Assurance

Aviva has commissioned Ernst & Young to provide external assurance and a commentary on this online corporate responsibility report 2010.

Material appearing on webpages denoted by the title ‘corporate responsibility report 2010’ has been assured. Material within the main Group corporate responsibility website has not been assured.

Independent assurance statement to Aviva management

The Aviva corporate responsibility report 2010 (the Report)¹ has been prepared by the management of Aviva, who are responsible for the collection and presentation of information reported. Our responsibility, in accordance with management’s instructions, is to provide a limited assurance engagement on the Report content and on selected environmental and community investment data presented in the Report. We do not accept or assume any responsibility for any other purpose or to any other person or organisation. Any reliance any such third party may place on the Report is entirely at its own risk.

What we did to form our conclusions

Our assurance engagement has been planned and performed in accordance with ISAE 3000² and to meet the requirements of a Type 2 assurance engagement as defined by AA1000AS (2008)³. The AA1000AS (2008) assurance principles of Inclusivity, Materiality and Responsiveness have been used as criteria against which to evaluate the Report.

To form our conclusions on the Report we undertook the steps outlined below:

Interviewed a selection of executives and senior managers at Aviva’s Group headquarters in London and selected Aviva businesses to understand the current status of corporate responsibility activities, and progress made during the reporting period.
Reviewed Aviva’s approach to stakeholder engagement through interviews with a selection of employees at Aviva businesses in the UK, India, USA and Group headquarters and reviewing selected associated documentation.
Reviewed a selection of external media reports and selected corporate level documents relating to corporate responsibility aspects of Aviva’s performance to test the coverage of topics within the Report.
Reviewed Aviva’s processes for determining material issues to be included in the Report.
Reviewed the collation and aggregation of selected environmental and community investment performance data at Aviva businesses in the UK, India, USA and Group.
Reviewed information or explanations about selected data, statements and assertions regarding Aviva’s corporate responsibility performance.

Level of assurance

Our evidence-gathering procedures were designed to obtain a limited level of assurance (as set out in ISAE 3000) on which to base our conclusions. The extent of evidence-gathering procedures performed is less than that of a reasonable assurance engagement (such as a financial audit) and therefore a lower level of assurance is provided.

Limitations of our review

Our review of data processes included the following data sets: environmental and community investment.

We did not review environmental or community investment performance data for years prior to 2010.

Our conclusions

On the basis of our review we provide the following conclusions on the Report in relation to each of the AA1000AS (2008) assurance principles, overall plausibility and the completeness and accuracy of environmental and community investment performance data. Our conclusions should be read in conjunction with the above section on ‘What we did to form our conclusions’.

Inclusivity

Has Aviva been engaging with stakeholders across the business to further develop its approach to corporate responsibility?

We are not aware of any key stakeholder groups that have been excluded from dialogue.
We are not aware of any matters that would lead us to conclude that Aviva has not applied the inclusivity principle in developing its approach to corporate responsibility.

Materiality

Has Aviva provided a balanced representation of material issues concerning its corporate responsibility performance?

With the exception of the subject area listed below, we are not aware of any material aspects of Aviva’s corporate responsibility performance that have been excluded from the Report.
We consider that Aviva could have covered the following subject area in more depth in the Report:
- The corporate responsibility challenges of growing Aviva businesses in developing countries.
Nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that Aviva management has not applied its processes for determining material issues to be included in the Report.

Responsiveness

Has Aviva responded to stakeholder concerns?

We are not aware of any matters that would lead us to conclude that Aviva has not applied the responsiveness principle in considering the matters to be reported.

Performance information

How plausible are the statements and claims within the Report?

We are not aware of any inconsistencies in the assertions made with regards to performance and achievement.

How complete and accurate is the environmental and community investments data in the Report?

With the exception of the limitations identified in the Report, we are not aware of any material reporting units that have been excluded from Group data.
Nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the data relating to the above topics has not been collated properly from group-wide systems.
We are not aware of any errors that would materially affect the data as presented in the Report.

Observations on particular aspects of our engagement

Our observations and areas for improvement will be raised in a report to Aviva management. Selected observations are provided below. These observations do not affect our conclusions on the Report set out above.

Aviva has introduced a data collection tool, Credit360, as a means of standardising the environmental and community data collation process. Aviva should consider improving the guidance for the collation and reporting of environmental performance data to enhance consistency across the Group.
The Report includes examples of corporate responsibility performance in key markets. In future Reports it will be important to use these examples to show a balanced picture of performance, including challenges faced in relation to corporate responsibility across all markets.

Our independence

As auditors to Aviva p.l.c., Ernst & Young are required to comply with the independence requirements set out in the Auditing Practices Board’s (APB) Ethical Standards for Auditors. Ernst & Young’s independence policies apply to the firm, partners and professional staff. These policies prohibit any financial interests in our clients that would or might be seen to impair independence. Each year, partners and staff are required to confirm their compliance with the firm’s policies.

Our assurance team

Our assurance team has been drawn from our global Climate Change and Sustainability Services Practice, which undertakes engagements similar to this with a number of significant UK and international businesses. The work has been led and reviewed by a lead sustainability assurance practitioner.

Ernst & Young LLP
London
29 March 2011

¹ Only those pages headed corporate responsibility report 2010 formed part of our review.

² International Federation of the Accountants’ International Standard for Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information (ISAE 3000).

³ AA1000AS (2008) – A second edition of the AA1000 assurance standard from the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability.