HomePublicationsAnnual reportsCitizens Advice annual report 2004/2005Directors’ report for the year ended 31 March 2005

Introduction

1. Objectives and activities

2. Plans for future periods

3. Achievements and performance

4. Structure, governance and management

5. Financial review

6. Equal opportunities

7. Employee involvement

8. Environmental impact

Introduction

The directors of Citizens Advice present their report and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2005. The financial statements comply with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) – Accounting and Reporting by Charities as revised in 2005, the Charities Act (1993) and the Companies Act (1985), the accounts section of the Department of Trade and Industry Financial Memorandum and the Annual Reports and Accounts guidance from the Central Treasury Accountancy Team and HM Treasury. Citizens Advice is a national charity, and all Citizens Advice Bureaux in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are members. All Citizens Advice Bureaux are independent charities.

The Citizens Advice service helps people to resolve their legal, money and other problems through information and advice and by influencing policymakers. Citizens Advice provides the support necessary to help sustain the Citizens Advice service and ensure that it continues to make a positive difference to communities. It is made up of 453 member bureaux in England and Wales (2004: 474) and 22 in Northern Ireland (2004: 22). The reduction in member bureaux is due to mergers between local bureaux in the same local authority area.

The Citizens Advice service was contacted about 5,259,000 new problems during 2004/05 (2004: 5,605,000). Through the grant in aid from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and donations from charitable trusts, companies and direct contracts with statutory bodies, the grant income for 2004/05 was £33,165,000 (2004: £40,198,000), the fall of just over £7 million less than 2003/04 mainly due to the scheduled end of the Citizens Connect Programme IT funding.

These funds have enabled the service to continue to deliver the charitable objects as set out in section 1 of this report.

Through the hard work of the 444 members of staff at Citizens Advice, key changes have been introduced and new projects started that will help meet the challenges faced by both individual Citizens Advice Bureaux and the whole service. Citizens Advice has two volunteer staff, and is grateful for the commitment of the 20,874 volunteer advisers, trustees and other volunteers that contribute to the Citizens Advice service nationally.

The directors’ report is in a new format this year, reflecting the adoption of the new Statement of Recommended Practice – Accounting and Reporting by Charities 2005). In 2005/06 Citizens Advice will continue to consider how to best present its activities and performance against strategic objectives and will refine the outcome and impact measures used. Section 3 of this report outlines the key aims for 2005/06 and next years directors report will show the performance achieved in these areas.

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1. Objectives and activities

The objects of Citizens Advice are to promote any charitable purpose for the advancement of education, the protection and preservation of health, and the relief of poverty, sickness and distress. In carrying out these objects, and in all aspects of its work, Citizens Advice is committed to promoting equality and diversity, preventing prejudice and discrimination, ensuring equal access to advice and promoting good relations between all sections of the community. Citizens Advice is a membership organisation. Its role is to:

› develop, support, represent and lead the service
› set, maintain and monitor the standards for the service
› ensure that the voice of Citizens Advice Bureau clients and the service is heard
› provide quality services and products.

The governance of Citizens Advice is vested in the Trustee Board, largely elected by member bureaux (see section 4 of this report for more details). In May 2004, the Citizens Advice service strategic plan for 2004/08 was launched, which sets out the vision for the Citizens Advice service and the objectives which both Citizens Advice and bureaux will need to deliver to achieve this vision. These objectives are to:

› meet the needs of as many people as possible
› have a greater influence on policy development
› be innovative and develop new services
› improve funding for both bureaux and Citizens Advice
› develop all of the staff and volunteers that make up the Citizens Advice service.

How these objectives will be achieved is set out in section 3 of this report.

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2. Plans for future periods

The main objective for the whole Citizens Advice service is to create an integrated range of services that will strengthen access to advice by telephone, email and internet and focus the provision of face-to-face and dedicated services on those in greatest need. Citizens Advice will establish more effective referral systems with other advice agencies and focus on managing demand and improving efficiency within bureaux.

Campaigning for change in policies and services that are not working, is a cost effective way of improving the lives of individuals. Citizens Advice helps many more people through policy change than is possible through individual problem-solving. Citizens Advice will increase the scale and scope of social policy work through increasing resources regionally and nationally and by articulating and demonstrating its value and impact through partnerships with key stakeholders. Citizens Advice will also invest further in CASE, the national case recording database that connects each member bureau to a central database.

CASE will provide improved management information on problem trends, and support and enhance the evidence for policy influence. CASE will also help bureaux to manage their case workloads, analyse their problem statistics and provide valuable data to local authorities to help plan for the future.

