Corporate Governance

The Board believes that, in terms of the overall direction and control of the Company, effective corporate governance will come principally from the values, standards and disciplines it seeks to apply in dealings with shareholders, customers, staff, suppliers, contractors and other stakeholders. Many of the Company’s core values and standards are set out in a range of procedures and practice guidelines communicated throughout the Group. However, external governance codes set the framework for the Group’s internal standards and it therefore seeks to comply with established best practice in all areas of corporate governance.

Statement Of Compliance With Code Provisions

The Company recognises the importance of maintaining the highest standards of corporate governance in all areas of its business. Throughout the year ended 30 June 2009 the Company complied with the provisions of Section 1 of the Combined Code on Corporate Governance issued by the Financial Reporting Council in June 2008 (the ‘Code’).  A copy of the Code is publically available from the Financial Reporting Council website (www.frc.org.uk).