There is a group wide system for reporting and investigating accidents, dangerous occurrences and near misses. All incidents are investigated to determine the root cause. Any significant incidents are reported throughout the organisation and brought to the attention of the Board. In 2007 the reportable accident rate was 6.35 incidents per 1,000 employees (2006: 4.36).This increase was mainly due to an increase of incidents in the UK Water business due to the growth of this sector within the Environmental Management

business unit.Typically these incidents are due to back injuries from manual handling and there has also been growth in the number of road traffic accidents. Initiatives are already underway to target these areas.

Near miss reporting is an important indicator for monitoring health and safety performance.The number of minor accident and near misses reported throughout the Group has increased. This is believed to be due mainly to better reporting. However

there is still scope for improving the near miss reporting, which will be focussed on in 2008.

RPS offers clients a range of health and safety consultancy services including process safety, asbestos management, fire safety, occupational health and hygiene, safety auditing and safety engineering. RPS employees include highly qualified specialists who work on safety critical systems in the defence, nuclear, offshore, petrochemical, transport, construction and manufacturing industries.