3994/40 CSR blue artwork 36pg - Cecodes

a 

Social and environmental report 2000

Contents 

About this report 1 

Strategic overview 2 

The Barclays Group 4 

Supporting our customers 6 

Employees 12 

Community 18 

Public interest issues 22 

Environment 24 

Index

About this report 

The new millennium has seen significant changes at Barclays. We have 

welcomed our new Chief Executive Matt Barrett and our colleagues 

from The Woolwich, and have entered into a strategic alliance with 

Legal & General. 

Integral to our new business strategy is an increasing focus on corporate 

social responsibility – highlighted in our first Social Review, published 

at the end of 1999. Indicative of the priority we are giving to social and 

environmental issues are the appointments of an Equality and Diversity 

Director and an Environmental Director. 

This report combines, for the first time, details of our social and 

environmental policies and performance, and focuses primarily on our 

UK business. It outlines how we are building on previous experience to 

achieve our aim of making a positive and long-term contribution to the 

many communities we serve. In response to independent stakeholder 

evaluation of our earlier reports, the new format includes more data than 

previously published and contains a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, 

our appointed external verifiers. 

This is a step forward in delivering our commitment to more systematic 

assessment and reporting of our social and environmental performance. 

In our next report, we aim to include more data about our global activities. 

Our values 

Our values underpin everything we try to do. 

Accountability – we are answerable to our stakeholders for our actions, 

especially but not solely for the money they entrust to our care. 

Humanity – everyone we deal with must always be treated with dignity 

and respect. There are no unimportant people. 

Philanthropy – we seek to nourish the communities we serve and from 

which we ultimately hold our franchise to do business. 

Balance – we strike a proper balance in advancing the interests of our 

stakeholders whilst discharging our duty for the safety of other people’s 

money, and respecting the national interest itself. We do everything 

we can to minimise inconvenience or hardship when people are affected 

by our actions. 

Barclays social and environmental report 2000 1

Strategic overview 

2 Barclays social and environmental report 2000

Sir Peter Middleton 

Matt Barrett 

2000 was a successful year for our 

business. We showed increased 

profits, increased returns on equity 

and increased earnings per share. 

All this is not only good news for 

the company, it’s also excellent news 

for everyone who has a stake in our 

success. That includes employees, 

shareholders, customers and the 

wider communities in which we 

operate. By running a successful 

business, we are able to make a 

significant contribution to the 

economies and social fabric of the 

communities in which we operate. 

For example, we provide many 

thousands of jobs and contribute 

significant sums – £944 million in 

2000 – in taxes alone. Above all, we 

act as a powerful enabler through 

providing finance for industry, 

commerce and individuals. 

Barclays has a proud record of supporting 

projects and groups working for environmental 

improvement, the economic regeneration 

of deprived areas, the enhancement of 

community life and the inclusion into 

society of marginalised individuals. We 

support such efforts by providing funding, 

advice, hands-on assistance from employee 

volunteers and, in many cases, direct 

financial contributions through our 

community programme – one of the 

largest in the world. 

Along with the rest of the financial services 

industry, Barclays is currently operating 

in a climate of massive change. We are 

developing new strategies to ensure that 

our business continues to prosper in the 

future. At the heart of our new direction 

is a strengthened emphasis on corporate 

responsibility. Companies are increasingly 

expected to be transparent about the social 

and environmental effects of their activities, 

and to take responsibility for managing 

their impacts. We welcome this. 

We believe that an improved process 

of reporting and dialogue offers clear 

benefits not only for society but for our 

company. A responsible organisation will 

be better able to attract, retain and please 

its customers, employees, shareholders 

and suppliers. It will operate with greater 

cohesion and clearer focus. It will be 

better able to listen and respond rapidly 

to changing needs and markets. 

Responsibility, dialogue, action and 

reporting are the key elements in a virtuous 

circle by which everyone benefits. 

If you have views on how we are doing, 

please let us know. Your comments will 

help to shape our future programmes. 

Sir Peter Middleton Matt Barrett 

Chairman 

Group Chief Executive 


The Barclays Group 

Reflecting Barclays strengthened focus on the needs and interests 

of stakeholders, the Group operated in 2000 as five strategic business 

groupings, each handling a specific area of customer service. 

Barclays Capital 

The Group’s 

international 

investment banking 

business, providing 

services and products 

to customers and 

the other Group 

businesses. 

Barclaycard 

Europe’s leading credit 

card business for personal 

and corporate customers. 

Corporate 

Banking 

Banking services 

for medium to 

large companies 

and institutions, 

mainly in the UK, 

Europe, US and 

the Middle East. 

a 

Group Centre 

Group strategy, governance and 

management; Group-wide shared 

functions and services. 

Barclays Global Investors 

The world’s largest 

institutional asset manager 

for major companies and 

institutions, and a leading 

global lender of securities 

to financial institutions. 

Retail Financial Services 

Banking, investment and 

stockbroking services 

for personal and small 

business customers 

primarily in the UK; 

asset management and 

financial planning for 

affluent customers; 

Africa; The Woolwich. 

*Structure as at 31 December 2000 

Strategy in a changing market 

In the UK and around the world, the 

financial services industry is experiencing 

a time of major change which demands 

new strategies. The banking sector has to 

address a changing regulatory framework, 

fierce competition from traditional and 

new market entrants, rising customer 

expectations and new technologies that 

radically alter the way we deliver our 

products and services. 

We are responding to these challenges 

by transforming our business. Ultimately, 

this process is driven by the need to 

provide what customers want – and 

increasingly, they are choosing new kinds 

of service, including those which are 

available online. Barclays is one of the 

leaders in recognising this need, with 

extensive e-commerce services and 

1.7 million personal and small business 

customers already banking online, making 

us the UK’s leading online bank. Radical 

change of this kind inevitably brings some 

pain and problems, as the headlines 

generated by our branch closures during 

the year amply demonstrated. But we are 

obliged to make the right decisions for our 

business, while doing our best to mitigate 

any unwelcome effects. 

In brief, our strategy is to continue to 

strengthen our position as a world-leading, 

diversified financial services organisation. 


Facts and figures 

Matt Barrett’s Open Forums 

As one of his first priorities, Barclays new Chief Executive Matt 

Barrett dedicated time to meeting Barclays people across the UK, 

France, Spain, Portugal and the USA. He wanted to understand 

people’s views and concerns by inviting and answering questions 

face to face, no holds barred, and to share his vision for the 

company. More than 9,000 employees took part. 

An inclusive approach 

Equality and diversity are an integral 

part of our social responsibility – for our 

employees, our customers and the 

communities in which we work. One of 

our key objectives is that the make-up of 

our employees should represent at all levels 

the make-up of the communities we serve. 

Similarly, we seek to ensure that our 

services respond to the needs of all sectors 

of the community. 

This all makes sound business sense – 

we want to employ the best people 

regardless of their background and wish to 

ensure that we recruit, retain and develop 

employees from every segment of the 

community. Similarly, we want to ensure 

that our business appeals to all existing and 

potential customers and that they in turn are 

enabled and encouraged to use our services. 

With these aims in mind, we launched 

a Group-wide initiative last year. A senior 

steering group and a number of task 

forces were charged with helping to set the 

agenda in the areas of gender, race, disability, 

age and sexual orientation. Comprehensive 

management information has been gathered 

via focus groups, one-to-one interviews and 

a survey sent to thousands of employees. 

This will lead in 2001 to the formation of 

a full programme of activities accompanied 

by clear targets and accountabilities to 

deliver our Equality and Diversity objectives. 

Our stakeholders 

We believe that a public company such 

as Barclays exists to serve four main 

stakeholder groups: its customers, 

employees, shareholders and the 

communities in which it does business. 

• For our 20 million customers, we 

aim to deliver superior products 

and services, through technical 

and business innovation. 

• For our 75,300 employees, we aim 

to become the employer of choice, 

attracting people from all walks of 

life, without barriers to advancement. 

• For our worldwide shareholders, we 

aim to deliver attractive returns, and 

for the pension funds who invest in our 

bank we are creating wealth for those 

whose quality of life in retirement will 

depend, in part, on how well we do. 

• For the communities we serve 

worldwide, we aim to contribute 

positively for the good of all by 

maintaining our active programmes 

of practical and financial involvement. 

We also believe that in a well-managed 

company, the interests of these four groups 

are mutually reinforcing. They provide the 

primary focus for all our business activities. 

The Barclays Group 

Branch data 2000 

UK branches 2,129 

Overseas branches 624 

Financial data 

Income 

£9,598m 

Profit before tax 

£3,496m 

Dividend per share 

58p 

Earnings per share 163.3p 

Total assets 

£316,190m 


Supporting our 

customers 

Barclays has 20 million customers from 

schoolchildren to pensioners, small 

businesses to global companies and 

institutions. They have widely differing 

needs – and today have a greater choice 

of service providers than ever before, 

from traditional banking organisations 

to the latest online one-product 

companies. If we do not serve their 

needs effectively, there is little doubt 

they will find alternative providers. 

In this highly competitive climate, 

our strategy is both to provide 

excellent products and services 

and to ensure they are accessible. 

Throughout our business, we 

will continue to make our 

contribution to economic 

sustainability and 

development; in our 

view, social responsibility 

and good business 

practice are inseparable. 


New high-street focus 

The ‘Focus on Ford and Pallion’ regeneration project aims to revive a depressed area of 

Sunderland. Its current base in a local primary school has been a barrier to easy access 

for local residents, for security reasons. On visiting the project, Barclays Social Banking 

team was struck by the enthusiasm and commitment of the local people, and has helped 

to facilitate the resiting of the project to our former high-street premises in Pallion. 

This new location will provide a much better focal point for the project. 

Making our products and 

services accessible 

We have a long-standing commitment to 

provide services through leading-edge 

technology. In the UK, we were the first 

bank on the internet and are now the UK’s 

leading online bank, with 1.7 million 

personal and small business online 

customers. Online banking gives customers 

and small investors the opportunity to 

conduct financial transactions safely in 

their own time, at home, with advice, news 

and support at their fingertips if they need 

it. Telephone banking has also been taken 

up enthusiastically, with over 1.2 million 

customers registered for Barclaycall by 

the end of 2000. 

Barclaycard was the first UK credit 

card on the internet and now has 388,000 

personal customers using its online 

account services. Internet shopping is 

growing apace, but many people are 

still worried about shopping on the net. 

To alleviate their security concerns, 

Barclaycard has published an online 

promise to guarantee all online purchases. 

All our corporate managers are now 

‘location independent’. Equipped with 

laptop computers and mobile phones, 

they spend around 70% of their time 

at customers’ premises. This more 

personal approach gives them a better 

understanding of the customer’s business. 

Bank access through other channels 

Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) provide 

a further example of how technology can 

increase customer choice. We now have 

over 3,800 ATMs around the UK, of which 

some 730 are in locations remote from 

bank branches, including supermarkets, 

railway stations and local shops. We do not 

charge any cardholder a fee for use of our 

ATM network. 

In 2000, we signed a deal with The 

Post Office giving our customers access to 

personal banking at post offices in England 

and Wales – over 15,000 extra outlets for 

day-to-day banking such as cash and cheque 

deposits and cheque cashing, giving added 

customer choice and convenience. 

The branch network 

As customer needs change and technology 

advances, we must reshape our distribution 

network accordingly. Fundamental changes 

in the usage of our branches led to the highly 

publicised closure of 171 branches in 2000. 

There were economic reasons for those 

closures. As customers increasingly bank 

in different ways or choose to hold their 

accounts where they shop or work, usage 

of branches has altered significantly, in 

some cases making them unsustainable. 