Citizens Advice will help the service to be receptive to innovation, responsive to new opportunities and be known for its capacity to deliver. This will enable Citizens Advice to extend the reach of the service to those in need or who are poorly served, prevent the occurrence of problems and be seen as an effective partner by a range of organisations.

Citizens Advice will continue to promote the unique value of the Citizens Advice service to local authorities, emphasising in particular, its independent, generalist advice and policy work and demonstrating the outcomes for individuals and communities. Citizens Advice will continue to assist bureaux to maximise financial support from local authorities by encouraging a proactive and partnership-oriented approach to their keyfunding relationships.

Citizens Advice will develop all Citizens Advice and bureau paid staff and volunteers in ways that support the aims of the strategic plan both in terms of specific skills and competences to meet new challenges. Citizens Advice aims to create career structures for bureau staff and to increase the number and diversity of volunteers within the service.

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3. Achievements and performance

The key targets for the year ended 31 March 2005 are set out in this section, along with an assessment of performance against these targets and an outline of the priorities for 2005/06.

The total incoming resources for the year were £36,353,000 and total resources expended were £39,685,000.

3.1 Bureau audit, support and grants

Citizens Advice was the first organisation within the advice sector to audit the quality of the advice given by its member bureaux, ensuring consistent and quality of advice across the bureau network. In addition to auditing the quality of advice, Citizens Advice provides bureau trustee boards and managers with support on all aspects of running, funding and maintaining a community based service.

A breakdown of the grants awarded to bureaux and their uses can be found in note 5 to the financial statements.

Citizens Advice has awarded £4,737,000 (2004: £5,465,000) in grants to bureaux during 2004/05. Many grants to bureaux from the DTI fund resulted in increased funding for bureaux from other sources such as local authorities. Agreed criteria are used to regulate bureau grants awarded from the DTI funds and other funder projects.

The main criteria are as follows:
› partnerships, particularly with local authorities, for manager or deputy manager salaries, clerical, administrative, training or specialist posts
› grants to assist the development of premises improvements, particularly for disabled people
› partnerships in relation to strategic IT development in line with the IT strategy
› grants for regional and national social policy and advice projects where bureaux have been selected to participate in the projects.

Key aims for 2005/06

Citizens Advice will:
› establish new regional innovation groups to share knowledge and promote innovation
› provide guidance to bureaux on improving efficiency and increasing value for money to both clients and funders.

3.2 IT services and Citizens Connect

Since 2002, Citizens Advice has invested £20 million in the Citizens Connect Programme, providing links from bureaux to e-government portals, access to a national case recording database (CASE) and online electronic information to support advice giving. The programme of work has included designing, building and testing bespoke software, and establishing a local and national network infrastructure. The CASE system improves the client experience by providing efficient access to client case information and is a more effective way to gather evidence of clients' problems for influencing policy makers. Citizens Advice provides ongoing IT support resources to Citizens Advice Bureaux and maintains the live operating environment.

Key aims for 2005/06

Citizens Advice will:
› use the client data provided through CASE to make social policy work more effective
› undertake a programme of activities to increase the number of bureaux that make full use of CASE to record all enquiries and client information.

3.3 Training

Citizens Advice works in partnership with bureaux to provide training programmes to all bureau workers. Most of our training is provided as part of the free service offered by Citizens Advice to bureaux, but charges are made for printing some materials and for places on courses aimed at caseworkers. 3,480 new advisers were trained during the year.

Citizens Advice develops and maintains courses and other training materials, administers the scheduling and booking of courses, and provides support at a local level to bureaux on all training related issues.

During 2004/05, Citizens Advice began developing in-house capacity to write e-learning materials which adds a new delivery method to the more traditional courses and written materials. The first prototype of our e-learning was available for piloting at the end of March 2005 and will be delivered to bureaux during 2005/06.

Key aims for 2005/06

Citizens Advice will:
› offer training that supports the strategic objectives and the development of equalities within the service
› define development routes for advisers and develop suitable training materials
› develop appropriate IT training and continue to integrate CASE, and AdviserNet into adviser training
› review Management and Trustee Board competences and integrate these into learning programmes that will emphasise the competences and knowledge required to support the service's strategic objectives
› offer consultancy to bureaux to support both local delivery of training and development of funding for training
› develop an income stream from the sales of training courses and materials to other advice organisations
› explore new methods of training delivery and improve the efficiency of the systems.

3.4 Policy

The experience of Citizens Advice Bureaux gives a unique insight into the problems facing citizens on a regional and national level. The Citizens Advice service has always provided free, impartial and confidential advice and used clients' experiences to influence local regional and national services and policies.

Citizens Advice collects evidence of bureau clients' problems and uses this to campaign for changes in policies and services. Citizens Advice has a key role in speaking up for clients, raising issues brought into bureaux, contributing to public debate and informing legislation.

In addition to the above key activities, Citizens Advice has published major evidence reports on the experiences of Citizens Advice Bureau clients’ with mental health problems, highlighted legal service 'advice deserts' particularly in the areas of housing and family law and outlined the challenge for consumers in accessing injury compensation. Citizens Advice has organised a number of seminars for key policy makers to raise the profile of the service's concerns and recommendations.

Citizens Advice has also commissioned Opinion Leader Research to help understand the perceptions key partners have about the reputation, impact and influence of the Citizens Advice service.

Key aims for 2005/06

Citizens Advice will develop:
› a way to evaluate the impact of national social policy work, showing the number of people who have benefited
› a method of evaluating the impact in terms of perceptions of external stakeholders, and benchmarks with other agencies.

3.5 Information

Citizens Advice is a major provider of information to the public, through services including the Adviceguide website and information kiosks. Citizens Advice does this in addition to continuing to provide the information services used by bureaux to support advice work.

The current public information products and services managed by Citizens Advice include the Adviceguide website www.adviceguide.org.uk which has seen a 44 per cent increase in visits this year, and has been extended with the addition of a range of downloadable factsheets.

Other products are an information pack used in many public libraries, and a recorded information line, which is delivered by telephone answering systems in a number of bureaux.

Aim 2004/05	Target	Achievements
Provide advisers with information more efficiently	Move to online delivery of electronic information for advisers (AdviserNet)	› AdviserNet development continued during 2004/05 for roll out later in 2005/06.
Increase public use of online information	2 million visits to Adviceguide during 2004/05	› 2.36 million visits. Adviceguide was awarded the Community Legal Service Quality Mark.

Partnership projects have resulted in several new products and services. These include:
› a reference book published by Penguin - The Citizens Advice Handbook - due for publication in August 2005
› new public information services for digital TV
› access to the Adviceguide website from web-enabled (public information) kiosks.

During the year, content in all the information systems, was maintained and extended. Meanwhile steady progress was made on the major programme to replace these with a new electronic system, AdviserNet. AdviserNet will be launched in Autumn 2005 and will be available in web-enabled and CD versions.

Key aims for 2005/06

Citizens Advice will:
› complete AdviserNet development
› test and evaluate the effectiveness of integrating ways for the public to access the Citizens Advice service at a local level
› ensure that the Citizens Advice service overall is able to work effectively with other information and advice providers at regional and national levels.

Aim 2004/05	Target	Achievements
Raise funds for strategic projects	Raise £1,742,000	› A total of £1,598,695 was received during the year and a further £273,711 was pledged. The total exceeds the target.

3.6 Cost of generating funds

Citizens Advice receives grants from national and European governments, other public bodies, companies and voluntary bodies. Most of Citizens Advice income comes from the DTI in the form of grant in aid, which is not fund raised. Some targets were not met due to changes in priorities for our funders. The targets in 2005/06 reflect this.

Key aims for 2005/06

Citizens Advice will:
›raise £1,800,000 funds across strategic projects.

3.7 Factors relevant to the achievement of objectives

Following notification from the DTI that the future grant in aid levels would be significantly reduced, Citizens Advice has strategies to deliver £1 million of efficiencies against the 2004/05 planned budget.

The main objective of Trustees and Officers during 2004/05 was to reduce core running costs to within future expected grant levels, without making cuts in service delivery. Citizens Advice will be proactively seeking further income to supplement the grant in aid awarded by the DTI.

3.8 Awards and accolades received

Citizens Advice is proud to have received the following awards:
› PR Week Public Affairs Award with Shelter -for the tenancy deposit campaign (2004)
› Government Computing BT Syntegra Award for Innovation - for the Citizens Connect Programme (2004)
› Prima Magazine Make Life Simple Award – the Citizens Advice service was voted most helpful organisation by readers (2005).

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4. Structure, governance and management

4.1 Status, incorporation and subsequent merger

Citizens Advice is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. All member bureaux are members of Citizens Advice, and there are no other members. The maximum liability of each member is limited to £1. Citizens Advice is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association as amended in October 2000.

