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Whilst Covid-19 restrictions remain in some of our territories, we have reached the point where they have very limited impact on our operational capability. Ensuring a safe work environment for our people, both physically and psychologically, remained a clear priority for the Group, but the changes in working practices brought about by the pandemic are now well embedded and incorporated into our people’s new normal working environment. In particular our wide adoption of remote and hybrid working during the pandemic now remains a preferential option for many of our colleagues and is enabled by our agile working policy, introduced during the year. As an organisation we have found these new ways of working are beneficial to our people and for our business, and we will continue to develop our approach in this area.

We provide an active programme of charitable support and promote foreign language learning actively through school and university partnership programmes including the RWS Campus, and the RWS-Brode Scholarship Programme. Our philanthropic initiatives have been consolidated under the new RWS Foundation. Donations by RWS and the RWS Foundation this year amounted to £300,553. RWS encourages its colleagues to volunteer in the community and five working days can be taken annually to get involved in charitable initiatives.

RWS is committed to ethical and responsible sourcing and working with vendors who share common principles of fair and honest trading, demonstrate a commitment to maintaining satisfactory working conditions, and comply fully with all legal requirements and with the labour, health and safety standards of those regions in which operations take place.