Meet Matthew Wilson, the Code Compliance Officer (CCO) for Waitrose Limited

Tell us something about yourself and your path to becoming a CCO.

I am currently the Head of Finance, in addition to being CCO. I have worked for the Partnership for 20 years. I started working as a Branch Department Manager and then moved into Finance in 2003. I have worked in many different areas of the business before becoming Head of Finance and CCO

What are the most challenging aspects of your CCO role?

Food retailing is a fast paced industry. Consumer trends move so quickly and the business needs to anticipate and respond. Staying on top of the emerging trends and changes in the business requires a constant focus.

If you could change one thing about the groceries market, what would it be?

Food waste! Matching supply and demand accurately is challenging and we are investing in our IT systems to improve our ability to control waste.

What achievement as CCO are you most proud of?

I’ve been CCO for six months and I am most proud of joining a very professional, collaborative and highly dedicated Compliance Team, who care deeply about the role they play.

What 3 things do you want to achieve in the next 12 months?

1. Embed the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCoP) Steering Group in Waitrose.
2. Empower the Partners in my Compliance Team to deliver a self regulation approach.
3. Keep GSCoP compliance embedded in the ways of working within the Operational Teams.

Is there anything else you would like to share with readers of News from the Adjudicator?

I’d be more than happy to discuss anything, this is important work and we can all learn from each other. It’s always been vital to us at Waitrose & Partners that we treat suppliers fairly and build productive, lasting relationships with them – working with the GCA allows us to take this work further and embed this approach even more into our business.

Published 27 November 2019

I would like to begin by extending the United Kingdom’s condolences to France on the helicopter crash in Mali.

I wanted to put clearly on the record our support for the Special Advisor and for the work of UNITAD. As the French Representative just said, it’s vital that the Council continues to follow this very important issue closely. I think we all bear witness to Mr Kachi’s very somber and moving briefing today. It is a powerful reminder of the devastation that Daesh unleashed. And thank you for briefing the Council, Mr Kachi, but also my deepest sympathies and those of the United Kingdom for your suffering. I don’t think there’s a more compelling issue, question that we’ve heard this month of why the Council has important work to do than the story you told us. So thank you for that.

I’d like to add our voice to to thanking the government of Iraq. Their support continues to be instrumental to UNITAD’s ability to do its work and we welcome the steps the government has taken to introduce legislation to allow for the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes which may amount to genocide committed by Daesh.

Back to UNITAD, thank you for getting the organisation up and running. It was very good to hear that you are now fully operational and the impressive statistics about women parity along with the vital work that you’re doing on accountability on the ground.

Published 26 November 2019

I would like to begin by extending the United Kingdom’s condolences to France on the helicopter crash in Mali.

I wanted to put clearly on the record our support for the Special Advisor and for the work of UNITAD. As the French Representative just said, it’s vital that the Council continues to follow this very important issue closely. I think we all bear witness to Mr Kachi’s very somber and moving briefing today. It is a powerful reminder of the devastation that Daesh unleashed. And thank you for briefing the Council, Mr Kachi, but also my deepest sympathies and those of the United Kingdom for your suffering. I don’t think there’s a more compelling issue, question that we’ve heard this month of why the Council has important work to do than the story you told us. So thank you for that.

I’d like to add our voice to to thanking the government of Iraq. Their support continues to be instrumental to UNITAD’s ability to do its work and we welcome the steps the government has taken to introduce legislation to allow for the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes which may amount to genocide committed by Daesh.

Back to UNITAD, thank you for getting the organisation up and running. It was very good to hear that you are now fully operational and the impressive statistics about women parity along with the vital work that you’re doing on accountability on the ground.

Published 26 November 2019

The Bar Council’s award-winning ‘I am the Bar’ campaign was launched in the summer of 2018 and endeavours to highlight the experiences and challenges of those who have succeeded at the Bar from non-traditional backgrounds. The project is used as a way to highlight the talent present in the legal field.

Our strategy commits the Government Legal Department (GLD) and Government Legal Profession (GLP) to employing and supporting a diverse workforce by attracting, growing and retaining diverse talent. We have been speaking with a few of our new lawyers, part of the annual September intake of legal trainees.

Mass Ndow-Njie has been vocal about the challenges he has faced on his journey to the Bar and in doing so has gained a significant online following. Mass is among the first generation in his family to go to university and recently wrote a guest blog for the Bar Council, documenting his journey to becoming a barrister and his legal experience so far.

