“The Company sets a very high standard of diligence combined with verve in all it does. Corporate Responsibility is given great weight.”
Quote from one of our five shareholders in our latest annual shareholder survey
Profit after tax (£)
Have your say
We want to hear what you have to say. At any point in this report you can comment on what is being said on any of our corporate responsibility issues.
Shareholders
Camelot has a shareholder structure made up of five major companies which are all represented on our Board. We aim to work closely with our shareholders and to offer them good returns, within the tight controls imposed on us by our regulator.
Our shareholders are Cadbury Schweppes plc, De La Rue Holdings plc, Fujitsu Services Ltd, Royal Mail Group plc and Thales Electronics plc. As well as being represented on our Board, one of these provides us with services to help us run the lottery.
The main measure of how well we are serving shareholders is profit after tax and the results of our annual board evaluation.
We aim to distribute our retained reserves to shareholders as dividends as soon as possible and every year we publish the dividends we have paid out, in keeping with the requirements of the Companies Act.
Each year we also send a questionnaire to test shareholder opinions on:
- Their relationship with Camelot
- Our public image
- The service we provide to them
- Our success at operating as a responsible company, employing best practice
- The information we provide on important future events such as the renewal of our licence.
In 2006/07, the results of the survey were improved, showing increased levels of satisfaction. All shareholders believe it is important that Camelot is a responsible company and most feel that the Board is given adequate opportunity to consider any tensions between fulfilling our aim of maximising returns to Good Causes in a socially responsible way and our commercial objectives.
Scores in most areas came in at either 4 or 5, where 5 is 'completely satisfied'. All shareholders are completely satisfied that Camelot is a fair and honest company that does all it can to maintain a good public image. Most shareholders also scored us highly on being a good and responsible corporate citizen, and for involving them fully in discussions about the new licence and future strategy.
Board members are updated on corporate responsibility issues by the chair of our Advisory Panel for Corporate Responsibility (APCR), who is also an independent non-executive director, and through our Chief Executive, who chairs the Corporate Responsibility Board. Read more about the APCR.
One of our commitments last year was to hold an annual evaluation of the Board and its committees. In July 2006, the first questionnaire was completed by all Board members who were asked to rate issues including whether those matters reserved for the Board's decision were appropriate, how risks are managed, whether enough time is given to matters of importance, the composition of the Board, the standard of papers and quality of debate. Camelot scored highly in most areas.
Another of our commitments was met at the May 2007 Board meeting, when an expert from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP gave training on non-financial reporting. The training was well received by Board members, which we hope will be reflected in next year's survey.
For the coming year, we plan to develop a complete package of training opportunities for shareholders in order to help them understand the business. An example of a training opportunity could be observing the dialogues we hold with our stakeholders. We will also ensure Board members are kept informed of corporate responsibility issues by making CR a regular item for discussion at Board meetings.