Corporate Responsibility

Safety continues to be at the forefront of all our operations.

• Vehicle accident rates improved in the UK, North America and Spain. We experienced a small deterioration in preventable accident rates in UK bus and coach.
• Employee lost time injury rates improved in UK bus and coach, North America and Spain. Performance in UK trains deteriorated by 11%, but the changes to the franchise portfolio of the Group in 2007, make meaningful comparison between 2007 and 2008 impractical.
• SPAD performance is 7% worse than 2007. However, the statistics include an incident where the driver was not responsible in any way. If this SPAD is disregarded, 2007 and 2008 performance was almost identical.

In 2008 we commissioned an independent report into the degree to which the Group compiled with the recommendations in the Baker Report following BP’s serious accident at Texas City in March 2005. This report provided assurance as to the effectiveness of the Group’s corporate governance arrangements in relation to safety and also identified some areas where the arrangements could be strengthened further.

The Group has implemented many of the recommendations arising from the report and the remainder are scheduled for completion in 2009 and 2010.

Total preventable vehicle accidents – normalised per million vehicle miles

Lost time injury frequency – normalised accidents per 1,000 employees

* Whilst the Trains Unit injury rates show, on the face of it, a significant deterioration in performance, these figures should be treated with caution. The rates for each year relate to the franchise portfolio held in those years which changed significantly towards the end of 2007.