Aviva is committed to annual external assurance. This year’s external assurance of our CSR Summary report is provided by Corporate Citizenship.

Please note, Corporate Citizenship assured our printed Summary report. There is information in this full online report that was not covered by the assurance process.

Corporate Citizenship was commissioned to provide assurance of Aviva’s Summary CSR report for the year ended 31 December 2007. Corporate Citizenship is a management consultancy specialising in corporate social responsibility. Formerly The SMART Company, it was renamed after it came together with another leading consultancy in January 2008. The SMART Company conducted the assurance of Aviva’s 2006 CSR report and consistent approaches have been applied this year by personnel from the original project team.

This statement is addressed to the management of Aviva plc and is not intended for use by third parties. Our approach to the review was informed by the principles of the AA1000 Assurance Standard which, beyond assessing the reliability of information within the report, means that we considered whether the report gives a complete picture of Aviva’s material CSR issues and whether Aviva is responding to stakeholder concerns.

Scope and assurance process

This assurance covers this, Aviva’s printed Summary CSR report. The assurance work comprised interviews with key executives, including the Chairman, Lord Sharman, and a review of relevant supporting documentation in order to support statements made in the report. Our assessment of the data collection process for carbon emissions consisted of a review of data trends and investigation into any large/unusual movements, and an appraisal of the appropriateness of any assumptions/ estimates used in data calculation.

Commentary

The report highlights that Aviva has made significant progress in developing its approaches to CSR. We were particularly pleased to learn of the following developments:

• Strategy: The new ‘One Aviva, twice the value’ vision links more closely to the CSR strategy; the community engagement strategy has a clearer focus, better aligned to the nature of Aviva’s business; and the environment strategy has been revised to recognise the importance of climate change.
• Embedding CSR: This year’s report gives more information about how the company is promoting responsible business behaviour and wellbeing among its customers through its products and services; embedding CSR in the business has been furthered by incorporation of CSR considerations in the Group Purchasing and Supply Management Policy; and following the success of the ’Respect Diversity’ toolkit for employees, a ‘CSR toolkit’ has been developed.
• Indicators: During the year, Aviva set Group CSR key performance indicators (KPIs). This is an important step forward in Aviva’s commitment to being a responsible business; it should ensure that its performance against the Group KPIs is consistently reported year-on-year to demonstrate that progress is being monitored, and performance targets should be set for every KPI.

Looking ahead

To further develop its CSR programme and reporting, we suggest the following areas of focus for Aviva over the coming year:

• Data collection: Group-wide data collection and reporting is currently a manual process; data integrity could be enhanced by the introduction of an automated process.
• Balanced reporting: Future reports should continue to highlight risks and opportunities affecting the business, and challenges as well as successes. The discussion of climate change is an example of how such risks and opportunities can be addressed within a report.
• Outcomes and impacts: This year’s report mentions a number of positive initiatives from across the Group, citing some clear outcomes. Future reports would be enhanced if Aviva included more on the outcomes and impacts of initiatives, as well as inputs.
• Context: More could be done to set the reported information within greater context. For example, regarding the responsible products, it would be valuable for readers to understand the percentage of the total product portfolio these represent.

Conclusion

In our opinion this report provides a balanced summary of the CSR performance of Aviva. We welcome the steps that Aviva is taking to embed and enhance its CSR programme and look forward to reading of further progress, set against consistent indicators, in future reports. Our detailed feedback and recommendations for CSR performance improvement have been communicated to Aviva through our management report.

Corporate Citizenship

London, 31 March 2008

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