Health and safety

Providing safe working conditions and continuing to strive for zero accidents across the Group enables our people to thrive and supports their wellbeing.

We have a Group Health & Safety Policy that aims to apply the best international standards of practice relating to the health and safety of employees at work and non-company personnel on company premises and to give a high priority to these activities.

The Policy applies across all our activities. It requires our companies – as well as complying with all applicable laws and regulations – to commit to the prevention of employee injury and ill-health and strive for continual improvement in our health and safety management and performance. This is done through setting clear objectives, including the monitoring and measurement of key performance indicators.

Group Health and Safety Policy Statement (49 kb)

Protecting the health and safety of our workforce

We have a well-established approach to protecting the health and safety of our employees and contractors across the Group.

As a global business, operating in diverse markets including some of the world’s most volatile regions, this can be challenging. We track health and safety performance across all our sites.A dedicated team analyses the information to identify trends or high-risks areas that require coordinated cross-functional action.

Our comprehensive approach is based on risk management from which we develop tailored initiatives for specific priorities and high-risk areas. For example, in manufacturing, our accident prevention programme focuses on preventing injuries when using equipment or machinery. This has resulted in a steady reduction in accidents in our operations.

For Trade, Marketing and Distribution (TM&D), where there are high risks of road traffic accidents or attacks and assaults, we have comprehensive driver safety and security programmes. We also have telematic systems in all our vehicles to monitor driving behaviour and identify areas for improvements.

In locations that are high-risk for attacks and assaults, we constantly assess threats to ensure appropriate protocols are in place to keep our people safe. This can include placing limits on loads carried to reduce value, strategic route planning to avoid predictability, and providing security escorts. Vehicle-related accidents and attacks and assaults have continued to decline over recent years – with an 11% reduction in 2022, compared to 2021. Overall, total accidents across the Group reduced by 6% – from 123 accidents in 2021, down to 116 in 2022. 82% of our sites achieved zero accidents.

If a serious incident or fatality occurs, we liaise with the relevant authorities to assist their investigations, as well as reporting fatalities to the Board, which we are legally obliged to do. We always conduct rigorous internal investigations to determine the cause, identify lessons, and develop an action plan, so we can do all we can to prevent similar incidents from happening again. All investigation outcomes are reviewed by the Board, who also receive updates on action plan implementation.

Full details of our safety performance can be viewed in our BAT Combined Annual and Sustainability Report 2023 (8.0 mb).

Occupational health

We aim to be among the leaders in occupational health management. We focus on identifying hazards, assessing risks to people’s health at work and introducing appropriate controls. We also have programmes around the world that protect and promote health and wellbeing for employees, their families and local communities. These include medical services and insurance, healthy lifestyle and fitness schemes and family-friendly policies and initiatives, such as flexible working and help with childcare.

Safety in tobacco growing

We are working with our contracted farmers to ensure 100% have access to personal protective equipment (PPE) for agrochemical use and harvesting.

Our Extension Services provide regular training and guidance in how to use, clean and care for it to ensure effectiveness. The training not only covers PPE, but also comprehensive health and safety best practice and preventative measures against green tobacco sickness (GTS), and this is supported by ongoing farmer communications. In addition, we provide training and awareness-raising for our contracted farmers on the correct and safe use, storage and disposal of agrochemicals to protect the environment and their health. These sessions cover our standards to ensure our contracted farmers use only approved agrochemicals with the lowest possible toxicity according to the World Health Organization classification.