Our vision for health and safety is summed up in the statement: “Rule One; we don’t hurt people”. We have set challenging and stretching targets for health and safety performance and attendance throughout the company. Our aim is to deliver a health and safety performance comparable with the best of the petrochemical sector by 2010 and matching the top performing companies for attendance.

A particular challenge over the last year has been the level of accidents within our Retail business and particularly amongst our field based Home Energy Consultants (HECs). A combination of detailed independent analysis of accident causes, a focus of attention and expertise; direct management engagement and focused audit activity has meant that the accident rate in this area has started to improve in 2009. In our call centres, we’ve now developed our safety management system to such an extent that it has now been externally verified to a British Safety Council 5 Star standard.

Our Energy Services business has faced a significant challenge during this year due to a number of acquisitions that have increased the number of contractor colleagues it uses.

Our distribution business has significantly reduced its accident rate in the last year. This is largely down to a number of factors, including a structured programme of senior management site visits; a focus on leading indicators; a robust safety management plan; continued and relentless management focus and effective engagement with our contracting colleagues.

Senior management engagement has continued to improve, aided by a programme of the externally-accredited IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health) Safety for Senior Executives courses. These courses have challenged the senior management team to really think about their role and responsibilities in relation to health and safety.

The engagement and management of contractor colleagues is a critical issue and a project aimed at reviewing our approach to this area is already delivering results. We are now using a companywide revised contractor management and engagement process which builds on international best practice. This will be critical for improved performance as it will fundamentally affect all aspects of the management of contractors from procurement and monitoring, through on site management to final project review.

The area of process safety has been a focus during 2008. Each of our operational businesses is being challenged to review their approach to process safety. The challenge has brought about a significant change in attitude and approach to this issue.

We believe driving is one of the most hazardous activities carried out by our colleagues on a daily basis, so we’ve put in place an occupational road risk assessment programme. We’ve also introduced a drugs and alcohol awareness training programme with associated testing arrangements during 2008.

Our expertise and approach to health and safety is increasingly being recognised externally. We’ve been promoted as a successful example of safety culture change by the British Safety Council as part of a major study into improving safety culture, and have been held up by the trade union Prospect as a company which is seeking best practice in driving safety performance through employee involvement. We’ve also played a leading role in an industry-wide workshop involving senior industry managers and senior trade union officials.