Safety is core to our business. We must all recognise the responsibility each of us has to ensure our own safety, the safety of our colleagues and those who work with us and who are affected by our operations.

This perspective looks at how we have performed in this area during 2008/09; a year when,on a like-for-like basis, with the safety performance of KeySpan employees included in both years, we have seen a reduction in employee lost time injuries compared with 2007/08 and an improvement in our lost time injury frequency rate.

• Lost time injury frequency rate equated to 0.25 compared with 0.30* in 2007/08
• Employee lost time injuries fell to 140 compared with 157* in 2007/08, a nearly 11% decrease
• 108 contractor lost time injuries compared with 105 in 2007/08
• Employee sickness absence rate was 3.06% compared with 2.46% in 2007/08
• A member of the public died as a result of a road traffic accident in the US
• Received the Safety and Health Practitioner/Institution of Occupational Safety and Health award for the best campaign of 2008

* 2007/08 data restated as if KeySpan acquisition had occurred at beginning of year. Previously published figure, excluding KeySpan, was 0.24 and 88 respectively