BP UK has launched a new Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) plan‎ which is intended to increase the representation of minority groups within the company, including at senior levels.

BP logo and lorry

BP’s UK head of country Peter Mather and UK HR director Simon Ashley have sent a letter to the company’s UK employees explaining how they intend to achieve their aim.

In their letter they say: “We have listened to colleagues in the UK and around the world and have ‎identified three areas for ‎our ‎focused action against racial injustice.”

Under the heading of transparency they say the company will report ‎progress internally ‎and externally against the new UK ethnic minority ambition, ‎and also report on the company’s UK ethnicity pay gap on an annual basis from early ‎‎2022 at the latest.

Under the heading of accountability they spell out goals for increasing ethnic minority representation within set levels of seniority, and will encourage diversity and inclusive action within BP’s supply chain.

And under the heading of talent they say they will provide focused development and progression interventions to support ‎career progress for UK ‎black employees and other under-represented ethnic ‎minorities from January 2021.‎

They conclude: “These are initial commitments. We are working on the details of this action ‎plan to enable sustained ‎and systematic change. As we progress we will ‎continue to be guided by meritocracy, inclusivity and ‎fairness. We will ensure ‎our processes and decisions uphold those principles.

“We must do more than improve our company; we have an obligation to ‎improve society as well. As ‎such, we will increase our external advocacy ‎efforts in support of racial equity and building the ‎diversity of our talent ‎pipeline.”