john-lewis-partnership-plc-annual-report-2015

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John Lewis Partnership plc Annual Report and Accounts 2015
Independent assurance statement
Summary for Annual
Report and Accounts 2015
John Lewis Partnership plc (the ‘Partnership’) commissioned DNV
GL Business Assurance Services UK Limited (‘DNV GL’) to undertake
independent assurance of the Partnership’s sustainability performance as
published in the Environment and Community Performance sections in
its Annual Report and Accounts 2015 on pages 57–59, 66–67 and 74–75
and in the Our Environment and Our Community documents published
on its website (together the ‘Sustainability Content’). Our assurance
covered the reporting period 26 January 2014 – 31 January 2015.
The review of financial and Partner data from the Annual Report and
Accounts 2015 was not within the scope of our work.
For our full assurance statement, please see the Partnership website
www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/performanceandreporting.
We performed our work using DNV GL’s assurance methodology
VeriSustainTM, which is based on our professional experience and
international assurance best practice, including reference to the
International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000 (Revised),
‘Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits and Reviews of Historical
Financial Information’ and the AA1000 Assurance standard (2008).
We evaluated the Sustainability Content for adherence to the
VeriSustainTM Principles (the ‘Principles’) of stakeholder inclusiveness,
materiality, responsiveness, completeness, neutrality and reliability.
We evaluated the following sustainability performance data using the
reliability principle together with the Partnership’s Basis of Reporting
(www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/performanceandreporting), which sets
out how the sustainability performance data are measured, recorded
and reported:
aa
Community;
aa
Operational waste;
aa
Transport;
aa
Water;
aa
Energy consumption; and
aa
GHG emissions.
The specific sustainability performance data which have been assured by
DNV GL are indicated.
We planned and performed our work to obtain the evidence we
considered necessary to provide a basis for our assurance opinion.
We are providing a ‘limited level’ of assurance. A ‘reasonable level’
of assurance would have required additional work at headquarters
and site level to gain further evidence to support the basis of our
assurance opinion.
On the basis of the work undertaken, nothing came to our attention
to suggest that the Sustainability Content does not properly describe
the Partnership’s adherence to the Principles. In terms of reliability
of the sustainability performance data in scope, nothing came to our
attention to suggest that these data have not been properly collated from
information reported at operational level, nor that the assumptions used
were inappropriate.
For and on behalf of DNV GL Business Assurance Services UK Limited
London, UK
16 April 2015
Tracy Oates
Mark Line
Principal Consultant and Lead Assurer Senior Principal Consultant and Reviewer
UK Sustainability, DNV GL – UK Sustainability, DNV GL –
Business Assurance
Business Assurance
DNV GL Business Assurance Services UK Limited
is part of DNV GL – Business Assurance, a global
provider of certification, verification, assessment
and training services, helping customers to build
sustainable business performance. www.dnvgl.com