Statement of Directors' responsibilities

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and the financial statements. The Directors are required to prepare financial statements for the Group in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the EU. Company law requires the Directors to prepare such financial statements in accordance with IFRSs, the Companies Act 1985 and Article 4 of the IAS Regulation.

International Accounting Standard 1 requires that financial statements present fairly for each financial year the Group’s financial position, financial performance and cash flows. This requires the faithful representation of the effects of transactions, other events and conditions in accordance with the definitions and recognition criteria for assets, liabilities, income and expenses set out in the International Accounting Standards Board’s ‘Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements’. In virtually all circumstances, a fair presentation will be achieved by compliance with all applicable IFRSs. Directors are also required to:

properly select and apply accounting policies;
present information, including accounting policies, in a manner that provides relevant, reliable, comparable and understandable information; and
provide additional disclosures when compliance with the specific requirements in IFRSs is insufficient to enable users to understand the impact of particular transactions, other events and conditions on the entity’s financial position and financial performance.

The Directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Group, for safeguarding the assets, for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities and for the preparation of a directors’ report and a report on remuneration which comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 1985.

The Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the Group website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements differs from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Directors’ responsibility statement
We confirm to the best of our knowledge:

the financial statements, prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the Company and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole; and
the management report, which is incorporated into the Directors’ report, includes a fair review of the development and performance of the business and the position of the Company and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties they face.

By order of the Board

anne Hyland

Anne Hyland
Director
18 May 2009