SKM Enviros has conducted an independent assurance review of the Thames Water Utilities Ltd (Thames Water) Corporate Responsibility (CR) Report and CR Report website 2009/2010. The intended user of this statement is the reader of the Thames Water CR Report.
The assurance process was conducted in accordance with AA1000AS (2008). We were engaged to provide Type 2 assurance, which covers evaluation of adherence to the AA1000APS (2008) principles of inclusivity, materiality and responsiveness (the Principles) and the reliability of specified sustainability performance information to a moderate level of assurance.
This assurance engagement was conducted between September and November 2010 via meetings, telephone discussions and e-mail correspondence with staff responsible for collating and reporting the data on which the report was based. We also reviewed supporting evidence and data collection systems to substantiate the data and claims. The assurance scope excluded any data already submitted to regulatory audit or other third party checks. However, we did check that this information has been translated accurately into the report.
The information and presentation of data within the Thames Water Report are the responsibility of Thames Water. This statement is the responsibility of SKM Enviros and represents our independent opinion for the report audience, and is written to be read in its entirety.
The team performing the assurance has the appropriate experience and competency to do so and are not working for Thames Water in any other capacity. SKM Enviros has a Quality Management System (QMS) which is certified to BS EN ISO9001.
Thames Water has conducted a range of stakeholder consultation activities during the year, including an annual Stakeholder Review meeting. This meeting is an opportunity for stakeholders to raise any issues that are of interest or concern about any aspect of Thames Water's business and to ensure the Corporate Responsibility report is providing them with the information they want. Thames Water also uses various other stakeholder engagement platforms ranging from stalls at public events to forums targeted at specific minority groups.
Stakeholder mapping is used for all Thames Water consultation exercises to ensure all stakeholders are identified against the issues of relevance. On each project the level of communication and stakeholder engagement required is identified.
A Capital Programme Communications Engagement working group was established in the reporting period. This group comprising staff involved in Thames Water capital delivery projects over the next 5 years meets regularly to discuss ongoing and forthcoming projects and stakeholder engagement to ensure a consistent approach and application of best practice.
It is our opinion that Thames Water is committed to being accountable to those on whom the organisation has an impact and who have an impact on it and that stakeholder participation assists Thames Water to deliver its response to sustainability. Future reports would benefit from additional evidence being presented in the report on these stakeholder engagement processes.
Thames Water has been using a sustainability materiality determination process for a number of years. This follows Institute of Accountability based methodologies to identify which sustainability issues are considered a priority. As advised last year, we believe that the process would be further strengthened by applying a similar materiality process with explicit criteria could be applied to each of the report sections to ensure the information and data are prioritised in a consistent way for each report section. The reported targets would also benefit from being clearly mapped to each of the material sustainability issues to ensure performance can be easily measured.
Thames Water responds formally to external stakeholders through the CR report and through the annual stakeholder review meeting and on specific issues as appropriate.
Thames Water engages and responds with internal stakeholders on a variety of sustainability issues through mediums such as: 'E-briefs', 'Fast News', 'Source' magazine, posters, news articles and 'team talks'. In particular, positive feedback was noted on the delivery of 'team talks' which are a new corporate brief delivered monthly by managers to all staff; this includes information on Thames Water sustainability issues. The increased publication of Thames Water's 'green' stories was also recognised as a good communication medium for responding to material issues. Further communication is planned for 2010 with development of position sheets.
We have evaluated the systems, processes, information and data used to support performance information and have been able to obtain a moderate level of assurance in respect of the majority of the data reported in the report. Difficulties were experienced in assuring some of the performance information:
Biodiversity data was held on a number of spreadsheets, by different individuals across the business; employee diversity data and supply chain data were stored on a database which was decommissioned due to the launch of a new database. This resulted in us being unable to drill down to the source of the data in both cases, as the aggregated data was the only form available.
Waste data was held on various spreadsheets and systems and owned by different individuals across the business. We were disappointed that the quality of the waste data was not significantly improved from previous years. Figures presented in the Report required amendment and we were unable to drill down to the raw data to fully assure the information, in all cases.
Thames has a written information declaration procedure in place to ensure that information is signed off as having been compiled carefully, diligently and has been subject to appropriate checks for inclusion within the Report. Closer attention is needed to this sign off process to ensure that inaccuracies in data are identified prior to onward reporting.
Develop the materiality process and guidance for future CR Report section authors to ensure consistency in prioritising issues to report together with targets within each section under the material sustainability issues.
Consider storage of waste data within a central location with an auditing system for third party data to help improve the data quality and performance measurement.
Improve recording and retention of data for water efficiency projects, biodiversity, employee diversity and supply chain data.
Improve compliance with the internal audit process required to ensure the information declaration procedure works to identify and remove inaccuracies prior to onward reporting for the CR report.
Rachel Pickering
Area Technical Lead, SKM Enviros
February 2011
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