We are a leading retailer in the UK, with over 600 UK stores and an expanding international business. Throughout the world we have over 75,000 employees. We offer outstanding food and a wide range of high quality, great-value clothing and home products. Please click here for more information about Marks and Spencer.

We have around 2,000 product suppliers in over 70 countries. We’re a fair partner to our suppliers by ensuring good working conditions for everyone in our supply chains.In 1999, we developed a set of principles in partnership with our suppliers. These principles set down our requirements for suppliers to comply with all relevant local and national laws, particularly on: working hours and conditions, health and safety, rates of pay, terms of employment and minimum age of employment.As our relationship with a supplier develops, we expect them to improve working conditions in line with the more demanding standards promoted by the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), a collaborative group of companies, trade unions and human rights groups set up by the UK Government in 1998. M&S joined the ETI in 1999. We use a combination of M&S, third- party and self audits to assess supplier performance which are logged on a shared database known as SEDEX. Results are reported in detail to the ETI and summarised in our annual How We Do Business Report.

We can trace all our fresh meat, poultry, milk and eggs to the farms they came from. Animals used in the production of our fresh meat, poultry, milk and eggs are produced on known farms to our own livestock specifications. We’ve spent years working closely with our suppliers developing livestock production specifications to ensure high standards of animal health and welfare, quality and food safety. In developing our own specifications we are able to give our customers assurances on farm animal welfare, animal health, food safety and quality. These assurances encompass the entire agriculture supply chain – animal welfare, food safety, quality, livestock management and husbandry, housing, animal feed, farm hygiene, environment, transport and slaughter. Whether it’s ensuring animal feed is safe and nutritious or checking animal health, our farms are inspected regularly to check they meet our exacting standards.

You can find out more about Plan A here.