affecting employment, training,
promotion and career development are based on an
individual’s ability• Complying with relevant legislation requiring all employees
to meet the required standard of behaviour and conduct
in terms of how they treat each other, but also people thatthey have contact with as part of their work with NEXT
• Regularly reviewing the policy and its practical application

13. Head Office Child Care Nursery

Our architect-designed and purpose-built, state of the art
Head Office Child Care Nursery called NEXT Steps continues
to go from strength to strength. This is part of our on-goingcommitment to supporting our employees with their preschool childcare arrangements.

The nursery was registered by Ofsted in October 2013, andis currently rated as Ofsted “Outstanding” rating.
The nursery is run in accordance with all Ofsted Early Years
Foundation Stage and safeguarding requirements, andaccidents are recorded and reported through standard
NEXT procedures.
Sustainability is a key feature of the nursery’s design.
Features such as photovoltaic cells on the roof, rainwater
harvesting, underfloor heating, extensive natural ventilationand point of use water heating have all provided a highly
efficient building. A self-contained water treatment plant
recycles waste water and feeds it back into the main water
network. The nursery is fitted with an intelligent Building
Management System which is split into zones and allows for
greater control of the use of resources to ensure efficiency.

14. Health and Safety
We aim to:• Ensure that nobody’s health, safety or wellbeing iscompromised to achieve other objectives• Give our people the support, skills, knowledge andexperience to manage their wellbeing and do theirjobs safely

15. Mental Wellbeing Charter

At NEXT we want to have a culture that promotes andenables us all to achieve positive mental wellbeing. When wetalk about mental wellbeing we mean:“Where you are able to achieve your potential, cope withnormal day to day pressures, thrive and be productive in
all aspects of your life.”
World Health Organisation definition for mental wellbeing

NEXT is an inspiring, exciting and rewarding place to work
and we want everyone to feel able to be creative, productive
and engaged.
NEXT aims to:• Encourage an environment where mental wellbeing is
discussed openly and in a non-judgemental way, eliminating
stigma, fear and discrimination• Give easy access to information or services which areneeded to make helpful decisions about mental wellbeing• Help everyone to recognise that for some people
maintaining positive mental wellbeing can be a challenge• Put mental wellbeing on a par with physical health• Make our communications clear and consistent so safety
rules and procedures are easy to understand by all• Ensure that support is provided with respect, dignity
and honesty• Ensure our managers provide health and safety leadershipand empower their people to speak up about any health,safety or wellbeing concerns• Treat people fairly and with care and compassion• Ensure our training and induction procedures give ourpeople the knowledge and encouragement to enable themto improve their health and wellbeing at work
• Avoid unnecessary safety rules and controls by ensuring
we get the safety requirements for the business right at
the start• Look for better and more effective ways of maintaininga healthy and safe place to work and shop, and which
supports the wellbeing of our colleagues and customers• Continue to support our health and wellbeing programmes
and increase our focus on how we help and manage those
suffering from mental ill-health
PAGE
50• Listen to people, taking into account how they feel;
respecting that they may want to maintain confidentiality ifthey are struggling• Encourage and enable everyone to take responsibility bymaking their own wellbeing choices• Regularly monitor performance, assess progress andtake action to improve the opportunities for positive
mental wellbeing

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

APPENDIX 1:
O U R A P P R O A C H T O C O R P O R AT E R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y C O N T I N U E D
16. Training and Development
Head Office• NEXT continues to offer graduates positions on our
12-18 month trainee schemes in Buying, Merchandisingand Design• We offer graduate opportunities in IT, Design and DigitalMarketing and early careers opportunities within our
Finance teams• NEXT continues to sponsor and support the Fashion
Retail Academy• Our leadership programme for top talent in our middle
and senior management called ‘Inspiring Leaders’ at Head
Office continued during 2023

Retail• We continue to evolve our range of training anddevelopment for everyone from team members throughto store and Area Managers• In 2023 we continued to support our Area Manager
programme that supports our senior managers to be
their best. This initiative provides modules tailored foreach individual, covering both business and personal skills
and competencies

PAGE
51

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 2:
INDICES – UNGP INDEXUN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework Index

