CSR Policy

Corporate and social responsibility

In continuing to build Beazley as a premier risk-taking business, we take our corporate, social and environmental responsibility seriously. We constantly consider the ethical implications of how we operate in our day-to-day business and put policies and procedures in place that reflect our commitment. We also recognise the regulatory and reputational risks associated with ethical practice and adhere closely to the Association of British Insurers (ABI) guidelines published in October 2001 on the disclosure of listed companies’ social responsibility policies and endeavours. In 2007 we also signed up to the Lloyd’s Climate Wise principles and we will be reporting details of this in due course.

Intrinsic to our culture is an ethical approach to business conducted by and towards all our stakeholders, including management, staff, clients, suppliers and shareholders. The values that form the essence of our brand and our working culture are professionalism, integrity, effectiveness and dynamism. We have appointed Nicholas Furlonge as our Group Sponsor of the corporate and social responsibility programme.

Corporate responsibility

We are an equal opportunities employer and make it our policy to offer equal treatment to employees and prospective employees, ensuring that all are treated fairly and with dignity and respect. We absolutely do not permit unlawful discrimination of any kind against any person, to include on the grounds of gender, race, nationality or ethnic origin, age, disability, religious beliefs, sexuality, marital status, working patterns or pregnancy.

We are committed to taking positive action to ensure that all employees, whether full-time or part-time, receive equality of opportunity in recruitment, training, development, promotion and remuneration.

We strive to ensure the health, safety and welfare of our employees and anyone else who may be affected by our operations. Employees are expected to take reasonable care for their own health and safety at work as well as those of others, and to co-operate with management to create a safe and healthy working environment. All employees, contractors and visitors are subject to induction, training and supervision in aspects of health & safety and additional training in ergonomics and fire safety awareness is provided to all employees. All health and safety matters are communicated via notice boards, email memos, the intranet and via safety representatives.

We believe that the knowledge and skills of our employees are a key element of organisational success and therefore invest in training and development. We ensure that this is accessible by everyone and recognised as a shared responsibility between individual employees and the organisation.

Employees are kept informed of developments in business through our internal communications including, formal company-wide briefings that occur twice a month, team meetings and an information-rich intranet.

We are proud of our working culture that ensures that we achieve our aim to attract and retain talented staff in competitive markets and supports them as they strive to perform to an excellent standard.

Social responsibility

We encourage employee involvement in a range of community programmes. Nicholas Furlonge has recently been appointed chairman of the Lloyd’s Community Programme Management Board in London, and encourages staff to involve themselves in helping pupils in schools in the Tower Hamlets area, one of the most deprived areas in the country. The largest programme is “Reading Partners”, where members of staff volunteer their lunch hour to sit with children and help them with their literacy. There are currently 14 volunteers on this scheme and a further 7 on the “Maths Partners” programme which we also support. In addition, one employee participated in the police mentoring programme, where a senior business person is paired with a senior police officer, in one of three of East London’s most challenging boroughs, in order to help them develop their management skills.

In 2007, we sent volunteers to a school to help students understand the process of getting paid. We also participated in cricket coaching and are looking at teams participating in Lloyd’s community programme days in 2008.

The group made charitable donations during the year ended 31 December 2006 of £59,232 (2005: £25,436). The group’s charity budget is managed by a charity committee chaired by Nicholas Furlonge, and consideration is given to a wide range of activities, particularly where members of staff are engaged in fund raising activities. For example, these activities raised over £7,000 competing in a dragon boat race and over £2,000 in a white-water rafting competition. Also, our annual Christmas card is distributed electronically to over 20,000 key clients and contacts, giving them the opportunity to indicate the charity that they wish us to support.

In October 2006 we introduced a payroll-giving scheme in the UK in association with the Charities Aid Foundation. By the end of December 2007, 11% of staff had joined the scheme, donating £13,791 annually to 31 different charities.

No political donations were made by the group in either the current or prior reporting period.

Environmental responsibility

We are committed to achieving best practice in all the areas of the business where there may be an impact on the environment. From our head office in Plantation Place in London we encourage environmentally aware behaviour including:

  • A policy for minimising waste by scanning risks and claims, which enables employees worldwide to view documents electronically rather than on paper:
  • Extensive Video conferencing is available at the London offices and some US offices to reduce requirements for business travel and air travel
  • Recycling facilities for plastics, glass, paper, cardboard and used toner cartridges at several points throughout the building:
  • Glasses are used within the offices and refillable glass bottles are used for the meeting rooms lieu of disposable ones:
  • Recycling bins for old mobile telephones for charity:
  • Multi-functional scanner, printing, copying and faxing facilities exist and double-sided printing is set as a default on all copiers and printers
  • In the London office, motion detectors are fitted to lighting systems to ensure electricity usage is kept to a minimum and lighting levels have been reduced by 25%
  • The landlord for the London office procures the electric from a green supplier
  • The London offices have changed the paper supplier to 100% recycled
  • We also actively encourage the use of public transport and provide ample cycle racks, shower facilities and locker storage for those employees who cycle into work and provide cycle to work scheme.

We are also currently undertaking an environmental impact assessment of all our UK operations, including an assessment of its carbon emissions.