However, we acknowledge that our handling 

of this decision left room for improvement. 

Whenever we make difficult choices in the 

future, we will work to ensure that we 

minimise inconvenience or hardship. 

Following these branch closures, we 

received a number of approaches from 

affected communities requesting use of 

our vacant premises for a wide range of 

activities. We are now working with several 

of these communities to realise their plans. 

Financial exclusion 

In a world where access to financial 

services is considered by many to be 

a basic requirement, a significant minority 

of people find themselves marginalised and 

disadvantaged. Barclays has an important 

role to play in reaching these people. 

In October 2000, we launched a basic 

current account for people who might find 

it difficult to open a traditional account, 

perhaps because they have no financial 

track record or because they are concerned 

about the possibility of going into debt. 

Barclays Cash Card account provides the 

banking essentials including a cash card, 

direct debit facilities and automated credit 

transfer for receiving wages or benefits. 

Crucially, there is no opportunity to go 

overdrawn, beyond a £10 buffer zone that 

enables people to withdraw their last £1 

from the cash machine. By the end of 2000, 

we had opened over 17,000 accounts. 

The Money Laundering Regulations 

require banks to check a potential account 

holder’s identification and address. Not 

everyone can produce a driving licence, 

passport or utility bill, so we now accept 

other documents such as TV licence, child 

benefit book and birth certificate or Council 

Tax bills. 

There are many cases where the best 

results will be delivered through partnership 

with other organisations, which can often 

reach people and communities that we 


Asking the customer 

We distributed 3.4 million leaflets to customers, inviting those with disabilities to tell us 

what they want. Over 1,500 responses came in and many customers were clearly unaware 

that we could meet some or all of their needs immediately. 54% of respondents asked 

about the availability of information in Braille, large print or audio formats; 28% needed 

special access to branch premises; 6% were concerned about access to cash machines. 

cannot. Partnerships and alliances can range 

from those on a national scale like The Post 

Office to much more localised initiatives. 

Salford Money Line, for example, was 

launched in December 2000 by Barclays, 

the City of Salford, the University of Salford 

and several community partners. It aims to 

provide loans for people and small businesses 

who, for a variety of reasons, cannot access 

credit directly from other sources. It also 

helps people without an account to open 

a Barclays Cash Card account. 

Whilst the majority of people are 

able to access banking services easily and 

conveniently, we recognise that this is not 

the case for everyone. In order to enhance 

our understanding of the difficulties that 

these people face, we, and a number of 

other banks, co-funded a study into how 

people and small businesses conduct their 

banking without a branch. The research 

showed that the vast majority of people 

and small businesses had no difficulty in 

accessing their local branch, even if they 

lived some distance away. However, for 

a small minority including older people, 

people with disabilities and those caring for 

small children, the difficulties of reaching a 

branch were very real and acute. As a result 

of the research, we are now participating in 

a working group of the British Bankers’ 

Association to investigate solutions. 

Access for customers with disabilities 

We are committed to providing full access 

to our products and services for people 

with disabilities, in support of the disability 

legislation. We have an ongoing programme 

of improvements and enhancements 

designed to give disabled people the choice 

and control they expect and deserve. 

In the first phase of an extensive 

branch refurbishment programme, we 

have set aside some £18 million to improve 

access for disabled people in 475 of our 

branches. Subject to planning permission, 

the refurbished branches will provide: 

• level or ramped access and 

power-assisted doors 

• hearing-induction loops at all 

counter positions 

• low-level counters and writing surfaces 

• better lighting and clearer signage. 

Customers with visual impairment can 

elect to receive bank statements, letters 

and information in Braille, large print or 

(for selected items) audio tape. We 

provide templates to help in writing 

cheques, credit slips, addresses and 

signatures, and banknote gauges to help 

identify different denominations. We have 

also introduced new cash machines with 

clearer screens, raised keys and funnelled 

card entry slots. 

For customers with hearing or 

speech impairment, we provide textphone 

and Typetalk access to all customer areas 

of Barclays. At every branch there is at 

least one counter position with an 

induction loop for hearing-aid users and 

a portable induction-loop system to assist 

with discussions away from the counter or 

in interview rooms. For complex discussions 

we can arrange for a professional signlanguage 

interpreter to be present. 

One of the keys to providing a quality 

service for people with disabilities is the 

knowledge, attitude and approach of our 

customer-facing employees. We began 

disability awareness training for employees 

in May 1996 and completed further 

follow-up training in 1999 as part of a 

continuing programme. Consultation 

with our customers is an ongoing process 

(see Asking the customer, above). 

Economic development and 

regeneration 

Barclays is committed to playing its part in the 

economic regeneration of the UK’s poorest 

regions. We are working with many partners 

to help create competitive, inclusive and 

sustainable urban and regional economies. 

Helping small businesses 

Small businesses are the bedrock of 

national economies and an important 

source of innovation and growth. We 

have a long tradition of strong support 

for small businesses, from providing 

advice and training to arranging finance 

for establishment and growth. 

We currently spend £450,000 a year 

on a programme to promote economic 

regeneration. Part of this is focused on 

our seminar sponsorship programme, 

aimed at start-ups and small businesses. 

The themes of these seminars – some 

1,400 during 2000 – cover a variety of 

issues such as starting up in business, 

women in business, business planning, 

marketing and online banking. 


In spring 2000, we joined forces with the 

National Federation of Enterprise Agencies 

(NFEA) to run a nationwide programme 

of 397 ‘Start Right’ seminars. Aimed at 

individuals considering or in the early 

stages of running their own business, the 

events reached some 10,000 potential 

entrepreneurs. In view of its success, ‘Start 

Right’ will continue to run in 2001 when we 

expect to increase the number of seminars 

held in deprived areas. 

Many companies have already changed 

their business model to make their products 

and services available through electronic 

channels – but small businesses, in 

particular, often do not have the time or 

expertise to do this. To support businesses 

in adapting, we have produced a free 

business guide, E-commerce made e@sy. 

In 2000, we also launched an internet 

portal to provide information, advice and 

e-commerce facilities for small businesses, 

Clearlybusiness.com, in a joint venture 

with Freeserve. 

We have been selected as the preferred 

lender – with a proposed commitment 

of £63.79 million – to the Objective One 

Alliance, a European-funded regeneration 

programme, which will create a loan fund 

for small and medium-sized businesses 

in each of the four Objective One areas. 

We are now exploring how we can become 

involved in other regeneration initiatives. 

Young people are often the founders 

of small and micro enterprises. Since 1986, 

Barclays has been a major supporter of The 

Prince’s Trust, which helps young people 

starting businesses who find it difficult to 

obtain funding elsewhere. Many of our 

Small Business staff act as Trust mentors, 

an excellent way for them to develop 

personally and to understand the challenges 

faced by disadvantaged start-ups. Currently, 

we also have five secondees in The Prince’s 

Trust, nine staff representatives on the Boards 

of local Trust offices and a further 18 acting 

as panel members. 

Community investment 

Barclays welcomes Government efforts 

to encourage investment in under-invested 

communities, particularly the Phoenix 

Fund and the proposal for a Community 

Investment Tax Credit. We recognise 

the important contribution that small 

enterprises make to their local economies 

and the difficulties that some may face in 

accessing credit. Whilst we cannot always 

accept the risk inherent in every request for 

finance, we can help through partnerships 

with community development financial 

institutions (CDFIs), which are ideally 

placed to act as intermediaries. We already 

support several CDFIs such as the Aston 

Reinvestment Trust, Salford Money Line 

and the Local Investment Fund. 

Barclays has recently agreed a £1 

million loan at a preferential rate to 

Investors in Society, the community finance 

arm of the Charities Aid Foundation, to 

enable them to provide competitive finance 

for charity and micro-finance projects 

across the country. 

Africa Online 

The internet revolution is a global phenomenon 

of potential benefit to all communities. Early in 

2000, we announced an alliance with Africa’s 

largest internet provider, Africa Online, to open 

a number of internet cafés across sub-Saharan 

Africa. These will provide internet access for 

customers and non-customers, with help on 

hand to encourage people to build up skills 

and confidence in using the technology. We 

will also run educational programmes, helping 

to bring the e-world to African communities. 

Research updates 

During 2000 we 

published a research 

report on the issues 

and challenges faced 

by ethnic minority 

business owners. 

The survey updates our 

1996 review and is intended to help all 

those involved to understand how we can 

help them recognise their full potential. 

We also published a further research report 

into women in business, looking at the 

motivations, issues and challenges they 

face in running their own enterprise. 

These reports are available on our website at 

www.businesspark.barclays.com/reviews.html 


Speedier resolution 

We have been working with other high-street banks and money advisers such as the 

Citizens Advice Bureaux to find ways to ease the problems of customers in financial 

difficulty. One example is a standard form of financial statement for use by advisers when 

negotiating repayments. This is now being piloted and, if successful, should help customers 

by enabling money advisers and lenders to reach an agreed solution more quickly. 

Barclays Business Banking Support for Deprived Areas in the UK in 2000 

of which, in 

December 2000 (except *) All-Barclays deprived areas % Share 

Number of Business Current Accounts 731,000 32,593 4.45 

% in Overdraft 20.4 38.9 8.51 

Number of Business Deposit Accounts 339,000 15,363 4.53 

Number of Loans 145,000 6,194 4.27 

Loans & OD Balances (£m) 8,900 340 3.82 

Deposit and Current A/C Balances (£m) 10,900 405 3.71 

Number of Business Starts in 2000* 85,649 9,474 11.06 

% starts to December 2000 Stock 11.7 29.1 

Ratio Savings to Lending 1.22 1.19 

These results support the general conclusion of the recent Bank of England report into financing 

firms in deprived areas; compared to the all-Barclays data, firms in these communities appear to 

have broadly equal access to business banking services. Barclays had loans and overdrafts 

outstanding in deprived areas totalling £340 million at the end of 2000, only slightly lower than 

deposit and current account balances from the same communities. Moreover, Barclays extended 

overdraft facilities to a higher proportion of customers in deprived areas than in the customer base 

as a whole. In addition, start-up activity was high in the deprived areas. 

Barclays Retail Support for Deprived Areas in the UK in 2000 

of which, in 

December 2000 All-Barclays deprived areas % Share 

Number of Customers with a Current Account 8,280,000 407,428 4.92 

% in Overdraft 12.1 13.8 5.57 

Number of Customers with a Cash Card Account 17,819 1,769 9.93 

Number of Customers with a Deposit Account 3,720,000 213,420 5.74 

Number of Customers with an Unsecured Loan 1,032,000 60,340 5.85 

Unsecured Loans and Overdrafts (£m) 6,812 431 6.33 

Mortgage Lending (£m) 16,800 715 4.26 

Deposit and Current Account Balances (£m) 27,797 1,079 3.88 

Ratio Savings to Lending 1.18 0.94 

The above data shows that, on average, personal customers living in deprived areas are likely to 

hold more products – loans, overdrafts and savings accounts – than the average UK customer. 

The average balance for deposit and current accounts held in deprived areas was lower than the 

all-Barclays average, whilst the loan balances were, on average, higher. In deprived areas, Barclays 

had loans, overdrafts and mortgages outstanding totalling £1,146 million compared with slightly 

lower current account and savings balances of £1,079 million. 

Disclosure 

In October 2000, the Social Investment 

Task Force issued its report, Enterprising 

communities: wealth beyond welfare. 