Our CR Report and Our Approach Report aim to align with the UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework. The Reporting Index is designed to identify how and where the framework
disclosures are addressed. The table below shows where you can find the relevant information as we have referenced the page numbers and policies to demonstrate our alignment.
For full details on the framework, please visit www.ungpreporting.org
Section of the framework

Page location in our CR Report

PART A: GOVERNANCE OF RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
A1 POLICY COMMITMENT

6–10, 35-39, Human Rights and Modern Slavery
Policy, Code of Practice Principle Standards

A1.1

6, 10, Modern Slavery Transparency Statement

A1.2

6–10, 35-39

A1.3

6, 8, 10, 40, Online Supplier Portal

A2 EMBEDDING RESPECT FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS

2, 3, 6–10, 33-34, Modern Slavery
Transparency statement

A2.1

6-10

A2.2

33-34, Modern Slavery Transparency statement

A2.3

6, 8, Modern Slavery Transparency Statement,
Code of Practice Principle Standards

A2.4

6-10, Online Supplier Portal

A2.5

6-10, 36-40, Modern Slavery
Transparency Statement

Section of the framework

Page location in our CR Report

PART C: MANAGEMENT OF SALIENT HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUESC2 STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

6–10, 33, 35-47

C2.1

6–10, 35-39

C2.2

6-10, 17-23, 35-39

C2.3

6-10, 35-39

C3 ASSESSING IMPACTS

6–10, 40, Modern Slavery Transparency Statement

C3.1

8, 10, 19-22

C3.2

35-39

C4 INTEGRATING FINDINGSAND TAKING ACTION

6-10, 40

C4.1

6-10, 40

C4.2

6, 10, Modern Slavery Transparency Statement

C4.3

6-10, 35-47

PART B: DEFINING A FOCUS OF REPORTING

C5 TRACKING PERFORMANCE

6-10, 35-47

B1 STATEMENT OF SALIENT ISSUES

C5.1

6-10, 35-47

B2 DETERMINATION OF SALIENT ISSUES 6–8, 35-39

C6 REMEDIATION

6-10, 28, 35-47, Whistleblowing Policy

B3 CHOICE OF FOCAL GEOGRAPHIES

Not Applicable

C6.1

6-10, 28, 33, 35-47, Whistleblowing Policy

B4 ADDITIONAL SEVERE IMPACTS

6-11, 35-39

C6.2

8-9, 35-47

C6.3

8-9, 35-47

C6.4

6-10, 35-47

C6.5

6-10, 35-47

35-39

PART C: MANAGEMENT OF SALIENT HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUESC1 SPECIFIC POLICIES

6-10, Online Supplier Portal, Human Rights
and Modern Slavery Policy, Code of PracticePrinciple Standards

C1.1

6, 8, 10, 40, Online Supplier Portal
PAGE
52

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 3:
INDEPENDENT LIMITED ASSURANCE REPORT TO THE DIRECTORSO F N E X T P LC O N T H E S E L E C T E D E S G P E R F O R M A N C E M E T R I C S
Our limited assurance conclusion

Based on the procedures we have performed, as describedunder the “Summary of work performed” and the“Key Assurance Matters” sections below, and the evidence
we have obtained, nothing has come to our attention thatcauses us to believe that the information marked with thesymbol A in NEXT plc’s (“NEXT”) Corporate Responsibility
Report for the 52 weeks ended 27 January 2024 (the “Report”)
and summarised below (together, the ‘Subject Matter
Information’), has not been prepared, in all material respects,
in accordance with NEXT’s Reporting Criteria (the ‘Reporting
Criteria’) as set out on within Section A below.

What we were engaged to assure

The Subject Matter Information needs to be read andunderstood together with the Reporting Criteria which
NEXT’s Directors are solely responsible for selecting andapplying. The Subject Matter Information and the Reporting
Criteria are as set out within Section A.
The scope of our work did not extend to information in
respect of earlier periods or to any other information includedin, or linked from, the Report including any images, audio files
or videos.

Our work

Professional standards applied
We performed a limited assurance engagement in accordancewith International Standard on Assurance Engagements
3000 (Revised) ‘Assurance Engagements other than Audits
or Reviews of Historical Financial Information’ and, in respectof the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in accordance with
International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3410
‘Assurance engagements on greenhouse gas statements’,issued by the International Auditing and AssuranceStandards Board.

