Health & safety

All the Group’s businesses have third party certification to the environmental management system standard ISO14001, and our Corporate HS&E audit programme assesses the implementation of the HS&E management system across all businesses on a rolling audit basis.
Satisfactory audits have recently taken place in the UK and US, across our

• Civil Aerospace
• Energy
• Fuel cells
• Marine services and submarines businesses
• combustions and casings
• component services
• turbine systems supply chain units.

Audit reviews have also been undertaken at four sites on the management and effective control of major hazards as part of an ongoing programme. We operate three sites in the UK which together manufacture, test and support nuclear reactor cores for Royal Navy submarines.
The Company Nuclear Propulsion Assurance Committee monitors the performance of these sites regularly to ensure that the highest standards of health and safety are maintained and processes are robust and fit for purpose.

We are working closely with other companies, trade bodies, sectors and regulators in preparing for the implementation of REACH.

Efforts have been focused on raising awareness within our manufacturing operations and supply chains in order that appropriate arrangements for compliance and business continuity, and the targeting of any future ‘substances of very high concern’, are introduced well ahead of deadlines.

We continue to take part in the UK’s voluntary carbon dioxide emissions trading scheme and the Chicago Climate Exchange. Programmes we have implemented to reduce carbon dioxide emissions include an initiative at Inchinnan, Scotland, where a reduction in furnace temperatures will achieve cost savings of £140,000 a year and reduce annual emissions by around 1,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide.