Board meetings

The board held nine meetings during the year. Board meetings occasionally take place at the offices of the group’s businesses and, during the year under review, one of the meetings took place at Primark in Germany. This gives the non-executive directors, in particular, the opportunity to develop their knowledge of the group and to consult with management and other employees. Non-executive directors may also make additional visits to our overseas businesses through the year. During the year under review, Peter Smith visited company operations in China where he had meetings with management at both British Sugar Overseas in Beijing and AB Mauri China in Harbin.

Senior executives below board level are invited, when appropriate, to attend board meetings and to make presentations on the results and strategies of their business units. Directors are generally provided with the papers for board and committee meetings a week in advance. This enables any director who is unable to attend to provide comments to the Chairman, the chairman of the relevant committee or the Company Secretary, who will then relay these
comments to the relevant meeting.

The attendance of the directors at board and committee meetings during the year to 17 September 2011 is shown in the table below:

^1.Galen Weston was unable to attend a number of board meetings due to other business and personal commitments. However, he reviewed the relevant papers and provided comments to the Chairman as appropriate.