Our independence and quality control
We have complied with the Institute of Chartered Accountantsin England and Wales Code of Ethics, which includes
independence and other requirements founded on
fundamental principles of integrity, objectivity, professional
competence and due care, confidentiality and professional
behaviour, that are at least as demanding as the applicableprovisions of the International Ethics Standards Board for
Accountants International Code of Ethics for Professional
Accountants (including International Independence Standards).
We apply International Standard on Quality Management(UK) 1 and accordingly maintain a comprehensive systemof quality management including documented policies
and procedures regarding compliance with ethicalrequirements, professional standards and applicable legal andregulatory requirements.

Summary of work performed
We performed a limited assurance engagement.
Because the level of assurance obtained in a limited assurance
engagement can vary, we have provided more detail about
the procedures we performed, so that the intended users of
the Subject Matter Information can understand the nature,timing and extent of those procedures as context for ourconclusion. The procedures performed vary in nature andtiming from, and are less in extent than for, a reasonableassurance engagement. Consequently, the level of assurance
obtained in a limited assurance engagement is substantiallylower than the assurance that would have been obtained hada reasonable assurance engagement been performed.

Our procedures did not include evaluating the suitabilityof design or operating effectiveness of control activities;• evaluated whether NEXT’s methods for developing
estimates are appropriate and had been consistently
applied, noting that our procedures did not involve testing
the data on which the estimates are based or separately
developing our own estimates against which to evaluateNEXT’s estimates;• compared year on year movements and obtained
explanations from management for significant differences
we identified;• performed limited substantive testing of the Subject
Matter Information, which is aggregated from information
submitted by the various NEXT department’s responsible
for the various operating sites (i.e. retail stores, warehouses,
offices etc.) that reside within the operational boundary.
Testing involved agreeing the arithmetical accuracy of
calculations, and agreeing data points to or from source
information to check that the underlying subject matterhad been appropriately evaluated or measured, recorded,
collated and reported;• undertook physical site visits at the NEXT manufacturing
facility in Sri Lanka, NEXT head office and the Watford retailstore and assessed the completeness of the reported fueltypes in the data set and corroborated our understandingof the treatment of waste at each site; we selected thesesites based on their inherent risk and materiality to thegroup and where we have not visited these locations inprior periods; and;In performing our assurance procedures, which were basedon our professional judgement, we performed the following:• considered the disclosure and presentation of the Subject
Matter Information.

• evaluated the suitability of NEXT’s use of the Reporting
Criteria as the basis for preparing the Subject Matter
Information including the associated reporting boundaries;

Our assurance procedures specifically did not include
procedures on the financial information extracted from theaudited accounts of NEXT and used in the calculation of‘Intensity metric – Location Based (Tonnes CO2e/Total Sales(£m))’ and ‘Intensity metric – Market Based (Tonnes CO2e/
Total Sales (£m))’.

• through inquiries and by performing walkthroughprocedures with NEXT’s management responsible for the
Subject Matter Information, obtained an understandingof NEXT’s control environment, processes and systems
relevant to the preparation of the Subject Matter Information.

PAGE
53

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 3:
INDEPENDENT LIMITED ASSURANCE REPORT TO THE DIRECTORS OF
N E X T P LC O N T H E S E L E C T E D E S G P E R F O R M A N C E M E T R I C S CO N T I N U E DMateriality

We are required to plan and perform our work to address theareas where we have identified that a material misstatementof the Subject Matter Information is likely to arise. We set
certain quantitative thresholds for materiality. These, together
with qualitative considerations, helped us to determine thenature, timing and extent of our procedures in support of ourconclusion. We believe that it is important that the intended
users of the Subject Matter Information have the information
they need to understand the concept and the level ofmateriality to place our conclusion in context. Based on our
professional judgement, we determined materiality for the
Subject Matter Information as follows:
Overall materiality

Materiality may differ depending upon thenature of the Subject Matter Information.
We apply professional judgement to consider
the most appropriate materiality benchmark foreach aspect of the Subject Matter Information,
having considered how the intended usersof the Subject Matter Information may use
the information. Based on our professional
judgement, we determined materiality for
the Subject Matter Information as indicatedin the table in Section A by one of thefollowing letters:
A. This metric is an absolute number.
A benchmark materiality of 5% of the totalreported KPI figure has been applied.
B. This metric measures intensity, which is
calculated as a ratio between 2 different
numbers. A benchmark of 5% has been
applied to each of the numerator anddenominator used in the calculation.
C. This metric is a percentage. A benchmark
materiality of 5% has been applied to each of
the numerator and denominator used in thepercentage calculation.

