The market price of the shares at 31 December 2007 was 320p and the range during the financial year was 267.75p to 391.75p.

None of the Directors were materially interested in any significant contract to which the Company or any of its subsidiaries were party during the year.

Employees
The Group’s policies in relation to employees are disclosed on pages 11 to 13.

Charitable and community donations
During the year the Group made charitable donations of £214,341 to non-political organisations.Total contributions including contributions in kind amounted to £367,854.

Supplier payment policy
The Group has due regard to the payment terms of suppliers and settles all undisputed accounts in accordance with payment terms agreed with the supplier. At the year end the Group had 31 days’ purchases outstanding in respect of payments to suppliers and sub-contractors (2006: 34 days). At the year end the Company had 39 days’ purchases outstanding in respect of payments to suppliers and sub-contractors (2006: 32 days).

Going concern
The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis as the Directors have a reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to continue in business for the foreseeable future.

Directors’ responsibility statement
The Directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company, for safeguarding the assets, for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities and for the preparation of a Directors’

Report and Remuneration Report which comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 1985.

Financial statements are published on the Group’s website in accordance with legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements, which may vary from legislation in other jurisdictions. The maintenance and accuracy of the Group’s website is the responsibility of the Directors. The Directors' responsibility also extends to the ongoing integrity of the financial statements contained therein.

Each of the persons who is a Director at the time of this report confirms that:

• so far as the Director is aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the Company's auditors are unaware; and
• the Director has taken all the steps that he or she ought to have taken as a Director in order to make himself/herself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the Company's auditors are aware of that information.

This confirmation is given and should be interpreted in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act 1985.

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and the Financial Statements in accordance with the Companies Act 1985.The Directors are also required to prepare financial statements for the Group in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted by the European Union and Article 4 of the IAS Regulation.The Directors have chosen to prepare financial statements for the Company in accordance with UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.

Group financial statements

International Accounting Standard 1 requires that financial statements present fairly for each financial year the Group’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 IFRS. A fair presentation also requires the Directors to:

• consistently select and apply appropriate 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.

Parent company financial statements

Company law requires the Directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company and of the profit or loss of the Company for that period. In preparing these 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 whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Company will continue in business.

The Directors confirm that they have complied with the above requirements in preparing the financial statements.