Business Continuity at PwC UK

1. We’re protecting our people

All of our people are following the government's advice to work from home where possible and are proficient in using virtual conferencing solutions to meet with clients and each other.
The majority of our offices remain closed. On 8 June six of our offices - More London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Reading and Bristol opened with social distancing in place for a small number of our people. In line with government guidance, the first staff members to return will only be those whose essential work for the firm or clients will significantly benefit from being delivered from an office. We’re also keen to support those who are finding working from home tough.
In consultation with our people, we have undertaken full risk assessments of each of our current working environments and developed plans to manage the risks of Covid-19.
All non-critical international business travel and travel between our UK offices is suspended.
We have created a microsite for our people which is regularly updated with advice and guidance on how they can help prevent the spread of the virus while looking after each other and continuing to serve our clients.
We are ready to follow any further guidance from the Governments and public health organisations across the United Kingdom to protect the health and safety of our people.

Everyday Flexibility, which includes working remotely, is part of the way we work at PwC.
All of our people are equipped with laptops, chargers, headsets, mobile phones and access to the 4G network to ensure they can continue to work effectively wherever they are.
Our IT systems are designed to suit a remote workforce. We use Google Cloud technology to ensure our people can access documents from anywhere and share them with each other and our clients and suppliers.
Our culture is one of digital collaboration and our people regularly use video conferencing and instant messaging technology to work effectively together across multiple locations.
We have policies in place which cover the appropriate way to work securely when out of the office to ensure confidentiality and the protection of data.
All internet connections on PwC laptops and phones are protected using secure VPN technology.
As face to face meetings are not advisable during this time, we’d encourage a conversation with your PwC contact to discuss and agree suitable alternative ways of working, for example the use of video conferencing.

If you have particular concerns, please talk to your PwC contact.

We’ve mobilised our Pandemic Response Steering Group, a subset of our Management Board and UK Incident Management Team.
We’re following our Infectious Disease and Pandemic Management Response plans.
We’re monitoring and acting on the advice of Governments in the territories in which we operate and our own medical advisers.
In consultation with our people, we have undertaken full risk assessments of each of our current working environments and developed plans to manage the risks of Covid-19.

PwC is a network of member firms across the globe. Here is the full list of our office locations.
PwC’s global business model, ensures that a Global Relationship Partner is responsible for all aspects of our relationship with global clients (including business continuity and incident response).
We have a Network Standard for business continuity and incident response (including pandemic response plans), against which each member firm is assessed annually.
Governance and oversight is provided at network level by a suitably qualified SME who is accountable to our Network Incident Response Team.
Being a globally distributed business with substantial depth of available specialist resources in the various regions in which we operate, we have the capacity to redeploy people as circumstances allow.

We’re in touch with our suppliers and service partners who have contractual obligations to have appropriate plans and arrangements in place to ensure the continuity of the supply of goods and services to PwC.
Appropriate inventory is maintained of core technology and other products essential to running our operations.