Recommendation 3 states ‘there is scope 

for a step change in the role of banks in 

under-invested communities’ – and that 

in order to incentivise and monitor this 

step change, banks should provide 

detailed information about their lending 

in such communities. 

The Bank of England Report Finance 

for Small Business in Deprived Communities 

dated November 2000 provided a benchmark 

for the banking industry against which future 

progress can be assessed. The reporting 

of our own activities in under-invested 

communities in the UK (as defined by the 

Bank of England) for both small business 

and personal customers, demonstrates 

a commitment to benchmarking our own 

performance in this area (see tables). 

Supporting our socially motivated 

corporate customers 

Our specialist Housing Association Unit 

offers finance to UK registered social 

landlords (RSLs). These are virtually the 

sole providers of new housing at affordable 

rents to the unemployed and low paid. We 

currently provide loans to RSLs totalling 

£1.6 billion, in many cases to build housing 

in economically depressed areas. Recent 

examples include £7.5 million of funding to 

an RSL in Salford and £6 million to another 

on Teesside. 

Barclays UK Charities Team provides 

high-quality banking support and expertise 

to the UK charity sector. The team works 

closely with organisations such as the 



Training the advisers 

The Money Advice Training and Development Unit in Cardiff, part 

of the Citizens Advice Bureaux, coordinates training and provides 

specialist support for money advisers throughout Wales. Barclays 

currently provides the main support for this unit, in a six-year 

commitment totalling over £670,000. 

Charity Finance Directors’ Group, 

Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary 

Organisations and National Council of 

Voluntary Organisations, enabling us to 

provide support based on in-depth 

appreciation of current issues. We hold 

seminars throughout the year focused on 

topical developments for charities and 

have recently included e-commerce and its 

associated risks, the implications of corporate 

governance on charities and the opportunities 

presented by electronic procurement and 

business-to-business transactions. 

Responsible lending 

Barclays believes that responsible lending 

starts with ensuring that we provide 

customers with appropriate information 

about our products and services. The 

customer’s ability to repay is then checked 

carefully. Credit scoring is used as an aid to 

responsible lending, and Barclays uses this 

technique to assess potential borrowers 

before providing them with credit. When 

offering mortgages, our aim is to keep 

repossessions low by careful assessment 

of a customer’s ability to meet their 

monthly repayment. We do not normally 

lend high multiples of income or 100% 

of the valuation of the property. 

If, despite our best efforts, customers 

do experience financial difficulties, our aim 

is to be flexible, sympathetic and realistic. 

We offer a range of options, depending on 

the circumstances. These include: 

• allowing extra time for customers 

to bring their accounts back into order 

• a temporary reduction of loan 

or mortgage repayments 

• temporarily suspending loan repayments 

• arranging the payment of interest only 

• extending the term of a mortgage. 

We also help customers in financial 

difficulties seek independent specialist 

advice and practical help where appropriate. 

This often involves working with consumer 

support groups such as the local Citizens 

Advice Bureaux, National Debtline or the 

Consumer Credit Counselling Service. 

We support many of these agencies 

through providing annual funding and 

support for research. We are a founder 

member of the Money Advice Working 

Group at the British Bankers’ Association 

and the original sponsor and leading 

supporter of the Consumer Credit 

Counselling Service. We are also supporting 

the recent nationwide expansion of 

Business Debtline, which provides money 

advice and debt counselling for small 

businesses in financial difficulty. 

Crime and security 

Barclays goes to great lengths to prevent 

the misuse of our services for fraud and 

money laundering. In 2000, total UK losses 

for all banks from plastic card fraud reached 

a new high of £293 million. Almost half of 

this was from counterfeiting, which is being 

countered by the development of microchip 

cards. All Barclaycards will be of this type by 

the end of 2001. Other initiatives include 

our Falcon 2000 knowledge-based system 

which daily identifies and prevents many 

fraudulent transactions. We also consider 

the security of our internet banking services 

to be of paramount importance and we 

use leading-edge security mechanisms 

including the most effective encryption 

commercially available. 

Our customers 

Retail Financial Services 2000 

Retail Customers 

Current account customers 8.3m 

Savings account customers 4.2m 

Customers registered for telephone banking 1.2m 

Customers registered for online banking 1.7m 

Small business customers 440,000 

The Woolwich 

Open Plan customers 544,000 

Wealth Management 

Continental European customers 313,000 

Barclaycard 

Barclaycard UK customers 7.9m 

Barclaycards issued overseas 1.2m 

Customers registered for online services 388,000 

Retailer relationships 81,000 

Corporate banking 

Number of UK Corporate Banking connections 113,600 

Customers registered for electronic banking 43,000 

Barclaycard 

• Almost one in four credit cards in the UK is a Barclaycard. 

• Around half of Barclaycard holders repay their bills in full 

each month, thereby incurring no interest charges. 

• The average repayment time is three to four months. 

• We only raise credit limits if a customer’s overall 

financial circumstances justify it. 

Total funding for money advice support 

1997 £710,000 

1998 £870,000 

1999 £1,050,000 

2000 £1,300,000 


Employees 

Being an ‘employer of choice’ 

Barclays understands that, in great 

companies, motivated employees 

provide excellent service to satisfied 

customers – and all stakeholders 

benefit as a result. We want Barclays to 

be one of the most modern, progressive 

organisations with sound human 

values and opportunities for reward, 

success and career development. 


The year 2000 saw intense activity at 

Barclays to develop a high-performance 

culture and a meritocracy which is open 

to all. We are overhauling our human 

resources policies, in partnership with 

our UK union, UNIFI, and putting in place 

many progressive policies with particular 

emphasis on training and development, 

equality and diversity, flexible working, 

and performance-related pay. 

Equality and diversity 

Barclays equality and diversity initiative 

covers every aspect of our activities. As part 

of this work, we are putting renewed focus 

on achieving equality and employee 

diversity at Barclays, building on many 

years of developing progressive equal 

opportunities policies in the UK. To 

establish our baseline, during 2000 we 

completed a Group-wide process to gather 

comprehensive management information, 

including focus groups, interviews and 

a survey sent to a sample of 10,000 

employees, seeking their views on current 

experiences and future priorities in this area. 

We have appointed a senior executive 

as Equality and Diversity Director to lead 

a core team and diversity champions, 

establishing working groups for specific 

issues such as gender, age, race, disability 

and sexual orientation. Our purpose is to 

set priorities, establish clear targets and 

accountabilities for improvement and 

measure progress. We will report on 

these more fully in our next report. In this 

context, we have recently reviewed our 

policies to ensure that employees are 

supported in achieving a balance between 

their home lives and their work for Barclays. 

We are now proud to be able to offer a range 

of policies that go beyond the requirements 

of the law. For many people, bringing up 

a family is one of the most important (and 

expensive) aspects of their lives. Our support 

measures now put us among the leading 

companies in this area. Maternity pay, for 

women with more than one year’s service, 

includes six weeks’ full pay plus twelve 

weeks at a reduced rate and a return bonus 

equivalent to a top-up of twelve weeks at 

half pay. Holiday entitlement continues to 

accrue during all periods of leave, giving 

an additional eight days’ holiday for the 

average maternity leave of seven months. 

Couples who work for Barclays can swap 

maternity leave between them – for example, 

the mother may return to work early and her 

partner take any remaining leave. 

We have extended parental leave 

eligibility to include all parents (with more 

than one year’s service) of children under 

five. We also offer paid carer leave – 

whether for child care or other family 

responsibilities – of up to five days per 

year, and responsibility and career break 

schemes of up to six months and two 

years respectively, which allow employees 

to take time off to care for dependants or 

bring up their children. 


Sharing the load 

Relationship Directors Nicki Thomson and 

Maria Cussell each work a three-day week, 

sharing a job and splitting the benefits and 

workload. Both are ‘location independent’ 

but meet each week to keep up to date 

on work in progress. Their customer 

portfolio is split down the middle; each 

introduces the other to her customers as 

a ‘shadow’ manager, for when the principal 

contact is unavailable. The job share gives 

Maria time to look after her two children 

and study for an MBA; Nicki can devote 

time to her three-year-old daughter and 

pursue her other interests. Customer 

Raymond Pollock says: “It’s rare to meet 

two such high-calibre individuals. I’m 

getting two brains for the price of one.” 

Towards flexible working 

Advances in technology mean that an everincreasing 

number of our employees are 

choosing to work from home or on the 

move. The number of people who job share 

or work part-time also continues to grow. 

We are committed to creating a culture 

where merit prevails and everyone has an 

equal opportunity for responsibility and 

promotion whatever working pattern is used. 

There is still work to be done, and we will 

continue to build on our progress so far. 

Partnership with UNIFI 

We have worked hard with our union, 

UNIFI, over recent years to improve 

employment policies for Barclays employees. 

This culminated in the signing of a groundbreaking 

partnership agreement in 2000, 

which provides an important behavioural 

framework for working together. This 

initiative has been recognised by the 

Department for Trade and Industry, who 

selected our partnership for funding by 

the Partnership Fund. The General Secretary 

of UNIFI, Ed Sweeney, said: “We have 

a chance to build a long-lasting and 

meaningful relationship with Barclays that 

will be a shining example to the industry.” 

Barclays and UNIFI will continue to 

work together to embed these principles. 

We have established a number of 

partnership working groups to tackle 

specific issues including performance 

management, reward, local union 

representation and flexible working. 

The partnership arrangement has already 

resulted in a three-year pay deal, agreed 

human resources policies for managing 

change, a new health and safety policy, 

revised disciplinary and grievance 

procedures and resourcing. Training 

of managers and trade union officials 

is now under way to help ensure that 

the partnership works throughout the 

organisation. In the UK, partnership 

forums are now being set up within 

Barclays individual businesses. 

Employee feedback 

We take the views and opinions of our 

people seriously and invest considerable 

time and effort in ensuring that our 

employee feedback is accurate and topical. 

Opinion surveys enable employees 

throughout the organisation to express 

their views freely and confidentially. 

Recently identified key concerns of retail 

financial services staff were that 

management should deliver on its 

promises, take action on staff surveys, tell 

employees about strategies and activities, 

and remove barriers between contact 

centres and branches. Respondents also 

stressed the importance of offering 

top-quality products and services. 

The latest survey of our employees 

providing services for business customers 

showed high levels of confidence in the 

strategy, leadership, equal opportunities 

and business results – in some cases 

the results were higher than the ‘norm’ 


Industrial relations 

Barclays Group European Forum (BGEF) comprises 38 employee representatives from the nine 

EU member countries where Barclays operates. The BGEF meets annually to discuss significant 

transnational issues such as the Group’s business and financial performance, strategic issues 

and employment trends. We have also launched a Pan-Africa Union Forum, the first of its kind 

in Africa. We see this as a catalyst for improved employee relations, enabling us to provide a 

more stable environment at a time of considerable business change. 

for high-performing UK companies. 

Employees did however express concerns, 

in particular about job security, staff loyalty, 

and the need for improved induction for 

new colleagues. Action plans are in place 

to build on the results and address 

colleagues’ concerns. 

We reported the results of the employee 

feedback in our employee newsletter along 

with our responses and details of actions 

being taken. Employee opinions are tracked 

quarterly so we always have up-to-date 

knowledge of views and feelings. We 

continually run employee focus groups to 

help us to understand the reasons behind 

survey findings and to stay abreast of key 

business issues. 

During 2000, we held our first pan- 

African employee survey which produced a 

high response rate (65%) and was generally 

positive. We are now planning and mobilising 

an action agenda with activities coordinated 

both centrally and locally. 

