The scope of assurance covers the content of the web-based Report marked with the “assurance” logo and the business activities of E.ON UK that support this content. Our review does not cover information contained elsewhere on the E.ON UK website or data relating to the corporate entity, E.ON A.G.

The assurance assignment considered emerging good practice and standards in this area, and has been carried out to the 2003 version of the AA1000AS assurance standard which requires us to assess the completeness and materiality of information as well as the overall responsiveness to the issues, concerns and interests of stakeholders. We have conducted a “reasonable assurance engagement” as defined by the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE 3000).

We have included a separate Assurance Statement for the E.ON UK 2008 Summary Report which is published on the E.ON UK website.

All material content contained in the Report has been systematically verified to provide a reasonable level of assurance as defined by the ISAE3000 Standard. We assessed the overall content and tone of the Report against our understanding of material issues and business performance, taking account of E.ON UK’s own approach and processes for determining significance . Our level of investigation has been matched to our view of the significance of content to E.ON UK’s business objectives, its stakeholders and the Report’s wider readership.

Where possible, financial and operational content has been cross-referenced to the separately audited E.ON Annual Report.

The assurance assignment was carried out between January and July 2009 and consisted of a number of activities, including:

• 46 interviews with executives, managers and employees to understand: how corporate responsibility elements are managed; the main elements of strategic focus; the degree of implementation across the company; activities that have contributed to 2008 performance; progress against objectives.
• Review of policies, reports, agendas and minutes to supplement management interviews.
• Review of a wide range of internal business research, planning and communications documents covering the corporate responsibility agenda, including the development during the year of E.ON UK’s “six corporate responsibilities”.
• Review of relationships with stakeholders through interviews with key relationship managers and an independent opinion survey of communities associated with the Grain and Kingsnorth sites.
• Review of the external context for E.ON UK’s activities and performance, through a selected review of a selection of external sources and competitors’ reports.
• Visit to the gas fired power station site at Grain and return visits to the coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth, and the contact centre at Bolton which we first visited in 2007.
• Verification of reported data, statements and assertions through: interviews with key authors and providers of data; review of data management systems; sampling of spreadsheets, records, minutes etc.
• Attendance at: a workshop on Corporate Responsibility related risks; a safety, health and environment leadership team meeting; a workshop to develop relationships with NGOs.

We are also in the process of evaluating the opinions of communities associated with the planned biomass power plant in Sheffield and, in a separate survey, we are evaluating the views of a broader array of E.ON UK’s key national stakeholders.

We requested a number of changes to the content as part of the assurance process. All significant points raised have been incorporated into the Report to our satisfaction.

We are satisfied that the Report provides an accurate and balanced account of E.ON UK’s corporate responsibility focus, management activities and performance which are of likely interest to E.ON UK’s main stakeholders or that have received management attention during the reporting period.

We consider the information to be sufficiently accurate and free from material misstatement or omission for readers to form a balanced and informed opinion of E.ON UK’s corporate responsibility activities and performance.

Once again we have witnessed a company that has sought to develop a deep understanding of the complex and often conflicting societal demands on energy producers. E.ON UK has invested significant time in developing a balanced strategy that is consistent with its main corporate responsibilities. This has been evident in management interviews at all levels where there was a clear desire to “do the right thing”. E.ON wishes to become a leading thinker and practitioner in the area of responsible energy. We have noted significant progress towards this goal during 2008, and a serious commitment to future developments.

We have formed the following opinions of E.ON UK’s approach and performance in relation to the issues presented in the Report. These are included in this statement to add context for the reader, to give a deeper insight into some of the issues covered and to promote future improvement.

Main achievements

• E.ON UK’s Changing Energy strategy has become a central theme and an accepted corporate objective during 2008. Following intense internal communication, it is now apparent that Changing Energy is influencing strategy and decision making in all areas of the business.There has been significant progress in a number of areas of Health and Safety management, including communications, reporting and the development of root cause solutions. This was evident throughout the business, but especially visible at the Grain construction site which had achieved a remarkable safety performance to date.
• There has been considerable work carried out in 2008 to define E.ON UK’s key responsibilities. This is ongoing.
• There was a 6.5% reduction in the carbon intensity of electricity generation compared with 2007, along with 35.0% and 28.5% reductions in NOx and SOx emissions respectively. This represents a proactive and compliant response to the EU Large Production Plant Directive which sets limits on power stations with over 50Mw capacity.
• There has been a marked improvement in levels of customer satisfaction during 2008/09 as a result of various very positive customer facing initiatives and an improvement in supporting systems. We noted a very strong service culture and performance at the contact centre visited.
• E.ON has developed some very successful relationships with communities associated with its sites. We noted this last year and have again found some exceptional examples of engagement, which were endorsed by feedback from our community opinion survey.
• There has also been major progress in ethical supply chain management and risk management processes.

Main challenges

• Key performance indicators have been developed internally to track progress against E.ON UK’s defined corporate responsibilities. These are starting to drive performance but have not yet been reported externally. We anticipate them being included in the 2009 Report.
• We believe that there is a need to formalise E.ON UK’s top level responsibility for reviewing and coordinating progress against the Changing Energy strategy and Corporate Responsibilities.
• We would like to see a clearer account of commitments and targets in future reports, including progress against previous years’ targets. Although E.ON UK has made significant progress in some parts of the business, including a 50% reduction in the accident rate in distribution, the overall safety performance remains above the self imposed target. The areas which have a significant negative effect on the accident rate include the field based Home Energy Consultants in Retail and the contractors’ accident rate in Energy Services. E.ON UK is active in understanding the accident rates and is focussing on a number of initiatives to reduce them.
• We acknowledge that the accurate measurement of actual consumer energy savings is technically difficult across the sector in general due to the limitations of metering. Nevertheless we believe that the reporting of this indicator is fundamental to E.ON UK’s Changing Energy strategy. We encourage E.ON UK to play a leading role in developing the means to both measure and report this in future.
• We see an opportunity for the consolidation of certified environmental and safety management systems across the business to improve administration efficiency, reduce certification costs and improve cohesion.
• There has been some good quality dialogue with a range of stakeholders throughout the year. There is now an opportunity for E.ON UK to bring this together into a more coordinated programme that will improve stakeholder relations, help shape strategy and strengthen risk management. We would like to see external opinions featuring more prominently in future reports along with illustrations of how E.ON engages and responds to its key stakeholders.

This assurance assignment constitutes approximately 12% of The Reassurance Network’s annual turnover. In addition to this assignment, we have also verified E.ON UK’s Green Tariff during 2009. We do not have any other commercial involvement in E.ON UK, or any affiliation with E.ON UK’s stakeholders or their specific areas of interest. Malcolm Guy and Paul Wenman are directors of The Reassurance Network with a combined total of over 20 years as independent corporate responsibility assurers and advisors with over 25 blue chip organisations.