Chief Executive's introduction

I am very pleased to note that the financial year that we have just completed has been the safest on record for Smiths – a continuation of the trend of recent years.

This is my first opportunity to introduce Smiths corporate responsibility report since taking over as Chief Executive in December 2007.

We have a responsibility to all of our stakeholders including our employees, the communities within which we operate and the environment with which we interact. One of my first tasks was to review and update the environment, health and safety (EHS) policy and the updated version appears at the back of this report. The policy sets out how the Smiths values create expectations of everyone in the organisation and is the basis from which all EHS strategy and programmes will be developed.

I wholeheartedly support the focus this year on safety improvement and am very pleased to note that the financial year that we have just completed has been the safest on record for Smiths – a continuation of the trend of recent years. Our three-year goal to achieve certification to the health and safety management system OHSAS18001 will provide an excellent platform from which to further improve our safety performance.

Whilst safety has been the priority, we continue to monitor and target our environmental impacts. We are on course to achieve our three year goals which include an ambitious aim to halt the absolute increase in Smiths greenhouse gas emissions in a time of increasing sales and margin growth.

We took the opportunity this year to benchmark our Code of Corporate Responsibility and Business Ethics, which resulted in the development and issue of a revised Code. This is being rolled out across all Smiths operations via a series of training initiatives, including a new e-learning process.

This report highlights just a few examples of our businesses engaging with their local communities and of the variety of health and education programmes which we encourage and support.

This year Smiths was awarded membership of the FTSE4Good index, which recognises businesses that meet globally agreed corporate responsibility standards. This membership should reassure all of us at Smiths, and our stakeholders, that we are heading in the right direction.

I hope you enjoy reading this report.

Phillip Bowman Chief Executive