Building Public Trust 2015 ‘Excellence In Reporting’ Awards

www.bptawards.comBuilding PublicTrust 2015‘Excellence inreporting’ awards‘Excellence inreporting’ awardsin the FTSE 100,250, Charities,Private Business,and Public Sector1 October 2015

ContentsIntroduction2Foreword3National Audit Office introduction4View from chair of the judging panel5The judging panels6‘Excellence in reporting’ – award in the FTSE 1007‘Excellence in reporting’ – award in the FTSE 2508‘Excellence in reporting’ – award in private business9‘Excellence in reporting’ – award in charities10‘Excellence in reporting’ – award in the public sector11In celebration of the Awards this year a donation has beenmade to the following organisations12Building Public Trust – 2015 awards luncheon13The Building Public Trust Award ‘Excellence inreporting’ in the public sector is awarded jointlywith the National Audit Office.PwC Building Public Trust Contents

IntroductionThe ‘Excellence in reporting’awards 2015This is the 13th successive year in which PwChas presented these annual awards foroutstanding corporate reporting in both theprivate and public sectors. Once again thisyear, it gives us great pleasure to bepresenting the public sector award inassociation with the National Audit Office.This evening’s event showcases the threelong-established flagship awards for overallexcellence in reporting in the FTSE 100, theFTSE 250 and the UK public sector. These arebeing presented alongside the award forreporting by charities, which was introducedlast year; and an award for reporting byprivate businesses, which is new this year.The launch of the private business awardrecognises the dynamism andentrepreneurship of this sector, and its highand rising importance to economic activity,government tax receipts, job creation andskills development across the UK. Once again,these awards coincide with our latest annualreview of reporting trends in the FTSE 350.‘Searching for buried treasure’ identifies fourkey themes and challenges for the nextreporting cycle and is available on our website.2 Building Public Trust PwCEach of this evening’s hard-earned awardsrecognises the achievement of organisationsthat have differentiated themselves throughthe clarity and transparency of their reporting– in short, showing the way forward on thejourney towards ‘telling it how it is’. As wellas applauding their efforts this evening, weurge others to emulate them in striving forever more open, accessible, honest andintegrated disclosure of their objectives,actions and impacts.Each award recognises the achievementof organisations that have differentiatedthemselves through the clarity andtransparency of their reporting.

Foreword: Ian Powellin the coming weeks and months and theyunderline the importance of clear andauthentic communication – the focus oftonight’s awards.I’m delighted to welcome you to PwC’s annualBuilding Public Trust Awards, where werecognise and celebrate the best reporting byUK listed companies, public sector bodies,registered charities and, for the first time thisyear, private businesses.PwC has presented these awards in every yearsince 2003. During that time, we believe theimportance of building public trust inbusiness and other institutions has risensignificantly.We have expanded the Building Public Trustprogramme over the years to include an everbroader range of participants, including thelaunch four years ago of our annual BuildingPublic Trust debates for leaders across allsectors. This year we also convenedopportunities for students, future leaders andmembers of the public to engage around thetrust agenda.It’s the responsibility of all of us here thisevening to ensure that our organisations areworthy of public trust and can communicatethis trustworthiness effectively. Ournominees have made great strides towardsachieving this, and we can all learn fromthem. At PwC we have made a significantchange in our own reporting this year, withour first digital-only UK Annual Report, usingvideos and infographics to tell the story of ouryear and the engagement we have had hasbeen really encouraging.Finally, as many of you will know, this is myfinal Building Public Trust Awards dinner asChairman and Senior Partner of PwC beforemy term ends next year. I would like to thankyou for all your engagement both on the trustagenda and at these Awards over the lasteight years.Thank youIan PowellChairman and Senior PartnerPricewaterhouseCoopers LLPThese initiatives have generated a number ofnew insights into the practical actions thatorganisations can take to earn and sustaintrust. These insights will be shared more fullyPwC Building Public Trust 3

