Marks and Spencer 2013 Annual Report Download - page 78

Governance Marks and Spencer Group plc Annual report and financial statements 2013 76
Other disclosures continued
Royal British Legion, our Marks & Start programme and local
community donations. We also donated £1.2m (last year
£1.3m) of employee time, principally from fundraising,
volunteering, Marks & Start and school work experience, and
stock donations of £3.6m (last year £3.2m) to a variety of
charities, including Shelter and The Newlife Foundation.
We also had another successful year supporting a number of
our charity partners in raising funds of £8.2m (last year £8.5m).
This principally consisted of funds raised from customer clothing
donations to Oxfam through ‘Shwopping’ our clothes recycling
initiative, funds raised by our Marks & Start charities as a result
of M&S support and other employee and customer donations.
Political donations
No political donations were made during the year ended 30 March
2013. Marks & Spencer has a policy of not making donations to
political organisations or independent election candidates or
incurring political expenditure anywhere in the world as defined in
the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
Going concern
In adopting the going concern basis for preparing the financial
statements, the directors have considered the business
activities as set out on pages 1 to 37 as well as the Group’s
principal risks and uncertainties as set out on pages 45 to 48.
Based on the Group’s cash flow forecasts and projections, the
Board is satisfied that the Group will be able to operate within
the level of its facilities for the foreseeable future. For this
reason the Group continues to adopt the going concern basis
in preparing its financial statements.
Auditors
Resolutions to reappoint PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as
auditors of the Company and to authorise the Audit Committee to
determine their remuneration will be proposed at the 2013 AGM.
Annual General Meeting
The AGM of Marks and Spencer Group plc will be held at
Wembley Stadium, London on 9 July 2013 at 11am. The Notice
of Meeting is given, together with explanatory notes, in the
booklet which accompanies this report.
Directors’ responsibilities
The directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report,
the Remuneration report and the financial statements in
accordance with applicable law and regulations. Company law
requires the directors to prepare financial statements for each
financial year. Under that law the directors have prepared the
Group and Company financial statements in accordance with
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted
by the EU. Under company law the directors must not approve
the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give
a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Group and the
Company and of the profit or loss of the Company and Group
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 accounting estimates that are
reasonable and prudent;
–state whether applicable IFRSs as adopted by the EU 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 are responsible for keeping adequate accounting
records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company’s
transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time
the financial position of the Company and the Group and to
enable them to ensure that the financial statements and the
Remuneration report comply with the Companies Act 2006
and, as regards the Group financial statements, Article 4 of the
IAS Regulation. They are also responsible for safeguarding the
assets of the Company and the Group and hence for taking
reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and
other irregularities. The directors are responsible for the
maintenance and integrity of the Company’s website.
Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and
dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation
in other jurisdictions. Each of the directors, whose names and
functions are listed on pages 40 and 41 of the Annual Report,
confirm that, to the best of their knowledge:
–the Group financial statements, which have been prepared in
accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the EU, give a true and
fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit of
the Group; and
–the Business review contained in this report includes a fair
review of the development and performance of the business
and the position of the Group, together with a description of
the principal risks and uncertainties that it faces.
Disclosure of information to auditor
Each director confirms that, so far as he/she is aware, there is
no relevant audit information of which the Company’s auditors
are unaware and that each director has taken all the steps
that he/she ought to have taken as a director to make himself/
herself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish
that the Company’s auditors are aware of that information.
By order of the Board
Amanda Mellor, Group Secretary
London
20 May 2013