Governance of corporate responsibility

Our Board Risk & Responsibility Committee is responsible for reviewing the strategies, policies, targets and performance of the Company within the Framework for Responsible Business .

The Committee reviews the company’s risks for which it has oversight and works closely with the Audit Committee. It reviews matters such as: safety (including public and process safety); the environment; employee occupational health; inclusion and diversity; security and human rights issues; and business ethics and conduct.

The Committee comprises four Non-executive Directors. The Chief Executive, Company Secretary & General Counsel, director of UK safety, health and environment, US senior VP safety, health and environmental services and, on any alternating basis, the director of corporate audit and the corporate affairs director are invited to attend Risk & Responsibility Committee meetings. Executive Directors, and others, including business representatives, are invited to attend as necessary.

Examples of matters the Committee considered during 2010/11 include:

  • serious incident and near miss reports, such as an electric arc flash incident at a US substation, noting root causes and associated learning;
  • climate change strategy, performance against targets and the challenges related to Scope III emissions;
  • safety, health and environment audit plans and findings from such audits;
  • progress toward embedding a security culture and actions being taken to improve digital and asset security;
  • changes in the non-financial risk profile of the Company; and
  • findings from the new external safety advisor and subsequent response from management.

“We undertook a number of site visits during the year starting with a tour of a US LNG site, which focused on process safety. We also went to a London electricity substation, where we gained a greater understanding of the issues associated with the failure of certain types of transformer and the actions being taken to manage them. Later in  the year, we visited a Gas Distribution training centre in the UK, where we observed the work under way to increase our level of performance in the field. During all these visits, we were impressed by the commitment of everyone we met to safety – of themselves, their colleagues and the public.”

Stephen Pettit
Chair - R&R Committee

Terms of reference for Risk & Responsibility Committee