Training and development 

Barclays total training budget for 2000 was 

over £70 million. This represents £933 per 

employee, compared with about £700 for 

the banking sector as a whole and 

£400–500 for specialist providers. About 

£20 million of our budget is spent externally. 

We are in the process of establishing 

Barclays University, with the support and 

involvement of UNIFI, to promote training 

and development for Barclays employees 

through both the latest e-learning 

opportunities and traditional face-to-face 

learning. It is our intention in future to consider 

how we can extend this initiative to family 

members and the wider community. 

In 2000, we invested in a leading-edge 

suite of online intranet and internet-based 

tools to facilitate the continued selfdevelopment 

of our employees. The 

Development Toolkit is accessed from 

a desktop PC and the system helps 

individuals to identify areas of strength 

and those which would benefit from further 

development. Equipped with this greater 

level of self-understanding, colleagues are 

encouraged to explore solutions to address 

their identified needs. The Toolkit then helps 

the individual to think about how they might 

use their knowledge to create value for the 

customer, the business and themselves. 

We are proud of the level of facilitated selfdevelopment 

that this offers. We plan to 

extend the Toolkit – initiated in key parts of 

our business – as part of Barclays 

University during the next twelve months. 

In addition, we have developed a 

comprehensive Induction Programme for 

new recruits into Barclays. The emphasis 

is on valuing and motivating individuals, 

ensuring they know about our business, 

our culture and our employment policies, 

so that they build a strong and early 

commitment to the company. 

Recruitment 

Wherever possible, Barclays looks to fill 

vacancies through internal recruitment. In 

accordance with our partnership agreement 

with UNIFI, preference is given to any 

internal candidate meeting the criteria 

whose current position is at risk of falling 

away due to restructuring. Skills gaps can 

often be addressed through training. 

Considerable emphasis is put on 

attracting applications from as diverse a 

talent pool as possible, including ethnic 

minorities and people with disabilities. 

To ensure that positions are adapted to 

candidates from a range of backgrounds, 

our working practices are being made more 

flexible, including greater use of job-share 

and part-time work arrangements. 

After a selection process largely based 

on competence assessment, our policy is to 

give candidates quality feedback to ensure 

that the process has been a useful and 

informative experience for all. 

Our graduate development programme, 

the Business Leadership Programme, 

accepted 113 new recruits during 2000, with 

a balanced 50:50 gender split and 17% from 

ethnic minorities. Trainees come from a wide 

range of European universities and a 

number are recruited through the Barclays 

internship programme, which offers 10-week 

summer holiday contracts to final-year 

undergraduates, to give them a flavour 

of working in a commercial environment. 

This contributed to Barclays being voted the 

26th most desirable recruiter in The Times 

High Flyers Top 1000 survey in 2000. 


Release the Power 

In 2000, Barclays began a major cultural 

change programme called ‘Release the 

Power’, aimed at exploring ways of giving 

our customers and the communities we 

serve the best possible service and 

experience of Barclays. 

During 2000, some 10,000 employees 

attended brand awareness events 

called the Big Day, and 2000 leaders 

took part in leadership development 

programmes called the Big Step and the 

Transformational Leadership Programme. 

Release the Power continues through 2001 

with 45,000 people invited to attend. These 

events constitute the most ambitious 

culture change programme that Barclays 

has ever undertaken. For those who have 

attended the events and who have taken 

what they have learnt back to their work, it 

is already beginning to make a difference. 

Ian Ross was one of the facilitators at the 

Big Step event. Ian said, “I loved the role I 

played in these events because I could see 

the difference the events made to the way 

colleagues saw themselves and our 

organisation.” 

Welfare, pay and pensions 

Health and safety 

As an organisation, Barclays recognises 

that good health and safety is good for 

business and competitiveness, benefiting 

customers as well as employees. 

We are committed to taking a 

strategic, holistic approach to reducing 

workplace accidents and promoting safer 

and healthier working, with greater focus 

on prevention and proactive management 

of the environment and workforce. 

A guide, launched at the end of 1999, 

was the first step in changing how people 

think of health and safety. Entitled Taking 

care of each other: a Guide to Health and 

Safety, the guide introduced a new policy 

statement, clearer accountabilities and 

responsibilities and some new procedures. 

We have established with UNIFI a joint 

working group on health and safety to focus 

specifically on training, risk assessment 

and the role of the union’s health and 

safety representatives. Health and safety 

training was delivered to around 29,000 

employees, with further training planned 

for contact centre employees and for those 

working in head office buildings during 2001. 

Counselling 

Barclays understands that our employees 

may sometimes be faced with situations 

where it would help them to talk through 

issues and concerns with someone outside 

the organisation. We offer a professional 

and fully comprehensive counselling 

service which provides free support and 

advice to individuals on a completely 

confidential basis. The service focuses 

particularly on stress and on dealing with 

the after-effects of traumatic incidents, 

and is available 24 hours a day, seven 

days a week. We recently extended it 

to employees’ family members as well. 

Discipline and grievances 

In June 2000, we introduced new discipline 

and grievance procedures, developed in 

association with UNIFI. These are designed 

to be fair and easy to understand and 

follow, and should enable us to provide 

a speedy response to problems. We believe 

it is also the responsibility of everyone 

concerned to ensure that the spirit, as well 

as the letter, of our policies and procedures 

is followed, in a timely manner and an 

open atmosphere. 

Whistle blowing 

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 

protects employees who speak out about 

malpractice in the workplace. 

We value all constructive feedback 

from our employees and act upon it 

wherever possible to improve the way we 

do business, in respect of both customers 

and employees. We also accept that, even 

with the best of intentions, things can 

sometimes go wrong and our ‘Raising 

Concerns’ policy actively encourages 

individuals to tell us when they believe 

this is the case, on a confidential basis if 

necessary. All concerns are treated seriously. 



Redeployment Clubs 

To help our employees with disabilities when they need to move to a new role 

within Barclays, we have created a Redeployment Club to offer tailored support 

and guidance through skills workshops. These three-day sessions offer the 

opportunity to acquire or practise relevant skills, with a follow-up mock assessment 

day for the participants. RNIB consultant Jan Nesbitt, who works alongside our own 

trainers, comments: “This is a really good and very worthwhile initiative by Barclays.” 

14 employees have already achieved success either in passing assessments or 

obtaining new roles within Barclays. 

Remuneration policy 

In a service industry such as ours, high 

customer satisfaction levels are achieved 

only through a thoroughly competent, 

highly committed and productive 

workforce. As part of a general review 

of our human resources policies and 

programmes, we are implementing more 

progressive performance-related pay 

policies for all levels. We are committed 

to creating a culture at Barclays where 

reward and the chance for responsibility 

and promotion depend on merit and 

merit alone, in line with our strategy to 

promote diversity and equal opportunity 

throughout the organisation. 

The pay received by our senior 

executives is also aligned to their 

performance in meeting company goals. 

Under our new arrangements, the level of 

individual remuneration is highly dependent 

upon demanding performance targets. 

Share ownership 

We encourage employee share ownership 

at all levels of the organisation, so that our 

employees may share directly in the success 

of their organisation. For almost 20 years, 

employees have been able to buy shares at 

discounted rates under the Save As You 

Earn scheme. 80% of eligible employees 

participate. We have recently extended 

eligibility to include all UK employees 

employed immediately prior to the 

annual invitation as well as employees 

in other countries where similar tax 

incentives are available. 

In addition, for the past 21 years we have 

offered UK employees a Governmentsponsored 

profit-sharing scheme. Due to 

Government changes to the way this scheme 

operates, 2000 was the last year we offered 

it – but we are determined that employees 

will continue to be rewarded in line with 

our business performance, and work is under 

way to find other ways of achieving this. 

Pensions and pensioners 

All current employees can join Barclays 

Bank UK Retirement Fund. Since 1 July 

1997, all eligible new employees have been 

invited to join the Retirement Investment 

Scheme, to which they and Barclays 

contribute. The Pension Fund Advisory 

Committee is a vehicle for members to raise 

issues and concerns. This committee’s 

elected membership comprises six 

employees, two pensioners and four 

UNIFI representatives, with a Chairman 

and Secretary appointed by Barclays. 

People retired from Barclays can get 

help in a variety of ways from the welfare 

team. Financial assistance is available 

through a number of charitable trusts – for 

example, to help with nursing home fees or 

a one-off purchase such as a wheelchair. 

The team can also provide information and 

act as a point of contact for organisations 

such as Age Concern and the Citizens 

Advice Bureaux. 

Being an ‘employer of choice’ 

UK Employment statistics 2000 

Total UK employees 57,000 

(Total employees worldwide 75,300) 

Employee turnover 9.6% 

Average days absent 9.8 

Women in Barclays 

Percentage of all employees 67.3% 

Percentage of senior managers 26.3% 

Percentage of senior executives 10.3% 

Health and safety 

(Year July–June) 2000 

Minor accidents and near misses 3,120 

Reported accidents 197 

Pensions 

Barclays Bank UK Retirement Fund active members 55,000 

Current pensioners 33,000 

Training 

Total training budget over £70m 

What our employees think 

During 2000 we asked our employees how they view 

Barclays social, ethical and environmental performance. 

In your opinion, is Barclays an environmentally 

responsible company? 

Favourable Don’t Know Unfavourable 

Retail 52%* 31%* 18%* 

Business 49%* 38%* 12%* 

In your opinion, is Barclays a socially responsible 

company? 

Favourable Don’t Know Unfavourable 

Retail 54% 22% 24% 

Business 60%* 30%* 11%* 

*Scores will add up to 100% plus or minus 1% due to rounding. 

Our target for the coming year will be to build on the 

‘favourable’ percentages and reduce the ‘don’t know’ 

and ‘unfavourable’ responses. 


Community 

Working together 

Barclays has one of the biggest 

community programmes in the world, 

with a spend in 2000 of £26.3 million, 

making us one of the top corporate 

contributors. We are very proud of our 

long-standing community involvement, 

believing that this is what both our 

employees and our customers want 

and expect of us. The integration of our 

programme into our overall business 

aims is a key part of our future strategy. 

“We do not see our social responsibilities 

as conflicting with business objectives, 

neither do we see them as an add-on … 

supporting the wider community helps 

to define who we are and how we differ 

from our competitors. We see our role 

as a good corporate citizen as helping 

to build a stronger business.” 

Sir Peter Middleton, Chairman 


Community and Diversity Awards 

We celebrate the positive impact which 

individuals and teams in Barclays have made 

in their local communities through our own 

annual Community and Diversity Awards. 

Sultana Kimti (left), 2000 winner for her 

work with Asian businesses in Leicester. 

Range of activities 

Our community programme includes a 

wide range of activities from volunteering 

to fundraising. Most of our larger 

programmes are delivered in partnership 

with charities and community organisations. 

Our broad aims are to deliver genuine and 

long-lasting benefit to our community 

partners, to benefit the Barclays employees 

who take part and to help build a healthy 

social and economic environment in which 

to do business. Our five key areas of 

interest are: 

• Education 

• Environment 

• Arts 

• People with disabilities 

• Socially disadvantaged people. 

It is not our policy to support political 

parties or bodies, third-party giving 

organisations, hospital costs, medical 

charities or research, capital appeals or 

appeals of a specifically religious nature. 

Barclays New Futures 

This is the largest education sponsorship 

programme of its kind in the UK, and is 

delivered in partnership with Community 

Service Volunteers. Barclays is currently 

committed to an eight-year investment 

programme of £8 million. 

