Preparation of the Financial Statements and Directors' Responsibilities
The Directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and Form 20-F Information and the Group and Company Financial Statements, in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
Company law requires the Directors to prepare Group and Company Financial Statements for each financial year. Under that law they are required to prepare the Group Financial Statements in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the European Union (EU) and applicable law and have elected to prepare the Company Financial Statements in accordance with UK Accounting Standards and applicable law (UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
The Group Financial Statements are required by law and IFRSs as adopted by the EU to present fairly the financial position and performance of the Group; the Companies Act 1985 provides in relation to such financial statements that references in the relevant part of that Act to financial statements giving a true and fair view are references to their achieving a fair presentation.
The Company has also elected to prepare the Group Financial Statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.
The Company Financial Statements are required by law to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company.
In preparing each of the Group and Company Financial Statements, the Directors are required to:
- Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently.
- Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.
- For the Group Financial Statements, state whether they have been prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the EU.
- For the Company Financial Statements, state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the Company Financial Statements.
- Prepare the Financial Statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Group and the Company will continue in business.
The Directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and enable them to ensure that its financial statements comply with the Companies Act 1985. They have general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to them to safeguard the assets of the Group and the Company and to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities.
Under applicable law and regulations, the Directors are also responsible for preparing a Directors’ Report, Directors’ Remuneration Report and Corporate Governance Statement that comply with that law and those regulations.
The Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the Company’s website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of Financial Statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.
Directors’ responsibility statement pursuant to DTR 4
The Directors confirm that to the best of our knowledge:
- The Financial Statements, prepared in accordance with the applicable set of accounting standards, 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.
- The Directors’ Report includes a fair review of the development and performance of the business and the position of the issuer and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties that they face.
On behalf of the Board of Directors on 29 January 2009:
DAVID R BRENNAN
Director
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