ÌÇÐÄ̽»¨

Championing Diversity and Inclusion

Our values are embedded in how we operate and empower our people to strive towards achieving our purpose of creating A Better Tomorrowâ„¢.

Find out more:ÌýRead more about our values here

Inclusive capability building

While we do not operate under a quota and are clear that the most suitable candidate should be hired regardless of one’s gender or ethnicity for each vacancy, we provide training on inclusive hiring and require gender-balanced longlists from recruitment agencies.

Between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2024, we have hired over 5,400 individuals, 46% of whom are women, bringing new capabilities, such as data analytics, digital, sustainability, innovation, IP and science.

We seek to enhance the leadership and functional skills of our employees through aÌýrange of Learning and Development programmes. In 2024, an average of 18 hours of training were completed for over 14,500 of our Management^‡ grade employees.

We are seeking to focus on in-person training rather than virtual, which led to a reduction in the number of training hours per employee. We continued to increase the investment in learning for all employees with an average of £453 per employee, an increase on 2023.

Creating an inclusive work environment

We continue to promote positive outcomes for employees with hidden or visible disabilities and those with mental health conditions.

We launched our Neurodiversity Employee Community this summer, toÌýsupport and raise awareness for neurodivergent employees and their allies.

Disability Confident Leader

We are proud to retain our UK government-backed accreditation Disability Confident Leader (Level 3) status which remains valid until 2026. This accolade acknowledges our efforts in attracting, developing, and supporting individuals with disabilities and long-term conditions.

Listening to our workforce

We have established a range of engagement channels to better understand our employees’ perspectives. These include market visits by our Directors and Management Board members, town halls, global, functional and regional webcasts, Q&A sessions, and meetings with works councils and trade unions.

In 2024, we introduced a new employee listening framework to strengthen existing engagement channels. This includes our global Your Voice surveys, which are now conducted annually and engage approximately 40,000 employees worldwide, offering opportunities for employees to share their feedback

The results of our surveys are shared with our Board and all employees. This year, we achieved a 92% participation rate and an engagement score of 84%, a year-on-year increase of 4 percentage points, and ahead of our global FMCG comparator group by 4 percentage points. Leadership and Empowerment; Reward and Recognition; and Talent Development were identified as areas for improvement.

Engaging with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) is important to create an inclusive and representative culture. By listening to diverse perspectives we gain insights into the unique challenges and needs of our different employee communities.

Our D&I Group-wide ERGs are Women in ÌÇÐÄ̽»¨and BUnited, our LGBT+ community.

Diversity of our workforce

In 2024, 36.5% of roles on Senior Leadership teams‡Ìýand 43.5% of Management roles were held by women. As of 31 December 2024, 16,667 of our employees were women and 32,282 were men.

In addition to increasing the number of roles held by women, our aspirations focus on the diversity of nationalities and ethnicities within our workforce.

We collect voluntary ethnicity data in 15 markets and have 68.5% Ethnically Diverse5Ìýemployees in those markets.

Globally, 40% of our Board and 34.9% of our Management Board and their direct reports are Ethnically Diverse⁵Ìý. We continue to make progress against our target for 40% representation for Ethnically Diverse5Ìýgroups for the Management Board and direct reports by 2027, taking into account the UK Government Parker Review Report.

Rewarding our employees

We aim to provide responsible and fair remuneration and benefits globally. In 2024, we retained our independent accreditation from Fair Pay Workplace, for providing equal pay for work of equal value⁶Ìý.

We also maintained our global scope for the equal pay for work of equal value gender analysis, covering over 100 countries, and expanded our ethnicity analysis to include approximately 17,000 Direct Employees^‡ across eight locations, representing around 40% of our Direct Employees^‡Ìý.

We are proud of the consistency we kept year-on-year in paying men and women within 1% of each other, and Ethnically Diverse7Ìýand Non-Ethnically Diverse⁷Ìýgroups within 1% of one another for doing the same work or work of equal value.

We were independently certified by the Fair Wage Network (FWN) as a Global Living Wage employer for the second consecutive year in 2024, recognising our efforts to pay all our direct employees the applicable living wage⁸Ìý, at minimum. This review covered our direct employees in more than 100 countries.

