The majority of fatalities continue to involve our suppliers where unsafe behaviour is a contributing factor. This year we completed a review of high-risk suppliers across our Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific markets, focusing on Tier 1 and Tier 2 technology and non-technology suppliers. This review helped us better understand how local markets monitor suppliers’ adherence to our requirements.
The review confirmed strong engagement with suppliers through local market supplier forums. However, it also found that further action was required to address under-reporting by suppliers. Markets were subsequently instructed to reiterate expectations to all suppliers on the requirements when reporting incidents. These include reporting timescales and the definition of what should be reported.
We continue to influence global suppliers at Group level and will continue to include high-risk supplier reviews as part of quarterly reporting. In addition, we plan to further investigate how to improve the speed and ease of supplier reporting using technology.