We seek to minimise the risks from
unforeseen operational failures in our
business and have suitable mechanisms
inplace to identify issues and take
necessary actions to minimise losses.
Day to day, our ERM is about:
Identifying negative and positive
riskcircumstances
Assessing how likely or serious
thoserisks could be
Creating and monitoring a strategy
torespond to those risks
Creating value for our shareholders
and other stakeholders
Helping our businesses achieve their
objectives by proactively minimising
the risk in their business plans.
Our ERM framework helps the Board to
identify risks directly, to own risks that are
beyond the risk tolerance of our subsidiary
companies, and to collate a set of
high-impact – or principal – risks relevant
to our whole Group. In identifying risks,
the Board is supported by our executives
and managers across our business who
are experts in their respective areas – for
example, our cybersecurity specialists
monitor cyberthreats.
BTG’s directors have committed the
organisation to a process of risk
management that is aligned to the
principles of the UK Corporate
Governance Code, the Committee of
Sponsoring Organizations of the
Treadway Commission and the ISO 31000
Integrated Enterprise Risk Management
Framework. The ERM methodologies are
also defi ned through continued research
and development, and are benchmarked
against international best practice.
Although, through the Audit Committee,
our Board has overall responsibility for risk
– including establishing and maintaining
our risk management framework and
internal control systems and setting our
risk appetite – everyone at BTG plays a
part in protecting our business from risk
and making the most of our opportunities.
No matter how diligently we monitor our
environment or scrutinise sophisticated
global intelligence data, risks can appear
and accelerate with little or no warning.
We remain confi dent that the time,
resources and effort we have invested,
and will continue to invest, in managing
risk has prepared and equipped us to
manage threats effectively. We believe
this means we can provide our business,
people and customers with reasonable
assurance of staying secure, so that we
can continue to benefi t from the
opportunities in our sector.
Our primary emerging risk
Our primary emerging risk is climate
change and sustainability, which we have
not yet classifi ed as a principal risk but
which we may in the future. Our Board
manages and monitors this emerging risk
closely, with oversight from the Audit
Committee. We put climate change and
sustainability under particular scrutiny in
2022/23 and expect to continue to do so
over the following year, having engaged
an external third party to review our
emissions data and expand our Scope 3
reporting. We also detail our efforts within
the TCFD recommendations (see pages
50 to 56) and in our Sustainability
Framework (www.bytesplce.com).
Climate change and sustainability
The physical impacts of climate change –
such as heavier rain, fl ooding and
heatwaves – are a potential risk to our
people and facilities, and to those of
ourcustomers and suppliers. Climate
change’s effect on the economic
landscape, technology use and
regulationcould also be a threat.
We’re working to reduce our own impact
on the climate. As a non-manufacturing
business, the greatest contribution we
can make to alleviating climate change is
by supporting our customers in using
technology in a sustainable way, particularly
in moving their IT products and services to
the cloud. However, we’re doing all we can
to reduce our own environmental impact.
In 2021/22 we published our sustainability
framework, which also sets out our
sustainability governance, targets and
how we will monitor and measure our
progress. During last year, we also
launched our low-carbon action plan,
which is being updated in 2023 on the
basis of additional data from our work to
expand our Scope 3 emissions reporting.
The plan includes a commitment to
reducing our carbon emissions over
coming years, which we are positioning
against Science Based Targets. We
remain aligned to the ISO 14001
environmental operating standard. Our
approach supports organisations who are
committed to working with sustainable
suppliers, in line with our strategy of
delivering high-net-value solutions.
Our Board continues to analyse what
issues could emerge from future
climatechange-related legislation or
commitments by government, and
theireffects on this emerging risk.
Our secondary emerging risk
In 2022/23 we identifi ed a second
emerging risk around social change,
which has not developed into a full
riskyet. Younger generations and
post-pandemic attitudes could change the
way we work and how we need to respond
to our people. To identify changes, we will
closely monitor our recruitment, attrition
rate and insights from staff, and review
this risk at everyopportunity.
Keeping pace with social change
Our customer and talent pool might be
limited if we are not seen as a progressive
organisation. People, particularly from
younger generations, are looking to
engage with companies that do the right
thing when it comes to being a responsible
part of society. As younger generations
have joined the workforce, we are starting
to see changes in expectations around
work-life balance. This is seen through
generational and wider cultural change, as
well as since the Covid-19 pandemic, and
has led some to reconsider their life goals.
We have long identifi ed that our staff need
more than just to be well paid: they need
opportunities to develop, fl exibility in their
working arrangements and for the business
to feel like a cultural fi t. We have taken
steps this year to meet these expectations
– by increasing the initial annual leave
allowance, introducing company-wide
personal development plans for all staff
and increasing maternity pay. We have also
introduced the option for staff to take two
additional wellness days each year, plus
avolunteering day. We regularly listen
toour employees through Insights
submissions and forums, and
encouragea culture of openness.
Generational changes have also
broughtmore open minds, particularly
inrelation to gender, race, religion, sexual
orientation and a desire to treat everyone
equally – as well as to accommodate and
celebrate difference. We already hold
these values at our core. However, we
need to continually monitor and keep pace
with these changes. Not doing so could
affect our ability to attract and retain not
only employees but customers, when they
also start to refl ect new social values and
require their supply chain to do the same.
59Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23
FINANCIAL STATEMENTSSTRATEGIC REPORT GOVERNANCE REPORT