Signet Logo

Annual Report and Accounts 2006/07

Statement of directors responsibilities’

The directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report & Accounts and the Group and parent company financial statements, in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the directors to prepare Group and parent company financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the directors are required to prepare the Group financial statements in accordance with IFRS as adopted by the EU and have elected to prepare the parent company financial statements in accordance with UK Accounting Standards.

The Group financial statements are required by law and IFRS defined here as adopted by the EU to present fairly the financial position and performance of the Group; the Companies Act 1985 provides in relation to such financial statements that references in the relevant part of that Act to financial statements giving a true and fair view are references to their achieving a fair presentation.

The parent company financial statements are required by law to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the parent company.

In preparing each of the Group and parent company financial statements, the directors are required to:

  • select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
  • make judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
  • for the Group financial statements, state whether they have been prepared in accordance with IFRS;
  • for the parent company financial statements, state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the parent company financial statements; and
  • prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Group and the parent company will continue in business.

The directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the parent company and enable them to ensure that its financial statements comply with relevant Companies legislation and regulations. They have general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to them to safeguard the assets of the Group and to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities.

Under applicable law and regulations, the directors are also responsible for preparing a Report of the directors, Directors' remuneration report and Corporate governance statement that comply with that law and those regulations.

The directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the Company's website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Duty of care and statutory safe harbour

The directors owe their duties to shareholders of Signet as a whole and undertake no duty of care to individual shareholders, other stakeholders or potential investors.

As a result of the "safe harbour" provisions introduced by section 463 of the Companies Act 2006, the directors shall not be subject to any liability to persons other than the Company resulting from reliance, by that person or another, on information contained in the Report of the directors', the Directors' remuneration report and any summary financial statements so far as derived from these reports.