The registered name of the charity is The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, and from 6 January 2003 the charity has also been known and referred to as Citizens Advice (previously it was referred to as NACAB). Citizens Advice was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee on 13 July 1979. Citizens Advice commenced operations on 1 October 1979 at which date the assets and liabilities of the unincorporated National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux were acquired as represented by the CAB General Fund (see note 17).

On 1 April 1991, the undertaking of the Greater London Citizens Advice Bureau Service (“GLCABS”), together with its assets and liabilities, was transferred to Citizens Advice and is represented in the London Region Reserves (see note 17).

The charity’s trading subsidiary, Citizens Advice Limited (formerly Advice Services Information Limited), is currently dormant. Consolidated accounts have not been prepared as the balances of the company are not material to Citizens Advice.

4.2 Directors

The membership of the Trustee Board as at 5 August 2005 is set out below. The Trustees are also non-executive directors of Citizens Advice for the purposes of Company Law.

As at 5 August 2005	Role	Elected by	Date elected
The Rev. Hilary Watkins	Chair	AGM	29.09.04
David Rodgers	Deputy Chair	Midlands Region bureaux	02.10.02
Maurice Sharples OBE*	Honorary Treasurer	AGM	23.09.99
Andrew Brown		AGM – paid bureau staff member	29.09.04
Jacqueline Carr		Equal Opportunities Committee	02.02.05
Joyce Catterick*		North Region bureaux	15.05.02
Jan David		South East Region bureaux	01.04.04
John Devine		NIACAB	16.11.04
Anne Femi		Equal Opportunities Committee	02.02.05
Chris Lendrum CBE		Co-opted	06.04.05
David Livesey		East Region bureaux	08.06.05
Bonny Malhotra*		AGM – paid bureau staff member	25.09.01
Gordon Pankhurst		Wales bureaux	16.02.05
Steve Potts		South West Region bureaux	17.03.05
Di Scammell		North West Region bureaux	24.09.03
Jonathan Tross CB*		Co-opted	06.04.05

* Member of Performance Review and Audit Committee

The following directors served during the year.

* Member of Performance Review and Audit Committee

A register of interests is maintained detailing any significant interests of directors. This is open to the public and is held at the registered office. A copy is available by writing to the Company Secretary at the registered office address shown in section 4.6 of this report. No director received any remuneration for his or her services as director during the year.

4.3 Directors recruitment appointment and induction

Trustees are recruited in line with the terms laid out in the Articles of Association. Four trustees are elected by member bureaux at the Annual General Meeting, these are: the Chair, Treasurer and two trustees who receive payment for their work in or for a Citizens Advice Bureau (for example bureau managers). One trustee is elected by member bureaux in each of the seven English regions and member bureaux in Wales elect a further trustee. In addition, the Board of the Northern Ireland Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NIACAB) appoints one trustee, and two trustees are appointed by the Citizens Advice Equal Opportunities Committee. Two further trustees can be co-opted by the Trustee Board. The rules of elections are agreed by the trustees and terms of office last for three years, trustees may stand for two terms. All trustees are independent from management.

A Trustee Handbook is issued to all new trustees. It contains information about the roles and responsibilities of trustees, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, Standing Orders for General and Trustee Board meetings, the Code of Practice for board members, organisational information and contact details.

All new trustees attend an induction day, hosted by the Chair and Chief Executive. Trustees learn about their role and responsibilities and are briefed on strategic issues affecting Citizens Advice.

Trustees can use the Citizens Advice service intranet site, CABlink, which hosts designated trustee pages with a broad range of internal and external reference material and information to support trustees in their roles.

An annual residential meeting of the Trustee Board aims to develop the skills and knowledge of trustees. In addition, two trustee development days, dealing with specific issues and skills, are planned for 2005/06.

4.4 Directors’ and Chief Executive’s responsibilities

Company Law, Charity Law and the Financial Memorandum with the DTI, (as agreed with the consent of the Treasury on 13 April 2005) require the directors and Chief Executive (as Accounting Officer) to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of Citizens Advice and of the surplus or deficit for that period. In preparing those financial statements, the directors and Chief Executive are required to:

› select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently
› make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent
› state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements
› prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in operation.

The directors and Chief Executive are also responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at anytime the financial position of Citizens Advice and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 1985. The directors and Chief Executive have a general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably available to safeguard the assets of the charitable company and to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities.

In addition the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice has a responsibility for ensuring the regularity and propriety of the public finances, a requirement that is set out in the Financial Memorandum.

4.5 Organisational structure and decision making

Citizens Advice is governed by its Trustee Board, which sets the policy of the charity. These policies are implemented by the executive board, which consists of Citizens Advice executive directors as set out below.

Executive directors
David Harker OBE	Chief Executive
Simon Bottery	Director of Communications
Shani Fancett	Director of IT Services
Teresa Perchard	Director of Policy
Margaret Sandford	Network Director
Judy Walker	Director of Advice
Hilary Wallis	Director of Human Resources
Stephen Williams	Director of Finance and Company Secretary

Member bureaux also take part in the policy-making activity of the charity by passing resolutions at the Annual General Meeting. However, these resolutions need ratifying by the Trustee Board before implementation. The Trustee Board meets at least six times a year.

Responsibility for management matters is delegated to the Chief Executive, within a clearly understood framework of strategic control. The Trustee Board is involved in determining corporate strategy, including setting key strategic objectives and targets; making major decisions involving use of financial and other resources; and setting a framework for human resources policy. The Trustee Board’s powers of delegation are outlined in the code of practice for board members.

The Trustee Board can delegate responsibility for specified matters to individual members or committees of the Trustee Board. Current committees are the Membership and Standards Committee, the Equal Opportunities Committee and the Performance Review and Audit Committee. Decisions taken by individual members or committees of the Trustee Board under delegated powers are recorded in written minutes available to the Trustee Board as a whole.

The Trustee Board will delegate operational and staffing matters to the Chief Executive, who is accountable to the Trustee Board for the overall organisation, management and staffing of Citizens Advice and for all financial and other procedures.

4.6 Administrative details

Citizens Advice is an operating name of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux.

Company Number	1436945
Registered Charity Number	279057
Company Secretary	Stephen Williams
Registered Office	115-123 Pentonville Road London N1 9LZ
Auditor	PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Southwark Towers 32 London Bridge Street London SE1 9SY
Bankers	Barclays Bank PLC 99-100 Hatton Gardens London EC1N 8NX
	Singer and Friedlander 21 New Street London EC2M 4HR
Solicitors	Bates, Wells and Braithwaite 2-6 Cannon Street London EC4M 6YH
	Vizards Tweedie 42 Bedford Row London WC1R 4JL
	Davies Arnold Cooper 6-8 Bouverie Street London EC4Y 8DD
	Dickinson Dees 112 Quayside Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 1SB
Actuary	Jardine Lloyd Thompson Benefit Solutions 251 High Street Orpington Kent BR6 0NT

4.7 Connected charities

The following charities are connected to Citizens Advice by way of common objectives and unity of administration:

The Citizens Advice Bureaux Trust has the same charity registration as Citizens Advice and shares the same trustees. The charity has been absorbed into Citizens Advice accounts. The registered office is the same as Citizens Advice.

The Adviser is a separate registered charity with two directors in common with Citizens Advice. The charity is dormant and not consolidated in Citizens Advice accounts on the grounds that it is not material. The registered office is the same as Citizens Advice.

The Friends of Citizens Advice Bureaux Trust (Friends of CABx) is a separate registered charity. There were no trustees in common at the year-end; although during the year there were two trustees in common. The charity is not consolidated in the Citizens Advice accounts on the grounds that it is not material. During the year the trustees of Friends of CABx reviewed the role and future prospects of the Trust in the light of declining income and changes in Citizen Advice priorities for fund raising. It was decided that it would not be feasible to continue to operate the Trust, and the trustees agreed to cease the operations of the charity with effect from 5 July 2005. This was accepted by Citizens Advice Trustee Board on 16 February 2005, which will integrate the objectives of the Trust within their existing fundraising and grant making objectives. The registered office is the same as Citizens Advice.

Citizens Advice International is a company registered in Belgium. It was formed on March 2004, and from this time has operated from the registered office of Citizens Advice. Citizens Advice International provides support to all Citizens Advice organisations worldwide. The registered office is 57 rue de la Concorde, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium. Citizens Advice International is not consolidated in the financial statements, as Citizens Advice does not have any significant control over the company.

All material transactions between Citizens Advice and its connected charities are detailed in note 23 of the accounts.

4.8 Internal controls and risk management

A risk management system exists within Citizens Advice which sets out the major risks to which the charity is exposed, as identified by the directors. Trustees and executive directors periodically review the risks and systems. Procedures have been established to identify, monitor and manage the risks.

