The Stakeholder Engagement Manual Volume 2 - AccountAbility

BAT's Reporting on Stakeholder Dialogues and Assurance by Bureau Veritas
17 See also the section ‘Principles and Standards for Stakeholder Engagement’ in the introduction.
STAGE 5
In the material issues section of British American Tobacco plc’s Social Report 2004/2005, BAT reports on six topics identifi ed as
being of material interest to the Group and its stakeholders, which emerged following stakeholder dialogue internationally over three
reporting cycles. These topics are: Marketing and youth smoking prevention; Health risks and product information; Harm reduction;
Public place smoking; BAT’s primary supply chain; Excise and tackling illicit trade. The stakeholder dialogue with UK companies in
2004/2005’s social reporting cycle therefore focused on these six topics.
For each topic in this section, BAT includes in the report:
an independently compiled dialogue report and stakeholders’ comments;
all commitments made in the previous year and a report on progress.
Furthermore, each topic is prefaced by an independent commentary from the UK’s Institute of Business Ethics.
In addition to these ‘soft’ assurance mechanisms, BAT plc’s Social Report 2004/2005 report also underwent a thorough external
assurance process which is carried out by Bureau Veritas using the AA1000 Assurance Standard. Bureau Veritas employs different
symbols for different levels of assurance; the symbols mark different elements of the reports. The highest level of assurance
‘awarded’ meant that Bureau Veritas warranted that the information presented was supported by underlying evidence, the activities
had been observed by the assuror, and the activities described were aligned to the requirements of the AA1000. Audit techniques
employed by Bureau Veritas included:
Face-to-face and telephone interviews with relevant British American Tobacco personnel, both at its headquarters in the UK and at
local company level;
Reviewing of relevant systems and processes in place where available;
Detailed reviews of documentary evidence held at the British American Tobacco headquarters in London in relation to the
activity conducted there and of information relating to British American Tobacco’s responses to the points raised in dialogue;
Discussions with external parties to corroborate information where appropriate;
Attendeding all stakeholder dialogue sessions held by British American Tobacco in London; Kenya and Brussels;
Attended four consumer dialogue sessions held by British American Tobacco in the UK
Reviewing reports compiled by the independent facilitators from each UK-based and international dialogue.
Specifi cally when focusing on the use of a corporate responsibility report in
relation to stakeholder engagement, the principles of materiality, completeness
and responsiveness can be used to assess the quality of the report. Below is a
checklist that you can use to check whether your report is aligned with these
principles 17 .
THE PRACTITIONER'S HANDBOOK ON STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT | 127