The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires dps to demonstrate actions to reduce modern slavery, human trafficking and forced labour risks across the supply chain each year.

To demonstrate our on-going commitment and transparency: dps have published our full Modern Slavery statement in the following locations: UK Government Modern Slavery Registry and dps 2020 – 2021 Modern Slavery Report

Our 2021 – 2022 statement refers to the financial year ending 30th September 2022 and includes the measures implemented to identify, mitigate, and prevent modern slavery risks in our own operations and upstream supply chains.

We are cognisant of the unprecedented times in which we operate; in the current report year the supply chain impacts of COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit have been compounded by the Ukraine war and extreme global temperatures. The intersection of these events undoubtedly increases vulnerabilities and exploitation risks faced by some of the people working within our supply chain. dps, together with our partners, are continuously working towards a supply chain where trust and transparency are improved.

We recognise there is more work to do to prevent exploitation and modern slavery but are pleased with the progress we have made over the last 12 months:

1. Implemented a new ethical trade and human rights policy
2. Increased suppliers risk assessments to prioritise action plans
3. Maintained Stronger2gether Advanced Business Partner status
4. Improved employee awareness by launching Modern Slavery Week
5. Started to measure KPIs, impacts and the effectiveness of our plan

In the forthcoming year we aim to identify the most salient modern slavery risks in our supply chain by country, crop, and vulnerability.

This statement has been approved by the dps Board of Directors.

Paul Beynon
dps Group CEO
March 2023

Working together with our supply chain partners, we aim to have a restorative impact on the planet so that we can secure a sustainable future for generations to come.

Our Environmental Sustainability Commitments

We will minimise our environmental impacts by:

• Reducing our end-to-end Food Waste
• Removing Plastic Packaging and improving Recyclability
• Protecting and restoring Biodiversity
• Implementing Water Stewardship practices
• Minimising office, manufacturing, and agricultural Waste through the principles of Circular Economy
• Creating a roadmap to achieve Net Zero by 2035 across our own operations and a greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction target aligned to Science Based Target initiative (SBTi).

Our environmental commitments aim to contribute directly to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs): Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Life on Land, and Partnership for the Goals.

Our global supply chain is directly impacted by the effects of climate change, and we recognise the importance of collective action to protect natural resources. In November 2021 dps joined the WRAP Water Road Map as supporting suppliers to increase resilience in water stressed areas by improving water quality and availability, and working in collaboration with other businesses, aim to achieve a shared target of sourcing 50% of the UK’s fresh food from areas with sustainable water management.

SDG Goal 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, is particularly important to dps. In 2017, we adopted SDG 12.3 to halve food waste in our operations and have a roadmap to deliver this commitment by 2025.

dps are UK WRAP – IGD Food Waste Reduction Roadmap signatories, we report on our food waste annually which further embeds our commitment to halve supply chain food waste from farm to fork. We work closely with our suppliers and customers to reduce food waste across the supply chain and by partnering with redistribution charities such as FareShare and City Harvest we are able to prevent food waste by making sure that surplus food, perfectly fine to eat reaches the people that need it most.