Directors' responsibilities

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report, the Directors’ Remuneration Report and the Financial Statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the Directors to prepare Financial Statements for each financial year. Under that law the Directors have prepared the Group and Parent Company Financial Statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted by the EU and as regards the Group Financial Statements, Article 4 of the IAS Regulation. In preparing these Financial Statements, the Directors have also elected to comply with IFRS, issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The Financial Statements are required by law to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company and the Group and of the profit or loss of the Group for that period.

In preparing those 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;
state that the Financial Statements comply with IFRS as adopted by the European Union (EU); and
prepare the Financial Statements on the going concern basis, unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Group will continue in business.

The Directors are also required by the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the Financial Services Authority to include a management report containing a fair review of the business and a description of the principal risks and uncertainties facing the Group and Company.

The Directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and the Group and to enable them to ensure that the Financial Statements and the Directors’ Remuneration Report comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and the Group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the Company’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of Financial Statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

DIRECTORS' STATEMENT PURSUANT TO THE DISCLOSURE AND TRANSPARENCY RULES

Each of the Directors, whose names and functions are Iisted in the Board of Directors section, confirm that, to the best of each person’s knowledge and belief:

the Financial Statements, prepared in accordance with IFRS 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 Directors’ Report contained in the Annual 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 that they face.

On behalf of the Board

EJ BOOT

DIRECTOR

1 APRIL 2010

J T SUTCLIFFE