The Directors are required by the Companies Act 1985 to prepare accounts for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company and of the Group as at the end of the financial year and of the profit or loss of the Group for the financial year.

The Directors consider that in preparing the accounts (detailed in the following sections: Principal Accounting Policies, Accounts and Notes to the Accounts) the Company has used appropriate accounting policies, consistently applied and supported by reasonable and prudent judgements and estimates and all applicable accounting standards have been followed.

The Directors have responsibility for ensuring that the Company keeps accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial position of the Company and of the Group and which enable them to ensure that the accounts comply with the Companies Act 1985. The Directors have general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to them to safeguard the assets of the Group and to prevent and to detect fraud and other irregularities.

The Directors, having prepared the accounts, have requested the Auditors to take whatever steps and to undertake whatever inspections they consider to be appropriate for the purposes of enabling them to give their audit report.

The Directors confirm that the Audit Committee continues to review the adequacy of the system of internal financial controls adopted by the Group.