Barclays New Futures offers 

opportunities for students to develop 

skills for life, work and citizenship through 

partnership projects between school 

and community which aim to address 

local issues. Since the scheme began, 

more than 500 secondary schools have 

received Barclays New Futures awards, 

with a further 700 primary schools 

involved as project partners; in total, 

more than 100,000 people have been 

actively involved in a Barclays New 

Futures project. 

The Government’s plan to place 

Citizenship on the National Curriculum from 

2002 increases still further the relevance of 

Barclays New Futures. Our award-winning 

schools have developed a body of expertise 

in citizenship-related projects across the 

whole curriculum. Students have developed 

their communication, presentation, teamworking 

and problem-solving skills, and tell 

us how much they value having a real-life 

experience to talk about at job and college 

interviews. The delivery of a new community 

benefit or service is matched by the positive 

impact on each individual participant – a 

real investment in our communities. 

Barclays SiteSavers 

Derelict land has a negative impact on 

people’s lives in many ways, encouraging 

crime and fear of crime, creating safety 

hazards and destroying the sense of 

community. Our environmental 

sponsorship programme, Barclays 

SiteSavers, transforms derelict and 

redundant land on deprived estates 

throughout Britain into new community 

leisure and recreation facilities. We are 

currently committed to a six-year 

investment programme of £3.4 million. 

The scheme is managed nationally by 

Groundwork and delivered in partnership 

with the British Trust for Conservation 

Volunteers and the Wildlife Trusts. Since 

it began in 1996, the scheme has directly 

funded 268 projects and has enabled 

groups to raise additional funding of more 

than £4.5 million for community projects. 

Positive results achieved by community 

groups include the planting of over 25,000 

trees and more than 153,000 shrubs, and 

the creation of over 52km of route-way 

by improvements to paths, cycle tracks 

and tow-paths. Some 23,500 children 

and 14,200 adults have been involved 

in designing, creating, managing and 

enjoying the improved landscapes. 

There are also substantial benefits to 

the individuals who have taken part in 

the projects, and in recent years the focus 

has shifted towards more long-term skills 

training and development. 

Barclays Stage Partners 

Supporting British regional theatre, 

Barclays Stage Partners funds high-quality 

productions of all kinds, from Shakespeare 

and the classics to new writing, mime and 

children’s theatre. The funding enables 

touring productions to visit theatres all 

over England, Wales and Scotland. 


Prove It! 

As part of the SiteSavers 

scheme, Barclays has worked 

with the New Economics 

Foundation to develop and 

trial new methods for 

communities to measure 

the things which matter to 

them, such as how safe they feel in their 

communities, and whether neighbours look 

out for each other. The techniques are set out 

in a book, Prove It!, published in 2000, which 

has been distributed free of charge to public 

and voluntary sector organisations and 

community groups. 

Reading between friends 

Pupils at Lister Community School in East 

London are using their Barclays New Futures 

Award to support literacy and build links with 

younger children. They have created and 

delivered 60 ‘Big Books’ to four local primary 

schools, experiencing project management 

and decision-making as well as using their 

English and drama skills through workshops. 

The friendships developed between older 

and younger children ease the transition 

from primary to secondary school. 

We are committed to a six-year investment 

programme of £3 million, match-funded 

by the Arts Council of England, the Arts 

Council of Wales and the Scottish Arts 

Council. Since the scheme started in 1995, 

over £2.3 million in matched-funding has 

been provided for 52 productions at more 

than 150 venues nationwide, reaching a 

total audience of over a million people. 

National Autistic Society 

In 2000, we launched a new partnership 

with the National Autistic Society, which 

supports families affected by autism. Our 

sponsorship is supporting the Society’s 

Information Helpline by providing a new 

telephone system and database, additional 

employees, volunteer recruitment and 

training, new literature and a research 

programme. During 2000, the measurable 

outcomes included a 50% improvement 

in response rates to calls and e-mails, 

improved connection rates and extended 

opening hours for the Helpline. 

New initiatives 

This year we will launch major projects 

with three other national charities – 

ChildLine, Royal National Institute for 

Deaf People and Royal National Institute 

for the Blind. 

How our people get involved 

Barclays employees are actively involved in 

raising funds and providing practical help for 

organisations and charities of their choice. 

“...we actively encourage our employees to 

give their time and effort to local charities, 

urban regeneration, fundraising and all 

forms of volunteering. We are proud of their 

efforts and not a little humbled by them.” 

Matt Barrett, Group Chief Executive 

£ for £ and Hour for Hour 

Barclays £ for £ fundraising scheme 

matches the amounts employees raise for 

national and local charities of their choice, 

up to a maximum of £750 per application. 

In 2000, the scheme raised a total of 

£6.84 million for more than 2,000 different 

charities ranging from The Children’s 

Society and Barnardo’s to local schools, 

hospitals and hospices. 

During 2000, we started a new Hour 

for Hour scheme to support individual 

employees in voluntary work, matching 

up to two hours of working time per 

month. The first three months of the 

scheme showed an encouraging take-up. 

Employee Volunteering Groups 

Employees who join together to form an 

Employee Volunteering Group receive a 

grant of up to £1,000 from Barclays 



Water for the street boys 

At the Hawa street boys’ rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of Nairobi, the boys had to walk long 

distances to fetch water for daily use, which disrupted their studies and offered the temptation not 

to bother going back. The centre already had a bore hole – all it needed was a generator to pump 

the water. Over 20 members of the Voucher Processing Center at Barclays Head Office in Nairobi 

volunteered to shine shoes at the local church, raising Ksh 120,000 (approximately £1,200) which 

was match-funded by Barclays. This was enough to purchase the generator. The boys’ rehabilitation 

is now proceeding more smoothly and the water has enabled them to cultivate a kitchen garden 

which provides vegetables. The centre can also sell surplus water to the neighbouring community 

and generate more income for its work. 

towards their chosen project. Recent 

challenges undertaken by Employee 

Volunteering Groups have included: 

• creating a new school library and 

raising money to buy over 2,000 books 

• providing a regular mentoring service 

for residents in a young people’s hostel 

• helping children in the classroom with 

maths, spelling, grammar and reading 

• putting on pantomimes and public 

performances to raise money for charity 

• working to restore a city community 

garden 

• providing regular help and bereavement 

support in a children’s hospice 

• helping to run a community radio 

station. 

Community placement scheme 

Started during 2000, this scheme is 

available to all employees who are leaving 

Barclays because of retirement or 

displacement and offers opportunities to 

take up jobs in the voluntary sector. It has 

been received very positively: “It takes 

secondments to a new level,” says Debbie 

Scott, Trust Director, Tomorrow’s People. 

“We welcome the innovative approach.” 

First to benefit from the new scheme was 

Reg Carter, former Operations Director for 

Yorkshire and Humberside, who took up a 

two-year placement as Change Programme 

Director at the National Association of 

Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB). 

Employee donations 

Barclays employees also give to charity 

through the Cash Fraction scheme which 

redirects spare amounts from share-based 

benefit schemes. In 2000, the scheme 

produced £139,386 which went to charities 

chosen to reflect employee concerns. 

During 2000, we started the Pennies 

from Heaven scheme, through which 

employees donate small change from 

their salaries. 

Hour for Hour rehab 

Leeds Drugs Project offers groups of former 

addicts the chance to go through a 

programme of rehabilitation. Barclays 

employees provide access to computer-based 

training at Leeds Contact Centre, through 

which groups of students can gain skills such 

as supervision, team-building, assertiveness, 

interviewing techniques and job applications. 

Once they have successfully completed their 

training course, students are presented with a 

certificate for each module undertaken, giving 

them something tangible to take away which 

may also be useful for their CVs. Barclays 

employees help the students to prepare their 

CVs and to apply for jobs, from seeking 

application forms to dealing with interviews 

and psychometric testing. 

Working together 

Total community 

contribution 1998 1999 2000 

Annual total £19m £20.9m £26.3m 

Direct donations 

to charities 1998 1999 2000 

Annual total £5.1m £5.8m £8.9m 

Employee fundraising 

Total amount given to charities (includes money raised 

by employees plus Barclays matching contribution) 

1998 1999 2000 

£ for £ £5.7m £8.2m £6.84m* 

Number of activities 

match-funded 4,524 6,877 7,107* 

*In order to encourage as many employees as possible to get 

involved in the £ for £ scheme, we limited the number of funded 

events to three per individual each year. In 2000, this had the effect 

of reducing the amount of money raised, although the number of 

employees taking part is increasing as we hoped it would. 

Relative performance 

Barclays position 

1998/1999 1999/2000 

Top 50 UK total 

community contributions 1 2 

Worldwide total 

community contributions 2 3 

Top 100 corporate 

donors to charity 6 7 

Directory of Social Change 2000 

We are among the companies achieving the PerCent 

Club’s Millennium Standard of 1% or more of UK pretax 

profits contributed to the community. 

Business in the Community/The PerCent 

Club Benchmarking Report 1999 and 2000 

Our aim 

During 2001, we shall be working to ensure that the 

aims of our Community Programme are more widely 

understood externally, and that even more of our 

colleagues are involved in community activity. 


Public 

interest 

issues 

Barclays appreciates that the law and 

morality are not always the same. Our 

decision to be involved in business 

is not solely based on compliance 

with the law. We aim to take account 

of social, ethical and environmental 

aspects when entering into customer 

relationships and in assessing financial 

propositions. Where our due diligence 

procedures identify areas of sensitivity 

or ethical dilemmas, we apply the 

relevant Barclays policy, such as our 

environmental risk management or 

defence sector policies. In the absence 

of specific guidance, we consider the 

issues carefully at an appropriate level 

within our organisation. 

While we are not responsible for the 

behaviour of our customers, we are 

aware that the provision of financial 

services to sensitive industrial sectors, 

countries and projects can have 

significant impact on wider society and 

the environment. We are associated, 

through our support for customers, 

with a number of issues of public 

interest and concern. The following 

policies and position statements outline 

our approach to some of these. 


Third-world debt 

Most of the world’s poorest countries are 

situated in the sub-Saharan Africa region, 

and clearly have excessive debts which 

not only cannot be repaid, but also 

contribute to economic and social 

deprivation. The debts have arisen from 

loans made many years ago, when the 

lending was generally regarded as assisting 

in the structural and economic 

development of the countries concerned. 

Barclays has participated in debt relief 

schemes, both unilaterally and alongside 

other institutions, when countries have 

been demonstrably unable to repay. For 

instance, we were a leading bank in a ‘debt 

for development’ transaction in which our 

Zambian debt was sold at a deep discount 

to UNICEF, which exchanged it for local 

funds for development projects benefiting 

Zambian women and children. We also 

cancelled 82% of the money owed by Niger 

and 85% of principal and all outstanding 

debt interest for Sierra Leone. Over the last 

two decades, we have written off some 

US$2 billion of developing country debt by 

various means. 

Barclays remaining debt of this kind 

to sub-Saharan Africa totals some £3.7 

million. Most has arisen from non-repaid 

trade finance which subsequently reverted 

to governments under the terms of export 

credit guarantees. We are locked into this 

debt as a minority creditor, holding only 

5% of each agreement, but would welcome 

the opportunity to participate in further 

multilateral arrangements for debt relief. 

However, this is for governments to 

negotiate because they control the loan 

agreements and are owed the bulk of 

the money. We support the UK 

Government’s proactive stance in 

promoting debt relief for highly indebted 

poor countries, and action taken by other 

western governments in this respect. 

