It is important that employees and those who work with us or who are associated with us feel safe and empowered to speak up. We encourage anyone to report conduct they reasonably believe may be illegal, unethical or inconsistent with Our Code, and to do so without fear of retaliation. We have zero tolerance for any form of retaliation.

Employees and contractors can raise their concerns through a number of channels, including through line leaders. Anyone, including external stakeholders and the public, can lodge a concern, in the form of a report, either online in EthicsPoint or via the 24-hour, multilingual call service. Reporters of misconduct concerns can choose to raise their concern anonymously.

Reports received are assigned by the BHP Ethics team to an investigator, line leader or team for investigation or resolution as appropriate, in accordance with our internal policy and process documents. The reporting and investigation processes are transparent and accessible to all BHP employees via BHP’s intranet.

We have a number of key policy and process documents to support a safe to speak up culture, including our BHP Whistleblower Policy. BHP encourages individuals to speak up and report concerns about any conduct that is inconsistent with Our Charter, Our Code or internal requirements, or conduct that may be illegal or improper. BHP requires reports of business conduct concerns to be treated with appropriate confidentiality and prohibits any kind of retaliation against people who make or may make a report, or who cooperate with an investigation. We consider all forms of retaliation to be misconduct and grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

We have standards around ethical conduct, including a focus on harassment and bullying, sexual harassment, bribery and corruption, competition, data privacy, conflicts of interest, fraud and theft, and working with governments and communities. Our Code provides guidance on how we should conduct our business, no matter where we work or where we are from. We seek to reinforce these standards with ongoing training, investigations into alleged unethical behaviours and where necessary, apply disciplinary actions.

Activities during FY2022 to raise awareness of Our Code have included:

• a strong focus on Our Code awareness from the CEO, Asset Presidents and General Managers of our operated assets who frequently raise the importance of culture within BHP in their monthly messages
• continuation of our Respectful Behaviours campaign, which commenced in FY2019, designed to stimulate conversations about what constitutes respectful behaviours, why they exist and how to stop disrespectful behaviours, with a focus in FY2022 on raising awareness about sexual harassment
• starting a global Safety Stop for our BHP workforce focused on sexual assault, sexual harassment, racism and bullying, designed to reinforce our commitment to addressing these behaviours, and activate bystanders within our teams
• requirement for new employees to complete Our Code training upon starting work with BHP has been extended to our contractors

BHP is committed to stopping and eradicating sexual harassment from its workplace. In order to improve our response and management, BHP took another important step in the way we provide care, support and options to people, launching the Support Service in June 2021. The Support Service is a dedicated team that provides end-to-end case coordination, information, support and alternative resolution options. It is available to anyone who has been impacted by sexual harassment or anyone who has questions or concerns, including leaders, witnesses or bystanders, and ensuring their wellbeing is a priority and in line with our person-centric approach.

The Support Service follows trauma-informed care principles providing confidential support guided by the impacted person’s wishes and offers flexibility and a say in how their case is managed. Knowing that there are alternative options available, other than an investigation, can encourage individuals to report, thereby increasing our ability to assist them and create a safer workplace. Options other than investigation are offered in clearly defined, limited circumstances, where the alternative resolution options can objectively be considered a proportionate response. The service also provides support to line leaders and bystanders on how to respond to reports or incidents. Line leaders are also offered support from the Support Service in all cases where impacted persons gave consent for their leaders to be informed of the matter.

Effective systems and processes designed to report and investigate potential breaches of Our Code remain key enablers for building trust and confidence in speaking up about potential unethical conduct. In FY2022, we focused on further improvements to investigation systems and processes by having:

• an embedded victim-centric investigation process for sexual harassment and sexual assault matters which were conducted in an integrated manner with the support services described above
• a continued review and allocation of investigation resources to meet business needs
• improved communications and support to various stakeholders throughout the investigation process
• stronger guidance to ensure consistency in disciplinary outcomes for serious breaches of  Our Code

We plan to further strengthen these processes in FY2023 by consolidating the Response and Investigations Framework, including reporting. This will improve governance and enhance reporting and transparency.