We also agreed to report to the Directors misstatements(‘reportable misstatements’) identified during our work at alevel below overall materiality, as well as misstatements belowthat lower level that in our view warranted reporting for
qualitative reasons. The Directors are responsible for deciding
whether adjustments should be made to the Subject Matter
Information in respect of those items.

Definition of market boundary

How our work
addressed the key
assurance matter

Key assurance matters• Agreed that the certificates have been
appropriately retired in a country within
NEXT’s market boundary and reconciled thetotal number of certificates to the country
specific register; andWe considered the following area to be a Key Assurance
Matter and discussed this with NEXT’s management.

• Evaluated the appropriateness of thedisclosures made in connection with theupdated reporting criteria that impact market
based Scope 2 emissions in the Report.

Definition of market boundary

NEXT reports market-based emissions inaccordance with the GHG Protocol standards
and for this year is also applying the RE100
technical criteria published 12 December 2022.
RE100 requires claims of the use of renewableelectricity to be based on generation occurringin the same market for renewable electricity
that use is claimed in. This includes the single
market in Europe and the revised RE100
guidance provided an updated list of countries
that make up the single market. The UK has
been excluded from this list but the RE100
guidance includes grandfathering provisions
for contracts with operational commencement
dates before 1 January 2024, allowing for the
UK to continue to be recognised within the
single market in Europe, where applicable.
As the application of the RE100 guidanceand specifically the grandfathering provision
can have a significant impact on the Scope
2 market-based emissions figure andincludes areas of judgement, this gives rise
to a risk that energy attribute certificates areinappropriately applied to energy usage leading
to inaccurate reporting of the Scope 2 marketbased emissions.
PAGE
54• Obtained an understanding of the process
and methodology followed by NEXT inreporting their market-based emissions
under the GHG protocol and RE100
technical guidance.
• Agreed that the certificates had an
operational commencement date before
1 January 2024 and therefore meet the RE100
grandfathering rule.

Key Assurance Matters are those areas of our work that in
our professional judgement required particular focus andattention, including those which had the greatest effect on
the overall assurance strategy, the allocation of resources,and directing the efforts of the engagement team.

Nature ofthe issue

We have performed the following:

Element(s) of the
Subject Matter
Information
most significantly
impacted

Scope 2 – Market Based
Total Scope 1 and 2 – Market BasedIntensity metric – Market Based

Challenges of non-financial information

The absence of a significant body of established practiceupon which to draw to evaluate and measure non-financial
information allows for different, but acceptable, evaluationand measurement techniques that can affect comparability
between entities, and over time.
Non-financial information is subject to more inherent
limitations than financial information, given the characteristicsof the underlying subject matter and the methods used
for measuring or evaluating it. The precision of different
measurement techniques may also vary.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Tackling
Climate Change

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

APPENDIX 3:
INDEPENDENT LIMITED ASSURANCE REPORT TO THE DIRECTORS OF
N E X T P LC O N T H E S E L E C T E D E S G P E R F O R M A N C E M E T R I C S CO N T I N U E D
Reporting on Other Information

The other information comprises all of the information in
the Report other than the Subject Matter Information andour assurance report. The Directors are responsible for theother information. As explained above, our conclusion does
not extend to the other information and, accordingly, we do
not express any form of assurance thereon. In connection
with our assurance of the Subject Matter Information, our
responsibility is to read the other information. In doing so,
we consider whether the other information is materiallyinconsistent with the Subject Matter Information or our
knowledge obtained during the assurance engagement, orotherwise appears to contain a material misstatement of fact.
If we identify an apparent material inconsistency or material
misstatement of fact, we are required to perform procedures
to conclude whether there is a material misstatement of
the Subject Matter Information or a material misstatementof the other information, and to take appropriate actions in
the circumstances.

