National Grid 2008 Annual Report Download - page 600

BOWNE INTEGRATED TYPESETTING SYSTEM
CRC: 8830
Name: NATIONAL GRID
Date: 17-JUN-2008 03:10:51.35Operator: BNY99999TPhone: [phone]Site: BOWNE OF NEW YORK
Y59930.SUB, DocName: EX-15.1, Doc: 16, Page: 78
Description: EXHIBIT 15.1
0/6274.00.00.00Y59930BNY
[E/O] EDGAR 2 *Y59930/274/6*
BOWNE INTEGRATED TYPESETTING SYSTEM
CRC: 8830
Name: NATIONAL GRID
Date: 17-JUN-2008 03:10:51.35Operator: BNY99999TPhone: [phone]Site: BOWNE OF NEW YORK
Y59930.SUB, DocName: EX-15.1, Doc: 16, Page: 78 Description: EXHIBIT 15.1
0/6274.00.00.00Y59930BNY
[E/O] EDGAR 2 *Y59930/274/6*
Table of Contents
86
Inde
p
endent Cor
p
orate Res
p
onsibilit
y
Re
p
ort
National Grid plc
Independent Corporate Responsibility Report
Independent Accountants’ Report on Corporate
Responsibility to National Grid plc
We have been 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 for the year ended 31 March 2008.
The selected corporate responsibility information for the
purpose of this report consists only of the information
reported under the following headings in the OFR (the
‘Corporate Responsibility Information’):
Our work comprised performing procedures to provide
limited assurance with respect to:
We have not performed procedures with respect to
information on KeySpan, which was acquired during the
financial year.
Respective responsibilities of the Directors
and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
The Directors of the Company are responsible for preparing
the Corporate Responsibility Information based on the
Company’s corporate responsibility reporting principles (the
‘Principles’), which includes their carbon reporting guidance
based on the World Resources Institute Greenhouse Gas
Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
(March 2004, revised edition). These Principles are available
on the Company’s website. Our responsibility is to express a
conclusion on the Corporate Responsibility Information
based on our limited assurance procedures.
This report, including the conclusion, has been prepared for
the Company to assist the Directors in reporting the
Company’s Corporate Responsibility performance and
activities. We permit the disclosure of this report within the
Annual Report and Accounts, to enable the Company’s
members to verify that the Directors have discharged their
governance responsibilities by commissioning an
independent limited assurance report in connection with the
Corporate Responsibility Information and without assuming
or accepting any responsibility or liability to the members on
our part. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not
accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the
Directors as a body and the Company for our work or this
report save where terms are expressly agreed and with our
prior consent in writing.
Operating performance: Safety (including Health);
Talent: Talent and skills, Engagement and performance,
and Inclusion and diversit
y
;
Relationships: Suppliers and Community involvement;
and
Environment: Climate change, Historically contaminated
land, and Protecting the environment.
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.
Inherent limitations
Non-financial performance information is subject to more
inherent limitations than financial information, given the
characteristics of the subject matter and the methods
adopted for the definition and
g
atherin
g
of information. There
are no generally accepted reporting standards applicable for
corporate responsibility information. Qualitative
interpretations of relevance, materiality and the accuracy of
data are subject to individual assumptions and judgements.
It is important to read the data and statements in the context
of the Principles. Furthermore, our work is based on
historical information and the projection of any information or
conclusions in this report to any future periods would be
inappropriate.
Assurance work performed
We conducted our limited assurance engagement in
accordance with International Standard on Assurance
Engagements 3000 (Revised) — ‘Assurance Engagements
other than Audits and Reviews of Historical Financial
Information’ issued by the International Auditing and
Assurance Standards Board (ISAE 3000). Our limited
assurance procedures primarily comprised:
A limited assurance engagement is substantially less in
scope than a reasonable assurance engagement under
ISAE 3000. A limited assurance engagement excludes
reasonable assurance procedures such as testing the
operating effectiveness of controls and verifying assets,
liabilities and transactions in respect of the Corporate
Responsibility Information. Our limited assurance procedures
did not include work to verify the original source data
including, for example, pipeline asset records or emission
factor research.
Conclusion
On the basis of our limited assurance procedures, nothing
has come to our attention which causes us to believe, for the
year ended 31 March 2008, that:
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP,
Chartered Accountants, London
14 Ma
y
2008
Making enquiries of relevant management of the
Company;
Evaluating the design and implementation of processes
for collating and reporting material safety, health and
environmental information;
Testing, on a selective basis, the collation of the
greenhouse gas emission data by the Company;
Reviewing a sample of relevant information including
Board reports, reports to the Executive Committee and
risk and compliance reports prepared and used within the
Company; and
Testing that management’s internal verification processes
with respect to the Corporate Responsibility Information
have been completed.
the Company’s processes are not designed to report
material safety, health and environmental issues for
National Grid group, as identified by operational
management, to the Directors;
the greenhouse gas emissions data (Scope 1 and 2)
reported under the heading ‘Climate change’ in the OFR
has not been prepared in accordance with the Company’s
Principles; and
the Corporate Responsibility Information is materially
inconsistent with the Company’s underlying records.