EthicsPoint is our central, confidential reporting tool that is accessible to all, including external stakeholders and the public, to report conduct that may be unethical, illegal or inconsistent with Our Code. Reports received are required to be triaged for investigation as appropriate, in accordance with our mandatory minimum performance requirements for business conduct. The most serious report types are triaged to the Central Investigations team within our independent Ethics and Investigations team or relevant subject matter experts. Reports relating to regulatory breaches, such as bribery and corruption, are investigated by Compliance Legal team.

Reports raised via EthicsPoint provide valuable insight into culture and organisational learning. Trends across reports and investigation summaries of serious breaches of Our Code are reported quarterly to the BHP Risk and Audit Committee by the Vice President Ethics & Investigations. 

Our EthicsPoint system is intended to be used as a central repository for all Our Code concerns that are raised by employees, contractors or community members. For this reason, we actively encourage employees and contractors to raise concerns either directly in the system or with line leaders. Line leaders are required to log in EthicsPoint all concerns relating to Our Code that are raised with them. Capturing this data in a central system helps to ensure the correct allocation of cases for the appropriate support and response, including investigations conducted by our Central Investigations team for the most serious matters. The system also provides improved visibility to our Ethics and Investigations team and management to empower them to address concerns appropriately, and work proactively to enhance our ethical business culture.

In FY2022, 5,402 reports were received into EthicsPoint (of these 4,714 were classified as business conduct concerns)¹ representing an increase of 33 per cent in business conduct concerns from FY2021. These include reports directly made by employees, contractors or community members. It also includes reports made to leaders (31 per cent) who are then required to register them in EthicsPoint. We believe the increase corresponds to the continuous effort by BHP to promote the reporting of disrespectful behaviour to create an environment in which people can feel safe speaking up. The introduction of a global service to support people involved in sexual harassment incidents and discuss resolution options has also encouraged employees and contractors to report instances of sexual harassment. Of the business conduct reports received, 36 per cent were made anonymously² compared with 42 per cent in FY2021. Of the total business conduct reports closed during FY2022, 43 per cent contained one or more substantiated allegations.<sup>3

1</sup> Some EthicsPoint reports are enquiries, or are not related to business conduct concerns, or are a duplicate of an existing report.
² This excludes reports not containing a business conduct concern, and excludes reports logged by leaders on behalf of others.
³ The calculation is based on reports received and completed in FY2022, containing one or more substantiated allegations. Not all unsubstantiated cases have a concluded investigation. Reasons include the alleged perpetrator is not able to be identified, was previously terminated, or that the impacted person did not wish for the investigation to continue.

Corruption often misallocates resources, reinforces poverty, undermines the integrity of government and community decision-making and wastes opportunities that arise from resource development. We are committed to contributing to the global fight against corruption and working with business, government and civil society to support this effort.

Our commitment to anti-corruption compliance is embodied in Our Charter and Our Code. We prohibit authorising, offering, giving or promising anything of value directly or indirectly to anyone to influence them in their role, or to encourage them to perform their work disloyally or otherwise done improperly. We also prohibit facilitation payments, which are payments to government officials for routine government actions. Our people must take care that third parties acting on our behalf do not violate anti-corruption laws. Disciplinary action including dismissal, or termination of contractual relationships, may follow from a breach of these requirements.

Our Compliance team, led by the Chief Compliance Officer, has a mandate to design and govern BHP’s compliance frameworks for key compliance risks, including anti-bribery and corruption. The function is independent of our assets and regions and comprises teams that are co-located in our main global locations and a specialised Compliance Legal team. The Chief Compliance Officer maintains a reporting line to the Chief Legal, Governance and External Affairs Officer. The Chief Compliance Officer reports quarterly to the Risk and Audit Committee on compliance issues and meets at least annually with the Committee Chair.