We offer our UK employees the opportunity to share in our success through our Sharesave Scheme, Partnership Share Scheme and Share Reward Scheme, and offer several similar schemes for employees in other Group companies.

Find out more:ÌýRead more in our Diversity and Inclusion Report 2024

Our ambition is for zero accidents across the Group and to provide a safe working environment for all employees and contractors.

Our health and safety approach

Striving to maintain safety in our direct operations and beyond

Our Environment, Health and Safety Management (EHS) System, which covers 100% of our operations and includes our EHS Policy Manual, provides guidance and procedures on implementing our Health and Safety (H&S) commitments effectively.

In line with our Policy Statement and Manual, we monitor H&S performance across all our sites and a dedicated teamÌýidentifies high-risk areas that require action. More than half of the work accidents in our business operations tend to occur outside of ÌÇÐÄ̽»¨premises.

In Trade Marketing and Distribution (TM&D), where there are high risks of road traffic accidents, attacks and assaults, we manage risks through driver safety and security programmes.

In 2024, we implemented a ‘Control Tower’ model in our driver safety programme to standardise the way we track and monitor any unsafe driving behaviours. This led to an approximate 41% reduction in vehicle-related incidents compared to 2023.

In higher security-risk locations, we continually assess threats and enhance our safety protocols. This might involve limiting load values, planning routes strategically toÌýavoid predictability, and offering securityÌýescorts.

Our annual H&S compliance review is an important part of our Corporate Governance. During the review, H&S representatives visit selected sites to check compliance with our Global H&S Standards.

These reviews help us identify gaps and support continuous improvement.

The results are reported to the Corporate Audit Committee, and any non-compliance results in corrective actions

Preventing accidents

In 2024, we recorded the lowest Total Recordable Incidents Rate since 2020. In 2024, there was a 26% reduction in reported incidents, bringing them down from 99 in 2023 to 73 in 2024.

This data is supported by a 26% reduction in Lost Time Injuries compared to the same period last year, mainly driven by a reduction in vehicle-related accidents (41%); manual handling related incidents (42%); and attacks and assaults (64%). In 2024, 88% of our sites achieved zero accidents.

Where accidents do occur, each one is investigated and action plans are implemented.

The reduction was driven by improvements in H&S engagement and governance, such as:

• Increased cooperation across our business functions;
• Increased sharing of best practices across our markets; and
• Conducting more assessments for each of our top four losses (vehicle-related, slips and trips, manual handling and attacks and assaults).

Sadly, there were two fatalities in 2024, one being a member of the public and one being an independent contractor. We deeply regret this loss of life and the suffering it has caused to the families and loved ones of the deceased.

For fatalities or serious incidents, we work with the relevant authorities on their investigations. Incidents are investigated by local teams, to determine the cause, identify lessons and develop an action plan.

In 2024, we launched a key EHS training programme to eliminate health and safety losses, encourage safe behaviours, and manage BAT’s environmental impact.

The week-long, in-person training is for Health & Safety and Sustainability Managers and is hosted by the Global Health and Safety CoE. Participants receive a refresher on EHS expectations and detailed knowledge of EHS components.

The aim is to create experts who will champion compliance and safety at their sites. We plan to conduct multiple iterations of this programme across the Group in the years ahead, updating the programme with the latest EHS best practices.

Promoting employee health and wellbeing through LiveWell

At the core of our people strategy and workplace is the Group’s commitment to fostering health and wellbeing, supporting our colleagues to thrive personally and professionally.

This is embodied by LiveWell, our benefits and wellbeing platform, which has now been introduced globally. This initiative builds upon our competitive core benefits and global policies, such as Parents@BAT, aligning with our refreshed values and D&I agenda.

Our core offerings include medical, risk, and pension benefits, complemented by essential emotional and financial wellbeing support.

To address the diverse needs of our global workforce, we also encourage markets to expand benefits into emerging areas such as dependent care leave, wellbeing days, neurodiversity support, women’s health, and preventative care—where feasible.

ToÌýensure markets remain competitive and align to LiveWell, we have initiated benchmarking reviews across all key markets.

We also use data insights from claims, utilisation, and employee feedback to optimise our benefits portfolio, and elevate the overall employee experience. Clear and engaging communication remains central to these efforts.