Defence sector 

The Barclays Group provides financial 

services to the defence sector within a 

specific policy framework. We assess each 

proposal on a case-by-case basis and 

legal compliance does not automatically 

guarantee our support. The status of the 

exporter and the importing/exporting 

country, the nature of the equipment, 

its likely use and the potential for it to 

be on-sold are all considered as part of 

the assessment process. We participate 

only in transactions which conform, 

as a minimum, to the stronger of the 

regulations in either the country of 

operation or the UK. It is our policy not 

to finance trade in nuclear, chemical, 

biological or other weapons of mass 

destruction. Our policy also explicitly 

prohibits financing trade in landmines 

or any equipment designed to be used 

as an instrument of torture. 

Genetically modified foods 

We are aware of public concern about 

the potential risks to health and the 

environment posed by genetically modified 

organisms. We are also aware of the 

possible benefits that GM products may 

bring to the world’s communities, provided 

the technology is confirmed as safe. We 

welcome Government policy to proceed 

with caution through careful trialling and 

evaluation. Moves to inform consumers and 

enable them to make their own choices 

about eating GM foods are a helpful step 

forward in transparency. In the meantime, 

we do not discriminate either for or against 

businesses or individuals solely because 

they are using or developing GM crops. 

Human rights 

Barclays aims to reflect and promote the 

human rights standards enshrined in the 

UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

and International Labour Organisation 

(ILO) guidance. We follow these standards 

in our own business and through our 

supply chain management policies, which 

include human rights screening criteria. 

Animal testing 

Barclays understands that animal 

experimentation is a difficult issue on 

which many people have strong feelings. 

When providing financial services to the 

pharmaceutical sector we have a strict 

policy that we will not enter into business 

transactions with any company that 

does not comply fully with all relevant 

Government regulations and the terms 

of their licences. 


Environment 

Our commitment to environmental 

responsibility goes back a long way. 

For example, we set up our successful 

Energy Unit in 1979 (see page 28). 

Nevertheless, we recognise that more 

can be done both in managing the 

environmental impacts arising from 

our core businesses and purchases of 

goods and services, and in managing 

direct office-based impacts. In 1999, 

we took the decision to introduce a 

formal, Group-wide Environmental 

Management System (EMS) in line 

with ISO 14001. 

We realise that, in such a widespread 

organisation, it would not be feasible to 

implement the EMS simultaneously in all 

areas. We have therefore prioritised our 

efforts geographically by reference to our 

environmental ‘footprint’ in each country, 

measured by the numbers of employees 

(and therefore buildings) and other factors 

such as their environmental expectations 

and national priorities. 

During 2000, our efforts have focused 

primarily on our UK operations, and on parts 

of our US activity. The scope of the 

environmental section of this report is 

therefore limited to reporting on these 

operations (aside from Responsible lending 

on page 26, which covers the whole of 

the Barclays Group). During 2001, our 

Environmental Management System is being 

extended to our larger operations in Europe 

and the Far East. 

For the first time, the environmental 

section includes a report from our 

appointed external environmental verifiers, 

PricewaterhouseCoopers (see page 32). 


The Woolwich 

The Woolwich, which is now a member of the Barclays Group, has its own wellestablished 

environmental policies, systems and procedures. These are being progressively 

integrated into those of the Group, drawing on their respective strengths. We anticipate 

full integration within twelve months. 

Policy and governance 

Environmental objective 

To implement progressively Group 

Environmental Policy throughout Barclays 

operations worldwide. 

Extract from our Policy Statement 

Barclays and the environment 

Governance 

As Barclays Group Chairman, I have overall 

responsibility for the Group’s environmental 

policies and performance. 

Our Environmental Director has 

responsibility for ensuring environmental 

policies are developed and implemented in 

line with our Group-wide Environmental 

Management System. 

An Environmental Steering Group – 

comprising senior representatives from 

major business areas and support functions 

– ensures that appropriate direction and 

impetus of the Environmental Management 

System is maintained. 

A central Environmental Risk 

Management Unit is responsible 

for incorporating environmental risk 

considerations into the lending process 

for business customers across our 

Group globally. 

Environmental policy 

• Environmental legislation: Our Group 

companies will – as a minimum – 

ensure that we are compliant with all 

environmental legislation pertaining to 

the countries in which we operate. 

• Lending: Our appraisal of business 

customers’ propositions will include 

an assessment of the potential 

environmental risk. This is taken into 

account before approving advances. 

Specific measures to manage 

environmental aspects may be 

required as a condition of lending. 

• Monitoring and targeting: Selected 

environmental data will be gathered 

on a systematic basis across the 

Group relating to key environmental 

aspects of our activities. Where 

appropriate, Group-wide objectives 

and targets will be set in line with our 

commitment to sustainable 

development, continuous 

environmental improvement and the 

prevention of pollution. 

• Supply chain management: Barclays 

is committed to working with 

suppliers to secure an improvement in 

environmental performance. Our 

assessment of suppliers will assign 

appropriate weighting to these issues 

within the sourcing process. It will also 

promote, where appropriate, the 

implementation of management 

systems. Indirectly, this will promote 

improvements further down the 

supply chain. 

• International agreements: Barclays is 

a signatory to the International 

Chamber of Commerce Business 

Charter for Sustainable Development 

and the United Nations’ Environment 

Programme ‘Statement by Financial 

Institutions on the Environment & 

Sustainable Development’. We will 

seek to conform to the standards set 

out in these agreements. 

• Community support: We will support 

– through our community affairs 

programme – the promotion of 

environmental initiatives by our 

employees and relevant external 

groups and organisations. 

• Communication and awareness 

raising: We recognise the legitimate 

interest that all our stakeholders, 

including customers, shareholders and 

employees have in our environmental 

performance. We will communicate 

openly about our environmental 

policies, practices and performance 

through the periodic publication of 

reports. We will take steps to raise the 

awareness of our employees of 

environmental issues and the progress 

Barclays is making in performance 

improvement. This will include training 

to enable employees to play a full role in 

implementing the environmental policy. 

Sir Peter Middleton, Chairman 


Helping suppliers stay green 

Barclays first Supplier Coaching Programme began in May 2000. 

We encourage small to medium-sized suppliers that are likely to 

benefit from an improvement in environmental management to 

enter the programme. Developed in partnership with Groundwork 

Trade Association, a non-profit making organisation, and designed 

by WSP Environmental, the programme is designed to help 

companies develop environmental management systems to 

ISO 14001 standards. 

Environmental Management System 

(EMS) 

We have started the process of 

implementing the enhanced Policy 

(on page 25). Here are some of the 

highlights of our work during 2000: 

• Environmental governance 

structure improved and being 

developed to ensure commitment 

to high standards of environmental 

management at every level 

throughout the organisation. All 

roles involving environmental 

responsibilities have been formally 

recorded in a register, which will 

be used to identify ongoing 

training requirements (for more 

details of our training and 

communication programme, 

please see our website). 

We have also established 

environmental working groups in 

appropriate areas of the business. 

• Environmental legislation register 

set up for US operations and the 

existing UK register updated. 

We are using both registers to 

help ensure compliance with 

applicable legislation. 

• Environmental aspects and impacts 

register developed with external 

specialists. The process involved a 

systematic review of all our 

activities to identify which of them 

have a direct environmental impact 

(for example, global warming, 

ozone depletion and the use of 

sustainable resources) and also 

the significance of that impact. 

The results are available to 

employees on Barclays intranet 

and are being used to prioritise 

management action. 

• Environmental objectives and 

targets development process 

started. We have set Group-wide 

objectives covering our most 

significant impacts and have 

identified and set our first targets. 

These are detailed against relevant 

text items throughout the following 

pages. We intend to introduce 

additional targets once we have 

completed detailed research into 

the availability of data and scope 

for performance improvement. 

• Supply chain management 

programme commenced. Our 

policy on environmental issues has 

been revised and integrated into 

our existing purchasing standards. 

Comprehensive questionnaires have 

been developed for inclusion within 

tendering procedures, as has 

guidance for purchasing employees 

on how to deal with replies from 

potential suppliers. We also plan 

to work closely with suppliers of 

key products on environmentrelated 

initiatives. 

Indirect impacts – customers 

and suppliers 

Responsible lending 

Environmental objective: To ensure that risk 

and relationship management employees 

have the awareness, tools and training 

needed to take due account of 

environmental risk issues in appraising 

business-lending propositions worldwide. 

We have recognised for many years that 

our most significant potential for 

environmental impact is probably indirect, 

through our provision of financial services 

for industry and commerce. Whilst we are 

not responsible for our customers’ 

environmental practices, we have a longstanding 

commitment to managing the 

environmental risks associated with our 

lending. This resulted in the establishment 

of our Environmental Risk Management 

Unit (ERMU) in 1992. Through the ERMU, 

environmental risk has become part of our 

credit assessment process for business 

customers’ financial propositions. 

Poor environmental management of a 

business or a project can lead to substantial 

costs and business risks. For example, we 

recognise that commercial development and 

infrastructure projects may carry significant 

environmental risks. If we are invited to 

participate in funding such projects, our 

process is designed to confirm that the 

potential impacts are thoroughly evaluated. 

Barclays ERMU provides guidance on 

environmental risk assessment to employees 

across our global operations. The team has 



gathered considerable expertise and 

provides valuable support for our lending 

managers. The ERMU maintains a guide 

to environmental risk, available online to 

Barclays credit risk employees, and also 

provides briefings on topical aspects of 

environmental risk. For risks specifically 

associated with commercial property in 

the UK, the ERMU has developed a Land 

Use Questionnaire, which is used to 

identify cases where further environmental 

risk assessment by external specialists 

is advisable (see Responsible lending 

figures, right). 

Environmental loan support scheme 

In conjunction with the European 

Investment Fund, we have designed a 

scheme to help small and medium-sized 

businesses to finance projects that offer 

some form of environmental benefit. The 

definition is widely drawn – covering, for 

example, investment in the manufacture 

of ‘environmental’ products, improving 

the energy efficiency of a building or 

putting a derelict site to productive use. 

The scheme includes an upfront payment 

worth 1.25% of the eligible loan. 

The supply chain 

Environmental objective: To ensure that 

purchasing professionals have the 

awareness, tools and training needed to 

take account of environmental issues in 

the sourcing process. 

Barclays spends over £2 billion a year in the 

UK on external products and services. We 

are the second largest IT buyer in 

Europe. The scale of this spend carries 

responsibilities, and in November 1999 

an environmental, social and ethical supply 

chain project was launched as a joint 

initiative between Group Environmental 

Management and our Sourcing Network. 

During 2000, we completed a number 

of key stages: 

1. Agreement on an updated purchasing 

policy on environmental, social and 

ethical issues. It was adopted by the 

Sourcing Network Council, integrated 

into the main Barclays environmental 

policy (page 25) and Group sourcing 

governance and policy. 

2. Risk ranking of products and 

services sourced by the bank from 

an environmental, social and ethical 

perspective. This risk ranking dictates 

the level of management action to be 

taken during the sourcing process. 

3. Comprehensive questionnaires on 

environment-related issues have been 

developed for inclusion within tendering 

procedures, as has guidance for purchasing 

employees on how to score and compare 

replies from potential suppliers. 

4. An intranet site was built to provide 

our purchasing employees with a 

management tool with which to 

implement the new environmental, 

social and ethical procedures. 

5. Development of closer relationships 

with key suppliers of high-risk ranked 

products and services, in order to 

develop and share best practice. 

Our performance 

During 2000 we participated in a number of external 

indices and ranking exercises. These included: 

Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index 

The Barclays share price is included within the calculation 

of this Index for the first time. The Index comprises over 

200 companies from a variety of sectors that rank as 

leaders in their fields in terms of social and environmental 

performance (for further information, please see 

http://www.sustainability-index.com/index.html.) 

