Basis of consolidation
The Group accounts include the accounts of the Company and its subsidiaries, each made up to 31 December, together with the attributable share of results and reserves of associates, adjusted where appropriate to conform with the Group’s accounting policies.
Subsidiaries are all entities (including structured entities) controlled by the Group. The Group controls an entity when the Group is exposed to, or has rights to, variable returns from its involvement with the entity and has the ability to affect those returns through its power over the entity. Subsidiaries are fully consolidated from the date on which control is transferred to the Group. They are deconsolidated from the date that control ceases.
All intra-group account balances, including intra-group profits, have been eliminated in preparing the consolidated financial statements. Non-controlling interests represent the portion of profit or loss and net assets in subsidiaries that are not held by the Group and are presented separately within equity in the consolidated balance sheet.
The Directors have considered the Group’s business activities, principal risks and uncertainties (as set out on pages 8 to 9), and the Group’s financial position, including cash flows, liquidity position and available committed facilities. The Directors consider that the Group has adequate resources to remain in operation for the foreseeable future and have therefore continued to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.