URS Verification Ltd (URSVL) has been commissioned by E.ON UK to provide independent assurance of its Corporate Social Responsibility reporting for 2005. This statement refers only to the printed review component of this reporting. A statement referring to the full web report is being prepared and will be included here as soon as possible.

Assurance Statement
E.ON UK

URS Verification Ltd (URSVL) has been commissioned by E.ON UK to provide independent assurance of its Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2005.

Responsibilities of Directors and Assurors

The information contained in E.ON UK's Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2005 (the Report) is the sole responsibility of the Directors of the company. This assurance statement represents the independent opinion of URSVL. The URSVL project team members have not been involved in the development of the Report or associated systems. URSVL receives less than 10% of its revenue from E.ON UK.

URSVL has carried out its services by checking samples of information and documents that have been made available to URSVL by E.ON UK. Accordingly, URSVL has not checked or reviewed all of E.ON UK's information and documents. This assurance statement is not intended to be used as advice or as the basis for any decisions, including, without limitation, financial or investment decisions.

Method

URSVL has performed this assurance process following the principles of the AA1000 assurance standard. URSVL auditors also apply the general principles of auditing and audit procedures as contained within international standard ISO 19011. The assurance process included:

• Interviews with 17 key E.ON UK personnel covering a range of business units and corporate responsibility related functions;
• Visits to four operating units/sites: Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, Leicester Call Centre, Energy Services and Central Networks offices, both based in Tipton.

Opinion

Building on various systems already in place, E.ON UK has implemented a number of strong programmes and initiatives during 2005 in the areas of customer service, stakeholder engagement, employee well-being, development and reward. In addition, the company's safety programmes have been reviewed and re-invigorated with particular focus on behaviours. These initiatives would benefit from central direction and coordination and whilst there has been significant activity both within the UK business and E.ON group on structuring governance for corporate social responsibility during 2005, there is currently no systematic governance or vision for E.ON UK's corporate responsibility.

Materiality
Has E.ON UK applied an effective process to identify material risks?

There is a consistent understanding amongst management of the key non-financial risks facing E.ON UK. Although there is no formal established process to identify non-financial risks, E.ON UK has sought external and internal views on the key challenges facing the business in developing this Report.

By choosing to report on only four key challenges E.ON UK has produced a concise report, which presents information on E.ON UK's response to these challenges in depth. The Report covers some of the most important issues for the industry. Other material aspects of corporate social responsibility such as governance and stakeholder engagement are included in the further disclosure on the E.ON website. These issues are signposted in the Report.

Completeness
Does the Report provide a complete, fair and balanced representation of material issues?

The information presented on the four key challenges provides a complete and fair representation of the activities and programmes undertaken by E.ON UK in 2005 in these areas. In certain sections the emphasis is on the positive aspects of performance. Whilst attention is given to challenges and areas for improvement, this information is not always immediately accessible. The Report and the additional web disclosure include trend data and targets on some issues, but not all material issues. Clearer identification of objectives, targets and subsequent performance would enable stakeholders to better understand progress made and challenges addressed.

The environmental and social data contained within this Report are collected from a number of different systems within the organisation. The majority of these systems are aligned to aspects of regulatory compliance and business performance and have been found to be robust and able to generate accurate figures. Processes for the collation and aggregation of data used for this external Report only, were less well embedded. A greater emphasis on ensuring the data are collected and reviewed appropriately would increase confidence in the reported data. No material errors were identified in environmental and safety data reviewed as part of this assessment.

Responsiveness
Does E.ON UK engage actively on key issues with appropriate stakeholders?

There is evidence that the stakeholder engagement occurs at a number of levels across the business as part of the day-to-day activities and E.ON has identified that greater co-ordination of stakeholder engagement and increased two-way dialogue will enable it to be better placed to respond to stakeholder concerns. The programme developed to achieve this includes identifying key stakeholder groups and their issues of concern.

Recommendations

To build further on the progress made in its corporate social responsibility, E.ON UK should consider:

• Developing a formal corporate social responsibility governance and management system to provide increased direction and review of existing programmes;
• Including greater emphasis on reporting and management of non-financial issues into its risk management processes;
• Clearer identification and reporting of objectives and targets;
• Reviewing environmental and safety data collection processes and the associated guidance and validation to improve the robustness and transparency of the systems; and
• Including greater information on stakeholder engagement processes and outcomes as the new programme becomes more developed.

Sally Vivian
for and on behalf of URS Verification Ltd
London
June 2006

URSVL is a leading provider of independent assurance to the AA1000 standard. It is part of URS Corporation, a global company providing environmental, social and engineering services to international companies and governments.