Health and Safety

Health and safety is a key priority for all divisional and subsidiary managing directors, in particular in the Energy and Environmental divisions where the potential impacts are significant given the nature of the businesses and the products handled. Health and safety resources in GB Oils have been strengthened following the acquisition of two oil terminals in Scotland during the year. A particular focus on process safety is ongoing to minimise the likelihood of a major incident and to meet increasing regulatory demands.

Individual subsidiaries use a range of indicators to measure health and safety performance. Lost time injury rates (lagging indicators) are recorded at Group level for the operations within the scope of this report and this year the frequency of accidents that resulted in lost time fell from 2.8 per 200,000 hours worked to 2.5⁵. At the same time the lost time severity rate increased from 42 to 48 days lost per 200,000 hours worked reflecting, on average, more days lost per accident. This increase was driven by a number of accidents that resulted in over 100 days lost. No fatalities were recorded in the year ended 31 March 2011 (tragically one fatality was recorded in the prior year as reported previously). Absentee and occupational diseases rates are not compiled at Group level.

The International Safety Rating System (ISRS) audit tool, developed by DNV, a leading risk management company, is being phased in across our energy and environmental subsidiaries. The audit is demanding, requiring a high level of verification and covering fifteen health and safety management processes including leadership, learning from events and management review in addition to risk and asset management. The ISRS tool allows us to benchmark our performance, identify areas for improvement and measure progress objectively.

Wastecycle’s health and safety management system was certified to the international OHSAS18001⁷ standard in February 2011 – an independent recognition of the efforts by all employees to adopt a consistent and proactive approach to safety management.

In addition to OHSAS18001 certifications in the Environmental subsidiaries, SerCom Solutions health and safety management systems in Ireland and Poland are also certified to the OHSAS18001 standard.

⁵ Company employees only, contractors are not included in lost time injury rates.
⁶ A Lost Time Injury is defined as any injury that results in at least one day off work following the day of the accident.
⁷ Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series standard.