The most significant risks for Citizens Advice relate to the pension fund: specifically bureaux continuing to be able to make their contributions; uncertainty relating to the level of future DTI grant in aid; risks associated with the achievement of key strategic objectives; and the potential future risks associated with the strategic partnership contract with Hewlett Packard ending in 2008.

The statement on the system of internal control included within this document sets out the risk and control framework.

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5. Financial review

5.1 Reserves policy

At 31 March 2005, reserves were £7,773,000 (2004: £11,105,000). The reduction in reserves was primarily due to the use of restricted reserves, where the funding had been received for specific projects in advance of need, such as the Citizens Connect Programme; other IT Services projects and a project on Employment Dispute Resolution. The current unrestricted DTI reserves balance is required to provide a continuity of service and to aid the delivery of the strategic plan over the following three years. The reserves position as at 31 March 2005 has been agreed with the DTI.

The policy on reserves is shown in notes 1 and 17 to the financial statements.

5.2 Pension scheme

Citizens Advice participated in one defined benefit multi-employer pension scheme during the year - The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux Pension and Assurance Plan (1991). Citizens Advice adopted FRS 17 for the first time in the year ended 31 March 2005. The last full actuarial review was dated 1 April 2004. The policy on the pension scheme is shown in note 1 to the financial statements. The disclosure required under FRS 17 is shown in note 22 to the financial statements.

During the year, Citizens Advice has reviewed its provision of pensions to staff. From 1 April 2005, staff will have the choice of a stakeholder pension and the existing defined benefit scheme. The accrual rate for new and existing staff on the defined benefit pension will fall from 1 April 2005 from 1/65th to 1/80th.

This will not affect benefits already accrued. Existing staff had the opportunity to buy back the extra 1/15th accrual.

The contributions paid by Citizens Advice during the year include a one off payment of £2,467,000 towards the deficit to meet the Citizens Advice share of the pension liability. As a result of the changes in benefits, the employer contribution rate fell on 1 April 2005 from 8.5% to 5.9%. The employee contribution rate remains unchanged at 8.2% of gross pay. The one-off payment made in the year has reduced the future impact of the pension deficit on the activities of Citizens Advice for the next three years.

5.3 Investment policy

As required in its Memorandum paragraph 4 (o), in furtherance of its objects, and for no other purposes, the charitable company has the power to invest the monies of the charitable company not immediately required for its purposes in or upon such investments, securities or property as may be thought fit, subject nevertheless to such conditions and such consents as may for the time being be imposed or required by law. The policy on reserves is shown in note 1 to the financial statements.

5.4 Fixed assets

Movements in fixed assets are shown in note 11 to the financial statements.

5.5 Payment of creditors

All invoices not in dispute were paid within 30 days of receipt of the invoice or the agreed contractual terms if otherwise specified. Citizens Advice terms of trade apply to all suppliers who supply goods and services worth over £5,000 a year. A copy is available by writing to the Company Secretary at the registered office address as set out in section 4.6 of this report.

5.6 Auditors

The financial statements of Citizens Advice have been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The audit fee was £31,000. Citizens Advice puts out a competitive tender for its audit every five years. The next tender is due for the period commencing 1 April 2007. During 2004/05 the three-year review of the work of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP was undertaken. It was agreed to continue with them until the end of the five-year period, subject to the majority agreement of members at the Annual General Meeting.

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6. Equal opportunities

Citizens Advice recognises the positive value of diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination. The service-wide Fair Accessible Inclusive Relevant (FAIR) strategy 2004-2008 sets out how we intend to become a first local point of contact for discrimination advice in partnership with others and to make equality and diversity part of all we do. Citizens Advice welcomes the responsibilities conferred upon us during the year by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004.

As an employer, Citizens Advice welcomes applications from all parts of the community, particularly under-represented groups such as black and minority ethnic, disabled and lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

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7. Employee involvement

Papers, including agendas and minutes of the Citizens Advice Trustee Board, are available to employees. Regular meetings are held between management and the union, and the union and its members to discuss Citizens Advice activities. Costs for staff to travel to union meetings are paid for by Citizens Advice. During March and April 2005, an employee satisfaction survey was carried out by an external consultancy group. The results will be used to influence management decisions in the future. The Citizens Advice service's intranet site - CABlink -contains a wealth of current information for staff about the Citizens Advice service.

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8. Environmental impact

Citizens Advice has minimal impact on the environment. The use of electronic over paper filing and information dispersal is encouraged at all levels for the service. Paper recycling is encouraged where facilities exist.

Signed by order of the board

Stephen Williams
Company Secretary

5 August 2005

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