Respective responsibilities of directors and auditors
As described above, the company's directors are responsible for the preparation of financial statements. It is our responsibility to form an independent opinion, based on our audit, on those statements and to report our opinion to you.
Basis of opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with Auditing Standards issued by the Auditing Practices Board. An audit includes examination, on a test basis, of evidence relevant to the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. It also includes an assessment of the significant estimates and judgements made by the directors in the preparation of the financial statements, and of whether the accounting policies are appropriate to the company's circumstances, consistently applied and adequately disclosed.
We planned and performed our audit so as to obtain all the information and explanations which we considered
necessary in order to provide us with sufficient evidence to give reasonable assurance that the financial statements are
free from material misstatement, whether caused by fraud or other irregularity or error. In forming our opinion we also
evaluated the overall adequacy of the presentation of information in the financial statements.
Opinion
In our opinion the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company and of the group as at
22 February 1997 and of the profit and cash flows of the group for the year then ended and have been properly prepared in
accordance with the Companies Act 1985.
Price Waterhouse
Chartered Accountants
and Registered Auditors
London
7 April 1997