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 (IFRS's) and have also elected to prepare financial statements for the company in accordance with IFRS. Company law requires the directors' to prepare such financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, 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 company'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 International Financial Reporting Standards. 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 IFRS 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.