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Health and safety

Most of our employees work in lower risk environments and are not exposed to significant occupational health and safety hazards. Nevertheless, we have a programme of initiatives in place to ensure that we continually improve our health and safety performance.

Although we recorded an increase in the overall Health and Safety related incidents/ accidents in 2022 (up 21% compared to 2021) this reflected more colleagues using our premises following the pandemic, with some large offices seeing an increase of 75% in footfall. In comparison to pre-pandemic times (2019) there were 31% fewer accidents in 2022

We report health and safety incidents to the relevant authorities as required by legislation.

Read our health and safety performance in detail (PDF 241 KB)

Read our health and safety public policy statement (PDF 52 KB)

Awards and recognition

In 2022 NatWest Group received a ‘Highly Commended’ recognition at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) in the ‘Commercial & Business Services’ Industry Sector award for Occupational Health and Safety and the Gold Fleet Safety award for how we manage people driving on business. We were also finalists in the St Andrew First Aid Awards in 2023 for ‘Employer of the Year’.

We are evaluated on our occupational health and safety performance by a number of ESG ratings companies. More information about how we performed as a bank in these ESG surveys is available on our ESG ratings and benchmarks page.

Training

All employees are required to complete mandatory online health and safety training, which covers the key risks for all employees including fire safety, display screen equipment, manual handling and slips, trips and falls. We reviewed the content for 2021 with an external communications specialist with an aim to instil a culture for all colleagues to have H&S in mind in all aspects of their office and home working environments. It includes specific content for people and building managers of their H&S responsibilities. The building manager section covers workplace management responsibilities and includes learning on asbestos, facades, fire emergency plans, risk assessments, emergency roles, and escape route checks. We also used the module as a vehicle to remind colleagues of the Fire Tag/Hi Vis evacuation system in selected buildings.

Specialist training includes:

  • Emergency training – including fire marshal and first aid training, carried out in line with local legal requirements
  • NatWest Group has a driver safety programme which includes risk-based training and we have introduced post-incident training to support drivers that have experienced multiple collisions to support their ongoing business driving
  • Specialist health and safety training is carried out in higher risk areas or for higher risk activities in areas such as our Cash and Coin Centres
  • Bespoke health and safety training programmes are in place for key roles including – the Institute of Occupational Safety & Health’s (IOSH) Managing Safely for Property Managers, IOSH Directing Safely for our Projects Managers, and Chartered Member IOSH and National Examination Board in Occupational Safety & Health (NEBOSH) qualifications for our Health and Safety professionals

Accreditation

In the UK, our Cash Operations teams follow the ISO 45001 standard.

Case Studies 2022

Ongoing development of new strategies

  • Our First aid strategy now includes the use of security guards as part of the trained population as a 24-7 presence. We now have over 50 guards ‘First Aid at Work’ trained at our largest sites. We have in place a training programme so all guards by 2024 will have a full first aid qualification.
  • For first aid, we have tried to use the software such as Microsoft teams, which we are currently piloting to check which qualified colleagues are on site on any given day in 250 Bishopsgate.
  • We have encouraged more of our colleagues to upskill in basic first aid skills, such as via the British Heart Foundation App.
  • In 2022 we were able to dissect the information from a full year of Display Screen Equipment (DSE) assessment data. Analysing the MI, as well as listening to anecdotal feedback, has helped us evolve a 'big 5’ strategy which we are working through with design and technology teams- including piloting of new products to help use zoom in the best ergonomically friendly way.
  • We conducted a Portable Appliance Test pilot on home working kit. The failure ratio worked out at a very low 0.97%. A risk appetite decision was reached that 60 months for testing frequency is suitable. We have added photos from the pilot to the ‘Informal equipment visual inspection’ guide. We ask colleagues to complete this every year as part of their DSE. assessment, bringing to life what equipment safety hazards to look out for at home.
  • Responsible person safety inspections by Facilities Managers now take place for all office locations in the UK twice a year.

Site audits

  • Completed first H&S audit visits for Switzerland & RBSI (IOM, Jersey/Guernsey) to support risk framework model and local business/H&S knowledge. An “Important” risk rating was raised for Switzerland, with an action plan in place (managed by Wealth). For RBSI properties the H&S rating was classed at “minor” with some local management improvements identified.
  • All Cash Operations centres are accredited to the ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) 45001 for Health & Safety management. In 2022 sample audits were conducted at sites by the external auditor LRQA, and all centre’s had an internal audit (delivered by Technical Standards & Assurance and Central H&S teams). Overall, the business achieved 95.2%. (2021 96.16%), against a pass mark of 90%.
  • Zero H&S material issues/ findings currently in place.

Case Studies 2021

Case Studies 2020