Culture and conduct - Managing our risk - Pearson Annual Report 2003

Managing our risks Managing our risks, particularly reputational risks, is very important to us. As we reported last year, we regularly review our social, environmental and ethical (SEE) risks as part of our normal risk management processes. Semi-annually each business formally reviews and reports on these risks to our group control function, who provides a regular update on SEE matters, via the audit committee, to the board.

As described, we believe we are proactively managing our SEE risks. We consider the most important to be compliance with the UN Global Compact (both for ourselves and our suppliers), the environmental impact of our products and our ethical standards.

Our 2003 risk reviews did not identify any significant issues that the Group was not managing.

We pride ourselves on the integrity and quality of our journalistic reporting. In the light of recent well documented failings in journalistic standards and reporting elsewhere, we paid special attention to our ethical procedures and code of conduct to ensure they are of the highest possible standards. Specifically the FT editorial team has reviewed and reissued all its policies and procedures covering journalistic standards of conduct to ensure compliance with PCC guidelines and best practice.