National Audit Office introduction:Amyas MorseThese positive points are balanced by someareas for improvement. The quality of riskreporting remains variable – and whilereporting on KPIs is progressing, it’s notalways made clear how the KPIs support theorganisation’s overall aims. Also, whiletransparency is improving and public sectororganisations are increasingly prepared toreport underperformance, there is still a littletoo much ‘positive spin’, as opposed to frankand balanced reporting.The National Audit Office is delighted to joinPwC once again as co-sponsor of the ‘Excellencein reporting’ award in the public sector.I’m equally pleased to report that the pastyear has seen a continued improvement in thequality of the reporting by the highestperforming public sector organisations.I’m especially gratified to see that, despite theextensive and complex reportingrequirements for major government bodies,many of them are making real and creditableefforts to ensure their reporting becomesmore accessible and readable.That said, the good news – as this year’sshortlisted reports demonstrate – is that muchprogress has already been made and continuesto be made. I’m confident that the momentumwill be maintained, supported by HM Treasury’sefforts to encourage further enhancements inquality, accountability and conciseness.The NAO’s involvement with these awards ispart of our wider commitment to helping raisethe standards of reporting by public bodies.We look forward to continuing to work withHM Treasury, our clients and otherstakeholders, including PwC, to promotecontinued progress in the years ahead.Sir Amyas Morse KCBAs in other sectors, the move towardsComptroller and Auditor Generalexcellence in reporting is an ongoing journey. National Audit OfficeHowever, the assessment process for theseawards revealed some particularlyencouraging areas of progress this year. Forexample, most organisations presented a clearstrategic vision for their organisation, oftenunderpinned by supporting objectives. Andthere was a genuine step-change in the effortsto make the accounts easier to understand,with good use of graphics, summaries and‘highlights’ pages to demonstrate achievements.4 Building Public Trust PwC

Chair of the judging panels:Charles Tilleytransparency of strategy reporting, additionalregulation appears to be having a retrogradeeffect on executive remuneration reporting.And while reporting by public sectororganisations and charities continues toadvance, there’s still a gap between the bestand the rest.Returning to the judging panels, aninteresting development in our deliberationsthis year was a sharper focus on whetherreporting would actually build trust. ThisThis is my seventh year on the judging panel,centred on two issues: first, the ‘mysteryand my fifth as chairman. And I’m delightedshopper’ perspective of whether the realto say that my fellow judges have once againworld experience of dealing with a businessmade my job both easy and enjoyable throughwas authentically reflected in its reporting.their perceptive insights and observations.And second, the question of whether poorperformance reported in one year wasThis year I found their contributions morevaluable than ever, following the expansion of actually addressed in the next. I look forwardthe programme to include a record 18 awards, to our judging panels sustaining and refiningincluding a new award for private businesses. these perspectives in future years.So the five awards showcased this evening areAs ever, I congratulate all the nominatedjust the tip of the iceberg.organisations for exhibiting the transparency,honesty and credibility that can help to buildI should also add that the rising number ofpublic trust – and urge others to learn fromawards does not indicate any dilution of thetheir example.quality of the assessment process. Theshortlisting and judging remain the mostrigorous I have ever seen – indeed I feelCharles Tilley is chair of the Buildingthey’ve improved still further this year.Public Trust Awards judging panels, chiefexecutive of the Chartered Institute ofAll of this is testament to the hard work andManagement Accountants, and membercommitment of both the PwC team andof the International Integrated Reportingexternal judges, and I thank them all for theirCouncil; also deputy chairman at Greatefforts. I’m also delighted to say that the bestOrmond Street Hospital Foundation Trustcorporate reporting – as exemplified by thisin London, and Chairman of IFAC’syear’s nominees in both the FTSE 100 and 250Professional Accountants in Business– is continuing to improve. Looking back overthe seven years since I became involved, theCommittee. He was formerly Groupprogress is dramatic.Finance Director with Hambros and apartner at KPMG.However, there’s still further to go. While therecently-introduced mandatory strategicreport is helping to improve the quality andPwC Building Public Trust 5

The judging panelsThis year’s record 18 awards in the Building Public Trust programme were judged by twospecially-convened expert panels. The judging sessions were held on 14 and 15 September 2015,and were both chaired by Charles Tilley.The judges in order of appearance in the photo, from the left, at the judging panelon 14 September were:Andrew Hind CB – Charity Finance, Angela Knight CBE – Brewin Dolphin,The Rt Hon the Lord Jack McConnell, Stephen Haddrill – Financial Reporting Council,Sir Chris Powell – Chairman of the Advertising Standards Board of Finance,Lady Susan Rice CBE, Charles Tilley – CIMA and chair of the Building Public Trust Awardsjudging panels, Mark Gregory Wood – NSPCC, Charles Bowman – PwC (not on panel)The judges in order of appearance in the photo, from the left, at the judging panelon 15 September were:Melanie McLaren – Financial Reporting Council, Alan McGill – PwC (not on panel),Kate Mathers – National Audit Office, Robert Hodgkinson – ICAEW, Charles Tilley– CIMA and chair of the Building Public Trust Awards judging panels, Paul Lee – AberdeenAsset Management, Rod Sellers OBE – Seddon Solutions Ltd, Charles Bowman – PwC(not on panel), Andy Brough – Schroders, Dame Karen Dunnell DCB6 Building Public Trust PwC