Responsibilities of the Directors

As explained in the Directors’ Statement on page 2 of theReport, the Directors of NEXT are responsible for:• determining appropriate reporting topics and selecting
or establishing suitable Reporting Criteria for measuring
or evaluating the underlying subject matter;• ensuring that those criteria are relevant and appropriate
to NEXT and the intended users of the Subject Matter
Information in the Report;• the preparation of the Subject Matter Information inaccordance with the Reporting Criteria including designing,
implementing and maintaining systems, processes andinternal controls over the evaluation or measurement of
the underlying subject matter to result in Subject Matter
Information that is free from material misstatement,
whether due to fraud or error;• documenting and retaining underlying data and records tosupport the Subject Matter Information;• producing the Report that provides a balanced reflectionof NEXT’s performance in this area and discloses, withsupporting rationale, matters relevant to the intended usersof the Subject Matter Information in the Report; and• producing a statement of Directors’ responsibility.

Our responsibilities
We are responsible for:• planning and performing the engagement to obtain limited
assurance about whether the Subject Matter Information
is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud
or error;• forming an independent conclusion, based on theprocedures we have performed and the evidence we haveobtained; and• reporting our conclusion to the Directors of NEXT.

Use of our report

Our report, including our conclusion, has been prepared solely
for the Directors of NEXT in accordance with the agreement
between us dated 27 September 2023 and variation letter
dated 18 April 2024, (together the “agreement”). To thefullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume
responsibility or liability to anyone other than the Board of
Directors and NEXT for our work or our report except whereterms are expressly agreed between us in writing.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Chartered Accountants
Watford19 April 2024

PAGE
55

Appendices

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORTTO JANUARY 2024

Introduction

Overview
and Goals

Protecting
Workers in our
Supply Chain

Responsible
Sourcing andCircularity

Tackling
Climate Change

Making NEXTa Great Place
to Work

Supporting
Our Communities

Stakeholders,
Governanceand Materiality

Appendices

APPENDIX 3:
INDEPENDENT LIMITED ASSURANCE REPORT TO THE DIRECTORS OF
N E X T P LC O N T H E S E L E C T E D E S G P E R F O R M A N C E M E T R I C S CO N T I N U E D
Section A – the Subject Matter Information and Reporting Criteria
Subject Matter Information as per the Report
Performance Indicator

Materiality reference*

2023/24

Unit

Scope 1A.

44,001

Tonnes CO2e

Scope 2 – Location BasedA.

43,373Tonnes CO2e

Scope 2 – Market Based

A.

3,184

Tonnes CO2e

Total Scope 1 and 2 – Location BasedA.

87,374

Tonnes CO2e

Total Scope 1 and 2 – Market BasedA.

47,185Tonnes CO2e

Intensity metric – Location BasedB.

15

Tonnes CO2e/Total
Sales (£m)

Intensity metric – Market BasedB.

8

Tonnes CO2e/Total
Sales (£m)

Scope 3 – Assured Subtotal

A.

74,459Tonnes CO2e

Scope 1 and 2 carbon emission reduction against a 2016/17 baseline

C.

46

%

Gas usage

A.

41,009,976

kWhElectricity usage

A.

200,167,830

kWhTotal Energy Consumption

A.

393,529,771

kWhTotal wasteA.

35,108TonnesMaterials diverted for recycling and energy recovery

A.

33,561

Tonnes% diverted from landfill

C.

96

%

Reporting criteria

NEXT plc’s Reporting Criteria –available at 1:
https://www.nextplc.co.uk/~/
media/Files/N/Next-PLC-V2/
documents/corporateresponsibility/reportingprinciples-2024.pdf* The materiality reference refers to our assessment of materiality discussed in the Materiality section of this report.
1	The maintenance and integrity of NEXT’s website is the responsibility of the Directors; the work carried out by us does not involve consideration of these matters and, accordingly, we accept no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the reported Subject
Matter Information or Reporting Criteria when presented on NEXT’s website.

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