We have a specific anti-corruption program that sets out mandatory requirements designed to identify and manage the risk of anti-corruption laws being breached:

• Under our Group Risk Architecture, anti-corruption risk assessments are conducted across the organisation. Anti-corruption risk assessments are governed by BHP’s Risk Framework, which includes the requirement to identify and test the effectiveness of critical controls that manage corruption risk. These risk assessments form a critical part of our program, helping to ensure appropriate resources are focused on the highest areas of risk and that an adequate set of critical controls has been adopted to manage the exposures.
• Our Compliance team focuses on activities that potentially involve higher risks of corruption, including activities relating to seeking and renewing tenements, licences, permits and other government approvals; government negotiations; shipping and port dealings; acquisitions and divestments and commencing activities in countries with higher levels of corruption risk. Risk-based process controls also require Compliance team review and endorsement for our highest risk transactions, including certain gifts and hospitality, community projects and sponsorships and the engagement of certain third parties in circumstances assessed as presenting higher levels of corruption risk.
• We apply a risk-based system to assess business partners, customers, suppliers, contractors (including contractors who may interact with third parties on our behalf) and joint venture partners and conduct due diligence and other compliance requirements prior to transacting. Our due diligence processes are designed to, among other things, identify circumstances where politically exposed persons may be involved in our business activities so that corruption-related risks can be considered and appropriately managed.
• We communicate to those with whom we do business our compliance requirements in relation to, among other things, corruption, bribery and extortion, including through Our Code and Our Minimum Requirements for Suppliers. A breach of our requirements and expectations can result in disciplinary action, including dismissal or termination of contractual relationships.
• We require annual training for all employees (both full-time and part-time employees) on Our Code, which as noted above, prohibits all forms of bribery and corruption. As part of this training, employees are required to confirm they will act according to Our Code and will seek clarification (including from the Compliance team) if they do not understand any part of Our Code. In addition to anti-corruption training as part of annual training on Our Code, we deliver additional risk-based anti-corruption training to our workforce, focusing on the potential corruption risks which individuals are likely to face. In FY2022 1,578 employees and contractors undertook this additional training, as well as employees of some of our business partners and community partners. We complement our training program through periodic communications to workforce in higher-risk roles, helping to maintain awareness of compliance risks and the need for these to be managed.
• The Compliance team conducts monitoring of financial and other data (for example, information from due diligence activities) to check higher-risk transactions and help verify the operation of key anti-corruption controls, such as the requirement to obtain pre-approval before engaging in higher corruption-risk transactions. A separate, independent Internal Audit team also conducts anti-corruption audits to assess implementation of anti-corruption controls and to identify transactions and conduct that are not consistent with BHP’s policies, standards and procedures. Any breaches of process detected during monitoring or auditing are considered by the Compliance team to assess whether further investigation is required.
• We firmly encourage and support employees, contractors and other third parties to report suspected corruption issues. Reports can be made a number of ways, including through our global confidential whistle-blower hotline, EthicsPoint. Our Compliance Legal team manages investigations into potential anti-corruption issues, whether these are reported directly into EthicsPoint or via other channels. Any retaliation against someone who speaks up and reports an issue is prohibited by Our Code. Our BHP Whistleblower Policy sets out additional information, including protections available to persons who make eligible disclosures under Australian law.

Our anti-corruption compliance program is designed to meet the requirements of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977, the UK Bribery Act 2010, the Australian Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) and applicable laws of all places where we do business. These laws are consistent with the standards of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. Our anti-corruption compliance program is also consistent with Transparency International’s Business Principles for Countering Bribery. 

The Compliance team regularly reviews the design of our anti-corruption compliance program to make any changes required by regulatory developments. The Compliance team also uses the results of monitoring, audits and investigations to make appropriate enhancements to our program. Enhancements may also be based on key observations from the outcomes of public legal cases involving allegations of breaches of anti-corruption laws and external benchmarking activities. We believe regular calibration of our program enables us to support optimal resource allocation to areas presenting the highest corruption risks to our business.

Furthermore, we recognise the importance of ongoing efforts to strengthen global anti-corruption laws and actively contribute to public dialogue in this area, including through our public submissions and other advocacy supporting appropriate and effective law reform in this area. We have provided financial support for and are a Steering Committee member of the Bribery Prevention Network in Australia. We are represented on the Board of EITI and we support and participate in Open Ownership, the first public global database of group ownership information, and we look for opportunities to encourage our suppliers and partners to do the same. We also support ultimate beneficial ownership transparency. As noted above, in 2021 BHP signed the Statement by companies at the Beneficial Ownership Transparency Forum held in London and hosted by BHP, together with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Open Ownership and the B Team.