Health and Safety

For EDF Energy, health and safety is a constant and considerable issue that requires vigilance and robust policies and practices. We operate heavy machinery, we generate and distribute high voltage electricity and we undertake extensive and complex network engineering works. All of these operations can potentially harm our employees and the local communities we serve.

In 2004, we undertook a review of our delivery of HSE and raised our expectations of all branches for 2005. A new approach to measuring our management of HSE was agreed. A special conference for staff and managers, 'Fit, Safe and Responsible', endorsed the new approach and decided that staff perception on safety should be measured as part of the annual staff satisfaction survey.

We completed 97% of the high level actions identified in the previous HSE audit and have taken the remaining actions forward into the 2005 plan so that they also get tracked to completion. One action was the appointment of a company HSE officer, who took up this new strategic role in May 2004.

The new approach included the development of a company-wide health and safety performance measurement system, which replaces the RoSPA rating previously used. Our 2007 target is to score 90% in this measurement system across the business, with our 2005 milestone target set at 45%.

During 2004, we ensured that all our contractors reported their lost time accidents and working hours and we combine their figures with those of our directly employed staff to give the true picture of safety within our business. Whilst an improvement over 2003 was evident, we have set further milestone targets for both Lost Time (one day or more) as well as those reportable to the regulator Lost Time (three days or more) for 2005. A serious injury to a contractor at one of our power stations in December reminded us that, while we are making improvements, no target other than zero can ever truly be acceptable. We are committed to root cause improvement to help move us towards this aspiration.

Download the full Health and Safety Policy [PDF]