This year’s report deals with the performance of the UK operations of ScottishPower and ScottishPower Renewable Energy (now part of IBERDROLA Renovables) against 12 impact areas that were identified in consultation with stakeholders in 2005.

Due to changes in the company’s structure, we no longer report on the activities of PPM Energy in the United States. PPM’s progress continues to be reported in IBERDROLA’s Sustainability Report.

Core became a 100% owned subsidiary during the year, and, unless otherwise stated, the report includes the operations of Core.

We report on ash reused by ScotAsh, our joint venture with Lafarge Cement.  ScotAsh performance is not included in any other areas of report.  For more information on their performance, see the Corporate Responsibility section of their website.

The report covers the calendar year 2007 and all data relates to that period unless otherwise stated. Where we refer to data or events outside that period, it is to provide context for our policies or performance.

This year we have made some minor changes to the structure of the report. In previous reports energy efficiency activity was included under the Customer Impact area. With the move from Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC2) to the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) our statutory energy efficiency programme is no longer customer driven, but a key part of the Government’s Climate Change strategy. We have therefore reported our energy efficiency performance under the Climate Change and Emissions to Air Impact area.

We have continued to track developments in good reporting practice and review our reporting against corporate responsibility performance indicators including: the Global Reporting Initiative, AA1000.

The audience for our corporate responsibility report is internal and external stakeholders: employees, shareholders, investors, analysts, customers, Government, non-governmental organisations, community groups, corporate responsibility and industry analysts and other opinion leaders.