We carry out annual internal verification and external assurance to:
- Obtain an independent view of developments in our non-financial strategy, management and implementation to determine our ability to deliver corporate-level objectives;
- Test our awareness of and response to stakeholder issues;
- Ensure the content of our reporting on material CR issues and performance is balanced and accurate; and,
- Provide feedback to the Risk & Responsibility Committee on the CR governance and processes observed through the assurance activities.
Assuring corporate responsibility information contained in our Annual Report and Accounts
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) were engaged to perform limited assurance procedures on selected corporate responsibility information contained in the Operating and Financial Review (OFR) included in the Company’s Annual Report and Accounts 2007/08 for the year ended 31 March 2008.
Note: PwC did not perform separate or additional assurance of the content of the 'Responsibility' section of this website.
The selected corporate responsibility information for the purpose of PwC's assurance consists only of the information reported under the following headings in the OFR (the ‘Corporate Responsibility Information’):
- Operating performance: Safety (including Health);
- Talent: Talent and skills, Engagement and performance, and Inclusion and diversity;
- Relationships: Suppliers and Community involvement; and,
- Environment: Climate change, Historically contaminated land, and Protecting the environment.
Their work comprised performing procedures to provide limited assurance with respect to:
- The design of processes for reporting by operational management to the Directors on material safety, health
- and environmental issues for the National Grid group;
- The collation of the 2007/08 greenhouse gas emissions data (Scope 1 and 2) reported under the heading ‘Climate change’ in the OFR; and
- The Company’s verification procedures over the Corporate Responsibility Information.
PwC did not perform procedures with respect to information on KeySpan, which was acquired during the financial year.
Independent Accountants’ Report on Corporate Responsibility to National Grid plc
Assuring corporate responsibility information contained in the 'Responsibility' section of our website
As noted above, PwC did not perform separate or additional assurance of the content of the 'Responsibility' section of this website.
Our Annual Report and Accounts is used as the principle source for performance data set out on this site, including data not within the scope of PwC's engagement detailed above. This source data has been subject to statutory audit by the Company's Independent Auditors within the scope and to the extent set out in the 'Independent Auditors’ report to the Members of National Grid plc'.
Where performance data has not been derived from the Annual Report and Accounts ( e.g. waste, water use), this has been the subject of internal verification to the same level employed for our Annual Report and Accounts.