uk bat.com - Independent assurance

Independent assurance

An independent review of our approach is essential to support our commitment to continuous improvement

The nature of our industry means that it is all the more important that our stakeholders can place trust in our processes and in what we report – having robust assurance plays a large part in building this trust.

Our sustainability reporting is independently assured by Ernst & Young LLP in accordance with ISAE 3000 and evaluated against the AA1000AS (2008) assurance principles of Inclusivity, Materiality and Responsiveness.

Ernst & Young LLP provides ‘limited’ assurance of the printed Sustainability Summary Report, GRI information, performance data at www.bat.com/sustainability/data  and selected pages of this website, marked with the Ernst & Young footnote.

In 2012, we were ranked second in the FTSE 350 for our approach to sustainability assurance in the annual Carbon Smart ranking of assurance practices. You can download a copy of the research report from Carbon Smart’s website .

Ernst & Young independent assurance of bat.com pages

As part of their review of our reporting, the data on the following pages of this website have also been reviewed by Ernst & Young LLP in accordance with their scope of work:

• Our Standards of Business Conduct compliance
• Local companies’ smoking and health information
• Customer satisfaction survey (last reviewed in 2010 - biennial survey)
• Group companies’ anti-illicit trade activities
• Destroying our used machinery
• Political donations
• Our economic impact
• Harm reduction
• Marketplace
• Environment
• Supply chain
• People and culture

Independent statement from Ernst & Young LLP

"As part of our process for providing assurance on British American Tobacco’s Sustainability Report 2012 we challenge the data and claims made relating to British American Tobacco’s sustainability performance.

We have reviewed the printed Summary Report, GRI information and performance data at www.bat.com/sustainability/data , as well as selected pages of bat.com. Each page of bat.com which has been reviewed by us can be identified by the sentence at the bottom of the page "The data on this page has been reviewed by Ernst & Young LLP" and the presence of our logo.

To view our conclusions and observations, or for more details, see our full assurance statement and observations and areas for improvement."

Ernst & Young LLP
March 2013
    

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