Business in the Environment Index of 

Corporate Environmental Engagement survey 

We actively participate in this important UK survey which 

scores and ranks participants’ performance. Our ranking 

amongst FTSE 100 participants has improved from 60th in 

1999 to 38th in 2000, and amongst financial sector 

participants, from 14th in 1999 to 10th in 2000. 

Safety and Environmental Risk 

Management Rating Agency 

Measuring Environmental Risk to Capital: we have 

a rating of AAA– on a scale of 27 from AAA+ to C–. 

Oekom research AG, Germany 

Barclays were rated C– (medium environmental record) 

on a scale from A+ to D– and ranked 11th out of 26 

European banks. 

Indirect impacts 

Responsible lending 1999 2000 

UK land valuation 

cases reviewed 5,830 6,138 

Percentage subjected 

to further enquiry 26% 25% 

Additional case 

referrals (global) 550 457 

Environmental loan 

support scheme 1999 2000 

Number of loans 82 105 

Total value of loans £10.9m £16.5m 

Total project costs £20.5m £28.8m 


6. Development of a supplier coaching 

programme to provide optional costeffective 

and professional environmental 

management training for our small and 

medium-sized suppliers (see Helping 

suppliers stay green on page 26). 

Barclays Global Investors 

Barclays Global Investors (BGI), based in 

San Francisco, is one of the world’s 

largest investment firms, managing 

investments for individuals and institutions 

including corporate and government 

retirement plans, foundations, endowments 

and mutual funds. The investment 

techniques used are based on quantitative 

analysis rather than subjective judgement, and 

approximately 80% of BGI’s clients’ assets 

are invested in index-tracking funds that track 

over 200 different indices around the world. 

BGI’s wide range of services enables 

solutions to be customised cost-effectively 

and currently about £28 billion of institutional 

funds are invested according to environmental 

or social criteria specified by clients. 

BGI (UK) is supporting the ‘SRI 

Forum’s’ development of guidelines 

on disclosure and reporting of social, 

environmental and ethical matters. 

Barclays Bank UK Retirement Fund 

Trustees of Barclays UK Retirement Fund 

are currently responsible for investing 

net assets totalling more than £13 billion. 

Their policy is to invest part of these 

assets in index-tracking funds: these 

do not take separate account of social, 

environmental or ethical issues. However, 

the Trustees’ policy on socially responsible 

investment (set out in their Statement 

of Investment Principles) provides that, 

where such issues have a financial impact, 

fund managers are expected to recognise 

this in exercising their investment 

discretion for actively managed portfolios. 

The Trustees also provide a range 

of funds into which retirement fund 

members can proactively opt to invest 

part of their retirement account or 

Additional Voluntary Contributions. Since 

March 2000, the range has included an 

ethical investment option, albeit that the 

total sum currently invested is small. 

Direct impacts – UK compliance 

and use of resources 

Compliance and incident reporting 

Environmental objective: To put in place 

procedures designed to provide assurance 

that Barclays is compliant with all 

environmental legislation affecting our 

operations worldwide. 

In the last year, Barclays Group Property 

Services has established standards and 

procedures for operational risk management 

and environmental incident reporting 

covering UK properties, which are expected 

to become models for the Group as a whole. 

The standards are designed to ensure that – 

among other things – effective measures 

are put in place to manage and report 

health, safety and environmental incidents. 

No environmental incidents were reported 

in 2000. 

Ozone-depleting substances 

It is known that some substances, such as 

halons, CFCs and HCFCs, have a high 

potential to deplete ozone in the Earth’s 

upper atmosphere and these are being, or 

have already been, phased out by legislation 

under the Montreal Protocol. We intend to 

review and record our use of ozone-depleting 

substances, ensuring that we manage and 

dispose of them effectively. As part of its 

life-cycle changes and project upgrades for 

buildings, plant, and equipment, Group 

Property Services has proactively embarked 

upon a programme of replacement of 

equipment with those using ‘ozonefriendly’ 

alternatives. 

Use of energy 

Environmental objective: To reduce our 

consumption of energy. 

Since 1979, a dedicated Energy Unit within 

Group Property Services has managed 

energy consumption in Barclays UK branch 

network. Over the years, we have made 

considerable efforts to identify opportunities 

for greater efficiency and to invest in 

energy-saving equipment. This has yielded 

substantial energy and cost savings – for 

example, the branch energy-saving 

programme, completed in 1997, has saved 

£1.06 million annually for a one-off 

investment of £0.4 million. 



Green energy 

Since April 2000, we have been using ‘green’ energy from Powergen – 14.825 GWh of it – more 

than the equivalent of the total energy consumed by our 16-floor headquarters in London in a 

year. (Our total UK consumption from all suppliers is 331.2 GWh.) Where economically practicable 

Group Property Services will procure a proportion of our UK energy requirement from renewable 

sources. Currently this stands at 6.6% of the Powergen contract resulting in a reduction of carbon 

dioxide emissions (April to December 2000) of 7,688 tonnes. 

During 2000, Group Property Services 

outsourced our UK utilities management. 

This will facilitate a step-change 

improvement in our ability to monitor 

energy consumption, identify priorities 

for action and track progress, and provide 

our property teams with access to 

meaningful utilities management 

information. A further core component 

of this outsource is the ability to provide 

environmental education through our 

supply chain. 2001 is therefore an 

appropriate time to renew and 

re-invigorate our UK energy programme. 

Over the coming year, we intend to 

remind all employees of the need to 

conserve energy, through a sustained 

‘switch off’ campaign aligned with the 

Department for the Environment, Transport 

and the Regions 

campaign. We will seek to procure costeffective 

IT equipment incorporating 

energy-efficiency measures, and review and 

adopt all beneficial elements of industry 

best practice for energy management. We 

have developed a benchmarking, audit 

and survey strategy to identify buildings 

performing outside the energy norms, and 

we will work with building management 

subcontractors to ensure optimum 

engagement with our environmental 

objectives and targets. Where we are 

property tenants, we will identify all 

material energy-saving opportunities, 

and also develop an action plan – by 

the end of 2001 – to improve landlord 

energy efficiency practices. 

Water and waste water 

Environmental objective: To reduce 

our consumption of water across all 

our UK operations. 

None of our individual operations consume 

water on an industrial scale, but the total 

consumption is significant. We are 

committed to improving our water and 

waste water management. We intend to 

work with UK water companies to obtain 

regular data feeds and monitor 

consumption, including the installation of 

water meters in the remaining 5% of our 

UK offices without them. We will determine 

benchmarks for water consumption based 

on best practice, conduct water audits in 

key offices and apply lessons learned to all 

UK operations. We also intend to move 

towards aggregated, and ultimately 

electronic, billing to reduce paper use. 

Energy rater rated 

Ekins Surveyors, a 

Woolwich business, provides 

customers with detailed information about 

a home’s energy performance along with 

the property survey. Over 85,000 customers 

have benefited from this service. Following 

the ‘Home Energy Rater of the Year’ award 

won in 1999 at the Government-supported 

National Home Energy Rating Conference, 

Ekins won the ‘Lifetime award’ for 

commitment to promoting energy efficiency 

in 2000. 

Direct impacts 

Energy targets 

In relation to our 2000 consumption levels, reduce energy 

use (kilowatt-hours) in all our UK premises by: 

• 2% per m 2 (Gross Internal Area) 

by 31/12/01 

• 10% per m 2 (Gross Internal Area) 

by 31/12/05 

Electricity 

Consumption in 2000 

Consumption per m 2 

CO 2 emissions 

Gas 

Consumption in 2000 

Consumption per m 2 

CO 2 emissions 

367.4m kWh, from 

1,814,455m 2 

(Gross Internal Area) 

202.5kWh 

156,780 tonnes 

212.8m kWh from 

1,736,515m 2 

(Gross Internal Area) 

122.6kWh 

40,435 tonnes 

Not all our offices have gas supplies 

Water and waste water targets 

In relation to our 2000 consumption levels, reduce water 

consumption (litres) in all our UK premises by: 

• 2% per m 2 (Gross Internal Area) by 31/12/01 

• 10% per m 2 (Gross Internal Area) by 31/12/05 

Water and waste water 

Consumption for 2000 

Consumption per m 2 0.57m 3 

1,030,437m 3 used from 

1,814,455m 2 

Ethical investment services 1999 2000 

Total investment in 

ethical funds £15bn £28bn 

Total invested in all funds £485bn £560bn 

UK retirement 2000 

ethical fund (ethical fund launched 03/00) 

Total investment in Additional 

Voluntary Contributions 

£24.7m 

Investment in ethical fund £71,088 


Waste streams 

Three-year UK action plan 

Identified as significant for our sector by DETR 

Computers/electronic equipment 

Paper 

Office furniture 

Fluorescent tubes 

Catering waste 

Others 

Asbestos 

Aluminium cans 

General office waste 

Vending machine cups 

Toner cartridges 

2000: Availability and robustness of data feeds 

established for each waste stream 

2001: Formally collate and record data for 

each waste stream and agree targets for 2002 

2002: Implement measures to meet 

agreed targets 

2001: Establish the availability and robustness 

of data feeds for each waste stream 

2002: Formally collate and record data for 

each waste stream and agree targets for 2003 

2003: Implement measures to meet 

agreed targets 

Green building 

Barclaycard’s HQ on the outskirts of 

Northampton has won awards for efficient use 

of electricity, gas and water. These include a 

formal ‘Excellent’ assessment from the Building 

Research Establishment in 1996 relating to the 

design and build of the office complex and the 

PROBE 2000 Award from the Building Services 

Journal, in recognition of the contribution 

made towards a culture of continuous 

improvement in building management. 

Recycling electronic equipment 

Specialist firm Solve Disposals Europe (SDE) 

Limited collects redundant electronic equipment 

from Barclays offices. Upon collection, all items 

are thoroughly inspected and all residual data 

is security overwritten. The majority of items – 

62% – are refurbished and resold on our behalf. 

The remaining 38% are designated for recycling 

and disposal by specialist firms further down 

this disposal supply chain (see Facts and 

figures page 31). 

Making A Corporate Commitment 2 

Barclays is a signatory to this Governmentsponsored 

scheme. This commits us to 

improvement in the areas of CO 2 emissions 

(relating to electricity and gas usage and 

business travel) and water consumption. 

Each year we will report our progress in 

meeting our targets to the Government. 

Office wastes 

Environmental objective: To understand our 

waste streams, develop methods to measure 

key waste streams across the Group and 

implement measures to reduce and, where 

possible, reuse or recycle waste produced. 

We have developed three-year UK action 

plans for waste streams including those 

identified as significant for our sector in the 

DETR publication Guidelines for Company 

Reporting on Waste (see panel above). 

Branch and office refurbishments 

During 2000, Group Property Services has 

managed the process of refurbishing 1,176 

branches. For the majority of these, existing 

counter fronts were upgraded with the 

counter carcass and operational 

components being retained. All chairs 

less than two years old were retained and 

recovered. Furniture in good working 

order is being redistributed to other offices. 

In addition, water-based paints were 

specified, as were timber and timber-based 

products sourced from sustainably 

managed forests. As an example, when a 

major office complex in Coventry was 

refurbished during 2000, approximately 

600 desks were reused by reconfiguring 

the worktops to a curved profile rather 

than buying new. 

Use of paper 

Environmental objectives: 

• To identify paper products and volumes 

sourced across the Group in the UK. 

• To investigate and – where practicable 

– develop and implement methods to 

reduce paper use. 

• To continue to investigate 

opportunities to use recycled paper 

and paper products. 

