Who we are
Working at NatWest Group
Health and safety

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.

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

2024 recorded a decrease in overall H&S related incidents/accidents of 10.71% (compared to 2023).

We saw an overall increase in RIDDOR reportable incidents for NWG, from 10 in 2023 to 13 in 2024.

Health and safety performance in detail (PDF, 235 KB)

Health and safety public policy statement (PDF, 60 KB)

Awards and recognition

In 2024 NWG was awarded the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Highly Commended in the Commercial and Business Services sector award and the RoSPA Gold Fleet Safety Awards.

Wellbeing - Awarded ‘Best use of benefits to support Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ at the Employee Benefits Awards 2024.

Benchmarking

Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI) improvements with H&S and wellbeing increased from 46% to 69%, above both the UK (66%) and Financials average (51%) scores.
NWG maintained Tier 2 in a Corporate Mental Health accredited by CCLA Investment Management Company.
NWG was placed in the Top Tier of the global MindForward Alliance’s Thriving At Work Assessment.

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 and engagement

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. 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 may 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
We engage in regular meetings with employee representatives Unite the Union

Accreditation

In the UK, our Cash Operations teams follow the OHSAS 450001 standard.

Case Studies 2024

Enhancements to safety culture

Delivered new model (using guidance/intervention/design changes) to support our Retail colleagues experiencing exposure to vulnerable individuals or aggression in branches.
Completed programme to maintain the provision of Defibrillators across the portfolio (167 pads replaced across 118 locations).
Ongoing promotion of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) training for colleagues.
Over 5k colleagues have completed Mental Health training Modules.
201k hits on the Wellbeing Hub website for 2024 with Calendar, Employee Assistance Programme, mental health and financial pages being the most popular.

Information Message

Compliance/audit

Following UK alerts 351 proactive inspections for Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) were undertaken. No immediate concerns raised.
8,237 property statutory life inspections completed and delivered by an independent external body, to ensure safety and legal compliance requirements are met.
752 Annual Building (façade) Inspections (ABI) and 793 Fire Risk Assessments (FRA) completed, to ensure our buildings are safe for occupancy.
The Standards and Assurance team completed 164 additional assurance oversight visits, with no material issues identified.
H&S completed an “in-Country” audit in 2024 for India, with no material findings.
Authorising Engineer audits (Critical Environmental Team) completed in 17 critical locations (incl. data centres); all passed with no H&S risks identified.
66 H&S audits of construction projects completed with >91% average audit score.
Working At Height (WAH) issues/survey programme has carried out 800 WAH site hazard reports via dedicated supplier to ensure that all WAH activity is properly planned, implemented, and supervised.
All Cash and Coin centres were audited and retained External accreditation for ISO45001 H&S and ISO14001 environmental management standards - all sites passed with an overall average of 95.3%. Additionally, “workplace transport” assessments now completed for all locations. The assessment ensured vehicle and pedestrian segregation.

Information Message

Case Studies 2023

Ongoing development of new ways of working strategies for health and safety

As part of NatWest Groups ongoing commitment to support employees and customers, over 11,000 people managers have completed a new Mental Health learning module to improve understanding, provide support and ongoing management of Mental Health with the workplace.
Improved process for allergies management implemented (including a new detailed risk assessment for office/branch working and events) – steps to follow and checklists updated.
New Display Screen Equipment (DSE) / Workstation assessment form for UK/ROI/Poland and India launched on Service Now, improved storage model for managers, and opens options for MI dashboards to provide greater trend insights in the future. Global applicability being developed to provide DSE oversight and completion MI for the whole of NatWest Group.
Fire Evacuation chair process launched with first tranche of training completed. This supports staff and customers (in branches), where required, and ensures our branches remain inclusive and compliant.
In 2023 we launched a bank wide comms on the British Heart Foundation CPR promotion for the Revivr app and to celebrate the defibrillator replacement programme, as well as ongoing checks on defibs for battery and pads.
Improved processes put in place to support night workers and colleagues who may have epilepsy– using GPL to flag for support and steps to follow.

Site audits

For Cash Operations, LRQA (our external auditor) performed an Audit for the ISO45001 H&S management standard and ISO14001 Environmental management standard- which were successfully renewed. New merged certification for 3 years.
H&S Risk Standard review completed - renamed from ‘Injury or Harm’, to ‘Inadequate Workplace Safety’, now includes requirements around mental health, in line with industry practice.
An “important” finding was raised for the US in connection with landlord’s H&S/engineering activity and water standards not currently meeting US regulations. This issue is being remediated.
No H&S enforcement notices were received by the Bank in 2023.
Completion of all statutory life safety inspections, and 8424 compliance inspections, delivered by an independent external body, to ensure safety and legal compliance requirements are met.
826 annual building (façade) inspections and 715 Fire Risk Assessments completed, to ensure our buildings are safe for occupancy.
The Property Standards and Assurance team completed 108 assurance activities. There were no material issues identified.

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.