Having recently embarked on pupillage with GLD, Mass is enjoying the opportunity to learn from lawyers from diverse and non-traditional backgrounds. The opportunity to work with barristers from diverse backgrounds is important, as Mass has previously struggled with the lack of representation at the Bar. Mass was worried he would “need to change myself in order to ‘fit in’ so that I would stand a chance of making it.” In 2018 13% of barristers identified as BAME – a vast improvement on recent years, but there is still a considerable way to go to achieve proper representation. He is a member of The Law Collective and a committee member of Urban Lawyers, organisations that endeavour to make law more accessible to marginalised groups in society.

Mass’ journey to the Bar is a story of breaking boundaries and harnessing the ‘unique’ experiences that distinguished him from other students: students whom he notes may have “gone to Oxbridge… or completed multiple mini-pupillages.” The misconception that these traditional routes are the defining experiences that chambers look for when awarding pupillage and tenancy prevents some very capable young people from embarking on a legal career. Indeed, Mass notes that he believed that “not getting into Oxbridge would be fatal to my aspirations.” However, his experiences from working as a football coach at a Premier League club and starting his own company distinguished him and provided him with what he believes was his “biggest strength in obtaining pupillage.”

GLD has made massive strides towards becoming an inclusive and diverse working environment. Mass’ journey highlights that legal aptitude is present in all corners of society and that chambers are not always looking for the ‘traditional’ candidate, just the candidate that can stand out from the crowd. The increasing outreach of organisations such as Urban Lawyers highlights that the traditional image of a lawyer is actively being challenged and this can only lead to positive change.

As this is the first time I am taking the floor, I would like to join others in congratulating you on your appointment as Chair at a crucial time for IOM. I look forward to working closely with you and the rest of the Bureau in the year ahead.

I would also like to reiterate the UK’s condolences for the four IOM staff members recently killed in in South Sudan. Aid workers and civilians should never be a target. We salute all of the IOM staff who work in such hostile environments to deliver essential assistance to beneficiaries, and support IOM’s efforts to ensure their safety.

The UK would like to acknowledge the strong leadership of the Director General over the past year, as well as that of his team. IOM’s continued strong growth – with the budget exceeding $2bn for the first time and nearly 14,000 staff – illustrates the increasing relevance and importance of IOM’s work around the world, including in many of the most challenges environments. IOM is playing a significant role in the international response to virtually every humanitarian crisis, and supporting countless governments as they work towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

We welcome the sharp focus you have brought to IOM’s strategic and institutional reforms, as well as your careful positioning of IOM as the coordinator of the UN Migration Network, supporting states with the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). Hence the UK’s significant policy and financial commitment to IOM.

I would like to reiterate the UK’s support for the GCM. International coordination is essential to address complex transnational challenges. The GCM champions a pragmatic approach, facilitating co-operation without creating new rights or norms, and without infringing on sovereignty. We welcome the progress made this year to build a framework for GCM implementation, including via the Start Up Fund for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The UK Government will provide £3 million over three years to this Fund, working with the UN, Member States and Civil Society to shape it into an effective mechanism to achieve shared objectives, including through combatting modern slavery and promoting evidence-based approaches.

We welcome the efforts to develop a new Strategic Vision and embed Internal Governance Framework (IGF) reforms. Improvements to IOM’s central functions have not kept pace with its rapid growth, and the control, risk, investigation, evaluation, internal audit and anti-fraud functions all need major improvement. We support the use of OSI, OSI Reserve and unearmarked donor funds to help to pay for these improvements. The UK is a significant contributor of multi-year unearmarked funding, providing over $8m in 2019 via the Migration Resource Allocation Committee, or MIRAC. We encourage more member states to make unearmarked contributions to ensure the institutional reforms are adequately resourced. We also look forward to wider Budget Reform discussions in early 2020 to consider options for more sustainable funding.

I’d like to conclude by briefly noting three areas of particular interest to the UK. First, we welcome IOM’s commitment to Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, including via the new ‘We Are All In’ platform. We note that this is leading to an increase in reported allegations. In this context – but also more broadly – it is crucial that the Office of the Inspector General is both resourced and empowered to fulfil its mandate, and we strongly support ongoing efforts to strengthen the OIG.

Second, we want to see the continued strengthening of IOM’s approach to the inclusion of people with disabilities, older people and women and girls.

Finally, cross-system humanitarian reform remains a top UK priority. In particular, we are keen to ensure more collective and system-wide approaches to Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP); increase use of unconditional cash; ensure the centrality of protection; and advance data-driven approaches to Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) and prioritisation.

Thank you.