• To set a target for reducing 

consumption of paper products in 

the UK by 31/12/01. 

Our use of paper and paper-based products 

has a significant environmental impact, 

which we have earmarked for priority 

action. During 2000, there was an 

increasing drive towards electronic delivery 

of information and guidance. This has not 

only saved paper, but has also enabled 

information to be directed to the end-user. 

Currently, Barclays has over 40 major 

intranet sites covering issues such as: 

Human Resources, Property Services, Data 

Protection and Barclays Arts Council. 

Partnership with other organisations 

Barclays participates in – and helps 

to sponsor – many external strategic 

groups and networks concerned with 

environmental management. For further 

details, please see our website. 



Transport for training events 

Around 45,000 UK staff are attending a year-long series of major 

training events that started in October 2000. To minimise the 

environmental impact of their travel, we have developed a ‘green 

transport plan’ involving coach shuttle services, park-and-ride schemes 

and other encouragements to use public transport. As at December 

2000 an average of 29% of delegates had arrived at the events by 

public transport (year end target – 50%) and of those travelling by 

car, an average of 20% had at least one passenger. 

Direct impacts – travel 

With tens of thousands of employees 

worldwide, work-related travel does have a 

significant impact on the environment. 

Travel to work 

We support the use of public transport for 

UK employees commuting to work by 

offering interest-free loans for the 

purchase of season tickets. Where 

practicable, major Barclays sites provide 

facilities for cyclists such as showers, 

changing rooms and secure cycle storage. 

Business travel 

Environmental objective: To reduce the level 

of carbon dioxide emissions resulting from 

each kilometre of business travel. 

As a service business, we recognise the 

importance of meeting customers at times 

and locations to suit them. Increasingly, 

this means doing business at customers’ 

premises rather than our own, resulting in 

increased travel by car, rail and air. We are 

committed to finding ways to reduce the 

environmental impact of this travel. 

Car travel 

We are drawing up a formal policy for our 

company car scheme and options being 

actively considered include: 

• increasing the appeal of the ‘cash 

alternative’ to a company car 

• promoting video-conferencing or 

rail travel 

• providing staff with data on fuel 

economy and emissions to inform 

their choice of car 

• offering cash incentives for choosing 

low-emission models. 

In 1999 1,659 staff took the cash option, 

rising to 1,850 in 2000. 

In many instances, it is more economical 

(and environmentally friendly) to hire cars 

to meet short-term needs, rather than 

acquiring more cars for our own fleet. Even 

so, the total CO 2 emitted from hire cars last 

year was substantial, prompting us to 

review policy. In future, only the smallerengine 

models (1.6 litres or below), 

emitting lower levels of CO 2 , will be 

available for hire to Barclays employees. 

Rail travel 

The environmental impact of rail travel 

(per passenger) is considerably lower than for 

car or air travel. We are taking positive actions 

to encourage employees to consider rail travel 

where it provides a viable alternative to the 

car. We are also investigating the feasibility 

and benefits of improving management 

information on UK rail travel. 

Air travel 

Running an international business 

inevitably involves a high level of business 

air travel. However, we encourage 

employees to use video-conferencing as 

an alternative whenever appropriate. To 

back this strategy we are reviewing the 

availability of video-conferencing facilities 

in the UK and USA, establishing systems to 

monitor usage and investing in additional 

equipment where necessary. 

Direct impacts 

Travel target 

During 2001, to generate a lower level of CO 2 emissions 

per kilometre of business travel in the UK, as compared 

with 2000. 

Car CO 2 emissions (UK) 1999 2000 

Total km travelled 102.180m 106.538m 

CO 2 emissions (tonnes) 19,717 21,025 

CO 2 emitted per km 0.193kg 0.197kg 

Train CO 2 emissions (UK) 1999 2000 

Total km travelled 23.169m 24.421m 

CO 2 per person km* 0.06kg 0.06kg 

Total CO 2 emissions (tonnes) 1,390 1,465 

(Calculated from expenditure data in £, using a conversion factor 

of 0.70kg CO 2 /£ – factor source: AEA Technology Environment) 

Air CO 2 emissions (UK) 1999 2000 

Total short-haul flights (km) 16.430m 14.752m 



Total long-haul flights (km) 62.492m 75.150m 



* DETR guidelines factor for rail and air travel 

Travel to work 

Number of employees with interest-free season ticket 

loans was 4,039 as at 31/12/00 

Use of paper 1999 2000 

Wastepaper sent for 

recycling (tonnes) 

Redundant electronic equipment 

PCs/laptops 5,644 

Monitors 4,583 

Printers 1,908 

Typewriters 98 

Facsimile machines 388 

Sundry 3084 

Total* 15,705 

8,654 8,427 

* Of the total number which are processed, 7,635 (62%) are resold 

or donated to third parties. The other 4,728 (38%) are dealt with as 

follows: 79% being reused within the industry, 9% are incinerated 

with energy recovery and 12% of them are sent to landfill. 


Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, 

our appointed external verifiers 

PricewaterhouseCoopers was appointed by 

Barclays PLC to review specified Grouplevel 

environmental management processes 

for the period January to December 2000. 

As part of our review we considered: 

1. Group Environmental Policy and 

environmental governance structure 

at the Group level; 

2. The current status of Group-level 

environmental management 

processes; and 

3. Environmental risk review procedures 

relating to commercial lending in the UK. 

In completing this review, we have adopted 

the principles that underpin international 

standards on financial auditing and 

reporting. This approach brings rigour 

throughout the review process including 

detailed consideration of the design and 

operation of the environmental 

management processes. 

Our review comprised interviews with 

the relevant personnel at Group-level and 

review of supporting documentation. In 

completing review of commercial lending 

activity, we are working with Barclays 

Group Internal Audit. 

Based upon the review we have reported 

to management that: 

1. The Group Environmental Policy, signed 

by the Chairman in 2000, reflects the 

significant impacts of the Group 

in line with industry best practice. 

An environmental governance 

structure has been established and 

has started to operate but needs to 

be more firmly embedded into the 

Group management structure to 

enhance its effectiveness. 

2. Barclays has developed and is 

implementing a Group-level environmental 

management system as described on 

page 26. The processes developed to 

manage direct environmental impacts 

are consistent with the corresponding 

components of ISO 14001. Continued 

commitment and resources are required 

to achieve Group-wide implementation. 

3. Barclays has an established policy 

and procedures in the UK to consider 

environmental issues where a 

commercial loan is secured against 

property. Based upon Barclays own 

internal verification testing, further 

enhancement is required of the 

processes and controls necessary 

to achieve comprehensive 

implementation of this policy. 

Our review findings have been discussed 

with the management of the Group. 

Based on our work, the development of 

supporting Group-level management 

and reporting processes represent clear 

progress by Barclays towards establishing a 

comprehensive, systematic and reliable 

framework for environmental management 

across the Group. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers, London 

27 February 2001 

Response from Barclays PLC 

We have welcomed the involvement – 

throughout 2000 – of 

PricewaterhouseCoopers in providing 

an independent, expert analysis of our 

Environmental Management System 

and assessment of progress. We have 

appreciated the objectivity and rigour 

applied to their review, which has 

generated several findings and 

recommendations. These are now 

being carefully considered with a view 

to adoption over the next twelve months. 

Gary Dibb, Chief Administrative Officer, 

and Phil Case, Environmental Director. 


Index 

Access to banking services 7 

Access for people with disabilities 8 

African employee survey 15 

Animal testing 23 

ATMs (cash machines) 7 

Bank accounts, basic 7 

Barclaycard online 7 

Barclays Group structure 4 

Barclays New Futures 19 

Barclays SiteSavers 19 

Barclays Stage Partners 19 

Branch network 7 

Branch refurbishment 8, 30 

Carer leave 13 

Cash machines (ATMs) 7 

Charities Team, UK 10 

Charity support 20 

Community development financial institutions 9 

Community investment 9, 18, 19 

Counselling, employee 16 

Customer statistics 11 

Customers, support for 6 

Debt counselling 11 

Defence sector 23 

Deprived areas, support for 10 

Disability 5, 8, 13, 17 

Diversity, employee 5, 13 

E-commerce 9 

Economic development 8 

Education sponsorship 19 

Employee feedback 14, 17 

Employee fundraising and volunteering 20 

Employee statistics 17 

Employee training and development 15 

Energy, use of 28, 29 

Environmental compliance 28 

Environmental impacts, direct 28–31 

Environmental impacts, indirect 26, 27 

Environmental Management System 24, 26, 32 

Environmental performance 27 

Environmental policies 25 

Environmental verification statement 32 

Equality and diversity 5, 13 

Ethnic minorities 5, 9, 13 

Financial data, Barclays Group 5 

Financial difficulty 11 

Financial exclusion 7 

Flexible working 14 

Fraud prevention 11 

Genetically modified foods 23 

Graduate scheme 15 

Grievance procedure 16 

Health and safety 16 

Home/work balance 13 

Housing Association Unit 10 

Human resources policies 13 

Human rights 23 

Internet banking 4, 7 

Lending, responsible 11 

Maternity pay 13 

Money advice 11 

National Autistic Society 20 

Open Forums 5 

Ozone-depleting substances 28 

Paper, use of 30 

Parental leave 13 

Partnerships, community 7 

Pay and pensions 17 

People with disabilities, access for 8 

Post Office, bank access 7 

Profit figures 5 

Public interest issues 22, 23 

Security mechanisms 11 

Share ownership, employee 17 

Small businesses 8, 9 

Stakeholders 5 

Strategic overview 3 

Strategy, market 4 

Technology, leading-edge 7 

Third-world debt 23 

Training and development 15 

Travel, impacts of 31 

Union (UNIFI) 13, 14 

Values 1 

Waste streams 30 

Welfare of employees 16 

Women employees 17 

Women entrepreneurs 9 

Barclays social and environmental 

report 2000 

Audio cassette, Braille and large-print versions 

of this report are available, free of charge, by 

calling 0800 085 4814. 

A wide range of information about Barclays, 

including further social and environmental 

information, can be obtained on our website 

at www.barclays.com. The report can also be 

downloaded in pdf format. 

If you have a specific query on a matter 

relating to public interest issues, please 

contact 

Philippa Birtwell, 

Head of Public Issues, 

Public Affairs, 

Barclays PLC, 

54 Lombard Street, 

London EC3P 3AH. 

Telephone 020 7699 2644. 

For further information about our 

community programme, please contact 

Morag Pavich, 

Senior Manager, 

Community Affairs, 

Barclays PLC, 

54 Lombard Street, 

London EC3P 3AH. 

Telephone 020 7699 3713. 

For further information about Barclays 

environmental policy, please contact 

Phil Case, 

Environmental Director, 

Barclays PLC, 

Murray House, 

1 Royal Mint Court, 

London EC3N 4HH. 

Telephone 020 7977 4163. 

For further information about social 

banking, please contact 

Rachael Barber, 

Social Banking Manager, 

Barclays PLC, 

Murray House, 

1 Royal Mint Court, 

London EC3N 4HH. 

Telephone 020 7977 3627. 

Our free Barclays Information Line gives 

information on which facilities are available 

at specific branches for customers with 

disabilities. Call 0800 400 100. 

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the environment and to recycle raw materials. It is made from 25% de-inked post-consumer waste, 

25% secondary fibre and 50% chlorine-free bleached pulp sourced from sustainable forests. 

Barclays PLC Social and environmental report 2000, published 2001 

Registered in England. Registered No: 48839. Registered office: 54 Lombard Street, London EC3P 3AH

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