Business ethics

The Board believes strongly that the Group’s business should be conducted in a way that reflects the highest ethical standards. During 2008, we formed an ethics committee consisting exclusively of independent non-executive directors. The committee will provide a focus for development of the Group’s global ethics strategy, our approach to business ethics and the management of ethical and reputational risk. Further details of the committee and its principal terms of reference can be found in the Board committees page.

Global code of business ethics
Rolls-Royce has a global code of business ethics which sets out the principles for employees to follow when conducting business and guidance to achieve the required standards. The code is available in 16 languages and can be viewed on the Group's website at www.rolls-royce.com.

Training and awareness programme
To ensure the code is embedded, we started a tiered training programme in 2008 that will continue during 2009. The programme includes face-to-face workshops that will be delivered to around 3,700 resource managers across the Group, including 1,200 trained in 2008. These sessions aim to increase awareness of the importance of ethical behaviour while equipping managers with the necessary tools to enable onward communication to their teams and to deal appropriately with ethics related issues or questions. Employee briefings will also be undertaken during 2009.

Confidential reporting line and website
An independently operated and confidential ethics reporting facility is available worldwide so employees can raise issues or concerns regarding business conduct outside of the normal management chain. This facility includes telephone numbers and an external website. Rolls-Royce staff can call any one of 30 telephone numbers in countries across the world to report any concerns they may have with regard to business conduct. Calls are made in total confidence and outside the normal management chain, being handled independently by the LRN – EthicsPoint partnership. The ethics committee monitors cases reported, the management of cases and the results for many investigations undertaken.