Compliance with the provisions of the Combined Code
The Company complied with all the provisions set out in Section 1 of the Combined Code throughout the year.

Application of the principles set out in the Combined Code
In this report, the heading to each of the principles is set out and the manner in which the Company has applied the principle underlying each of the headings is described.

The Board
The Company has a Board comprising an independent non-executive Chairman, three executive directors and three independent non-executive directors. The senior non-executive director is Michael Hartnall.

Chairman and Group Chief Executive
The Company has both a Chairman and a Group Chief Executive. There is a clear division of responsibility between the two positions with the Chairman responsible for running the Board and the Group Chief Executive responsible for running the Group’s businesses. Major decisions have to be made by the Board as a whole and no one individual has unfettered powers of decision.

Board balance
The Board has both executive and independent non-executive directors. Each director has a vote and no individual or small group of individuals dominates the Board’s decision taking.

Supply of information to the Board
The Board normally meets ten times a year and considers at each meeting a report from the Group Chief Executive on current trading and major business issues. The Board also considers reports from various heads of corporate functions on a regular basis and agrees the operating plan for the following financial year.

Appointments to the Board
There is a Nominations Committee of the Board which comprises all the independent non-executive directors and is chaired by the Chairman of the Company. This Committee nominates appointments to the Board, actual appointments being made by the Board as a whole.

Re-election of directors
One third of the directors retire each year and submit themselves for reelection at the Annual General Meeting of the Company. Reelection of an individual director therefore falls at least every three years. The directors retiring by rotation at the next Annual General Meeting are Jonathan Fry and George Fairweather.

Philip Brown and Rick McNeel were appointed directors on 28 July 2000 and submit themselves for election at the Annual General Meeting.

The level and make-up of directors’ remuneration and disclosure
The level and make-up of remuneration is set out in the Board report on remuneration. As that Report shows, a proportion of executive directors’ remuneration is linked to corporate performance through both the Performance Share Plan and the annual bonus scheme.

Procedure on executive remuneration
There is a Remuneration Committee of the Board which is more fully described in the Board report on remuneration. The responsibilities of the Committee include the determination of (i) the Company’s policy on remuneration of executive directors and (ii) the specific remuneration in all its forms and all other terms of service of executive directors. No director is involved in deciding their own remuneration.

Dialogue with institutional shareholders
Directors of the Company are in contact from time to time with representatives of institutional shareholders to discuss matters of mutual interest relating to the Company.

Constructive use of the Annual General Meeting
The Board uses the Annual General Meeting (AGM) as an occasion to communicate with all shareholders, including private investors, who are provided with the opportunity to ask questions relating to the Group. The notice of the AGM to be held on 26 April 2001 and related papers will be posted to shareholders more than 20 working days before the AGM.

Financial reporting
The directors have acknowledged, in the Directors’ responsibilities statement, their responsibility for preparing the financial statements of the Company and the Group. The auditors have included, in the independent auditors’ report, a statement about their reporting responsibilities.

The directors are also responsible for the publication of unaudited interim reports of the Group which provide balanced and understandable assessments of the Group’s financial position for the first six months of each accounting period. The same standards are applied to other price sensitive public reports and reports to regulators, as well as to information provided to satisfy statutory requirements.

Going concern
After making appropriate enquiries, the directors have a reasonable expectation that the Company and Group have adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.

Internal control
The Board has overall responsibility for the Group’s system of internal control and risk management and for reviewing the effectiveness of this system. Such a system can only be designed to manage, rather than eliminate, the risk of failure to achieve business objectives and can therefore only provide reasonable, and not absolute, assurance against material misstatement or loss.

The Board is of the view that an ongoing process for identifying, evaluating and managing significant risks faced by the Group was in place throughout 2000 and up to the date that the Annual Report 2000 was approved. This process is regularly reviewed by the Board and accords with the internal control guidance for directors as required by the Combined Code.

During 1999, a risk management committee was established to enhance management’s ability to review and monitor the effectiveness of this process on a regular basis. The terms of reference of the committee included establishing and implementing policies and procedures for risk management and internal controls and allocating responsibility for business risk management. They also include the ongoing monitoring of the effectiveness of internal controls.

Businesses are required to include internal controls on agendas for their regular management meetings and to report half yearly to the risk management committee on actions taken to review the effectiveness of those controls. Businesses are also required to have processes to identify risks and, so far as possible, take action to reduce those risks.

At the meeting held in December 2000, the Board carried out its annual review of the effectiveness of internal controls. This included considering a report from the risk management committee on action taken during the year to identify and reduce risks and to increase awareness of both risk management and the importance of having effective internal controls.

Audit Committee and Auditors
The Audit Committee comprises the Chairman and all non-executive directors. The Committee meets at least three times a year to review, inter alia, in conjunction with the external and internal auditors, internal financial controls within the Group. The Committee operates under written terms of reference and its duties include a detailed review of the financial statements prior to their recommendation to the Board for approval.

The duties of the Audit Committee include keeping under review the scope and results of the external audit, its cost effectiveness and the independence and objectivity of external auditors.