The directors are responsible for preparing the Directors' Report and the group and parent company financial statements, in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the directors to prepare group and parent company financial statements for each financial year. Under that law they have elected to prepare the group financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted by the EU and applicable law and have elected to prepare the parent 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 IFRS 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 parent company financial statements are required by law to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the parent company.

In preparing each of the group and parent company financial statements, the directors are required to:

The directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the parent 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 to prevent and detect 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 UK governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

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 who held office at the date of approval of this Directors' Report confirm that, so far as they are each aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the company's auditors are unaware; and each director has taken all the steps that he ought to have taken as a director to make himself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the company's auditors are aware of that information.

We, the directors of the company, confirm that to the best of our knowledge:

a) the financial statements of the group have been prepared in accordance with IFRS as adopted by the EU, and for the company under UK GAAP, in accordance with applicable United Kingdom law and give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the group; and
b) the information that is cross-referenced from the Business Review section of the Directors' Report includes a fair review of the development and performance of the business and the position of the group, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties that face the group.

By order of the Board.

Secretary
24 February 2009