National Grid banner and utilities links
Against the significant safety improvements we have seen over the past three years, it is with great sadness that we record that there were six fatalities directly associated with our operations during 2005/06.
In October 2005, an employee died while working on our London gas distribution network. There is an investigation into the incident and we are working closely with the Health and Safety Executive. We have reviewed our procedures and equipment for use while working in gaseous environments and we are currently implementing an action plan under the management of a member of the UK gas distribution leadership team.
Two contractors died in a helicopter crash in Scotland while carrying out an aerial survey of our gas transmission network. There have also been three public fatalities resulting directly from our operations: an elderly person died after being hit by a vehicle from our UK gas distribution operations; in Zambia, a cyclist died in a collision with a car driven by an employee of our joint venture, Copperbelt Electricity Corporation; and, in the UK, a man died after parachuting illegally from an electricity pylon.
These were tragic events and our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with all those affected.
2004/05 lost time injuries were 160 excluding and 201 including the sold networks respectively. 2005/06 excludes three lost time injuries that occurred in the sold networks while still owned by National Grid.
Over the past 12 months, we have continued to see an encouraging improvement in our safety performance across the Group. Excluding the sold networks, 117 of our employees received injuries that resulted in them taking time off work during 2005/06 compared with 160 in 2004/05, a 27% reduction.
The lost time injury frequency rate provides a more accurate indicator of year-on-year performance than an absolute measure because it takes into account changing employee numbers resulting from acquisitions and disposals, such as the sales of the four UK gas distribution networks in 2005/06. The number of employee lost time injuries per 100,000 hours worked in 2005/06 fell to 0.28, a 24% improvement when compared with the previous year.
There has also been a significant reduction in the number of contractor lost time injuries across the Group, falling from 146 in 2004/05 to 119 in 2005/06, a 18.5% decrease.
In December 2005, the safety management aspects of National Grid Wireless’s integrated management system were certified to the international occupational health and safety management standard, OHSAS 18001.
In our UK Transmission and Distribution operations, we have reinforced our existing safety procedures by focusing on areas of our activities where there is most risk of serious injuries. We believe these procedures will help drive continual improvements in key areas.
In the US, we have unified our employee safety rules into an Employee Safety Handbook that incorporates the best practices from the New York and New England operations.
We have continued to focus on our employees’ health by promoting physical well-being, and highlighting mental health issues such as stress. In the UK, we published a stress management standard and implemented a drugs and alcohol policy, complementing those already in place for our US employees. In the US, we have promoted employee health and well-being by offering wellness programmes.
Around 2.38% of available work days were lost due to sickness absence compared with 2.69% for the previous year.
This year has again seen external endorsement of our responsible business approach. We continue to feature in the Dow Jones Sustainability World and FTSE4Good indices. We are one of only two multi-utilities listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, confirming that our approach to responsible business is indeed world-class.
In May 2006, we were placed equal fourth in Business in the Community’s fourth Corporate Responsibility Index, a leading UK benchmark of responsible business, the only company to be ranked in the top five for three years running.
In 2004/05, we reported on our website for the first time the number of substantiated breaches of our employee codes of business conduct. In 2005/06, there were 4.76 substantiated breaches per 1,000 employees compared with 8.04 in 2004/05. Offences include such things as internet and email abuse, misuse of company vehicles and other assets and climbing electricity pylons unattached. Disciplinary actions can range from a verbal warning to dismissal.
The number of significant environmental incidents in 2005/06 arising directly from our operations was 22, compared with 23 in the previous year. Incidents out of our control resulting from third party or weather-related damage to our networks was 25 compared with 11 for 2004/05.
There were no prosecutions by enforcing bodies resulting from these incidents. We received 10 environmental citations in 2005/06 compared with 14 in the previous year, although none attracted fines.
In the UK, National Grid Property manages 382 contaminated sites. This compares with 470 sites in 2004/05, the reduction principally reflecting the transfer of sites as part of the sales of the four UK gas distribution networks in 2005. In the US, we have responsibility for approximately 190 contaminated sites, the vast majority of which are formerly owned manufactured gas plants.
During 2005/06, 35 sites in the UK and four sites in the US were remediated.
Together with the Environment Agency, we have sought judicial review to clarify the legal position with regard to the remediation of a site in Bawtry, Yorkshire following a decision by the Environment Agency that National Grid Gas plc was an appropriate party to be involved in the clean up of the land. The site has a long and complex history of ownership. On 17 May 2006, the High Court ruled in the Environment Agency’s favour. We intend to appeal this decision, which we believe is incorrect in law.
The largest sources of direct emissions continue to be methane leakage and venting from our UK gas networks, while the largest source of indirect emissions is caused by losses across our electricity networks. Together these account for some 79% of our total emissions.
During 2005/06, our direct and indirect emissions of greenhouse gas amounted to some 10.2 million tonnes CO2 equivalent, the same as 2004/05 excluding the sold networks.
In 2005/06, emissions per £million of revenue amounted to some 1,110 tonnes CO2 equivalent compared with 1,680 tonnes for the previous year.
At 31 March 2006, of our 19,783 employees across the Group, 23.4% were females and 6.7% were from ethnic minority groups compared with 21.0% and 6.0% at 31 March 2005.
The London Benchmarking Group model has been adopted to provide a framework for measuring and reporting the Group’s community investment contributions. Processes are now in place so that community investment spend across the Group can be captured and categorised according to the model, and spend against our agreed themes can be reported as described in Responsibility – Community investment. During 2005/06, we invested some £7.7 million in support of community initiatives and relationships across Group operations.
During 2005/06, we contributed £912 million (2004/05: £1 billion) to the communities we operate in, comprising employment, property and corporate taxes.