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Centrica

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FY2022 Annual Report · Centrica
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Helping you 
live sustainably, 
simply and 
affordably

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We put colleagues and 
customers at the heart 
of everything we do, 
delivering innovative 
energy and services 
solutions to help 
homes, businesses 
and communities live 
sustainably, simply 
and affordably.

Key to this is our talented team of 20,000 
colleagues including 7,000 engineers, 
who serve millions of customers every day 
through trusted brands like British Gas, 
Bord Gáis Energy and Centrica Business 
Solutions.

Our focus on improving operational 
performance, a strong financial position and 
a responsible approach to business means 
our customers can rely on us for their 
energy needs. It also allows us to invest 
in energy security and the transition to net 
zero whilst creating the diverse and inclusive 
team we need to succeed and contribute 
to the communities we’re all part of.

In doing so, we can add value for 
customers, colleagues, communities 
and shareholders alike.

Find out more at centrica.com

Unless otherwise stated, all references to the Company shall mean Centrica plc 
(Registered in England and Wales No. 3033654); references to the Group shall mean 
Centrica plc and all of its subsidiary entities; and references to operating profit or 
loss, taxation, cash flow, earnings and earnings per share throughout the Strategic 
Report are adjusted figures, reconciled to their statutory equivalents in the Group Chief 
Financial Officer’s Report on pages 14 to 20. See also notes 2, 4 and 10 to the Financial 
Statements on pages 128 to 129, 137 to 143 and 154 to 155 for further details of these 
adjusted performance measures. In addition see pages 253 to 257 for an explanation and 
reconciliation of other adjusted performance measures used within the document.

8

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

9

Our Strategy & 
Business Model

Our strategy is driven by our Purpose to 
help customers live sustainably, simply 
and affordably. 

As the pace of change continues to accelerate, we are responding 
by focusing colleagues and technology on helping businesses 
and households to use energy more efficiently and sustainably. 
We recognise the need to help enable a more flexible energy 
system and are deploying a range of technologies to help build the 
grid of the future with both electric and hydrogen technologies. 

Financial Framework underpinned by 
balance sheet strength.

Alongside our Interim Results in July we reinstated a progressive 
dividend policy, with dividend cover from earnings moving to 
around 2x over time. We also signalled our intent to make efficient 
use of capital, including the return of surplus structural capital 
to shareholders, and in November launched a £250m share 
repurchase programme. We will continue to invest in both organic 
growth and capital projects, focused on the energy transition 
and net zero. We intend to set out our longer term investment 
and return plans alongside our 2023 Interim Results in July.

Our Purpose | Helping you live sustainably, simply and affordably

Our Purpose | Helping you live sustainably, simply and affordably

Our Strategic 
Framework

Retail
We remain relentlessly 
focused on providing leading 
customer service and 
experience helping them to 
save money and decarbonise 
through innovative offerings.

Optimisation
We are supporting the 
responsible buying and 
selling of energy, managing 
risk across our business and 
accessing value from green 
generation in our trading 
business while continuing to 
build out the flexibility required 
for the future energy system.

Infrastructure
Investing to build a low 
carbon, reliable energy system 
including power generating 
renewables, flexible peaking 
generation and energy 
storage through batteries and 
geological storage.

Focusing on delivery

Positioned for growth

Creating value from optionality 

Nuclear

Energy supply for 
residential and small 
business customers 
in England, Scotland 
and Wales

Services and 
solutions for 
residential 
customers In 
England, Scotland, 
and Wales

Energy supply 
services and 
solutions for 
residential and 
business customers 
in the Republic of 
Ireland

Energy supply and 
low carbon solutions 
for businesses, 
building and 
operating a portfolio 
of flexible assets

Trading and 
optimisation of 
energy globally, 
managing energy 
procurement 
and risk

Storing and 
producing gas to 
manage seasonal 
demand and energy 
security

Oil and gas 
production in 
existing UK assets

Minority stake in the 
UKs portfolio of 
existing nuclear 
power stations

British Gas Energy is 
transitioning onto a 
new digital platform 
to lower cost per 
customer and 
improve service

Services & Solutions 
is focused on fixing 
delivery and helping 
customers with the 
energy transition 

Bord Gáis is 
an established 
business with 
opportunity to 
explore future 
growth

Retail

Centrica Business 
Solutions is 
refocusing on its 
strengths in supply 
and services 
and increasing 
investment in energy 
transition assets

Optimisation

Energy Marketing & 
Trading is an 
established business 
with proven 
capability ready 
to grow further

Centrica Storage 
has an opportunity 
to explore its role 
in the future of 
hydrogen 

Spirit has an 
opportunity to 
explore its role in the 
future of hydrogen 
and carbon capture

We have a 20% 
minority stake in a 
declining portfolio, 
Centrica is exploring 
further investment in 
nuclear generation

Infrastructure

The Value we create

Customers 
Helping our customers live sustainably, 
simply and affordably through 
investment in services and solutions 
alongside our desire to do the right thing.

Colleagues 
Working together to achieve a more 
inclusive team where everyone feels 
motivated, safe and able to reach their 
full potential.

Investors
Evolving our strategy in a sustainable 
and responsible way to strengthen the 
success of our Company and deliver a 
return on investment.

Government and regulators
Enabling the delivery of national priorities 
through collaboration on key issues like 
decarbonisation, energy security and 
affordability.

Suppliers
Ensuring communities benefit from our 
business by targeting high standards 
across our supply chain and treating 
suppliers fairly.

Communities and NGOs
Tackling urgent social and environmental 
issues through local and national 
partnerships.

+  Read more on pages 12 to 13 and 
pages 68 to 69 in our S172 disclosure

Our Values
At Centrica we have clear values that guide us every day and 
enable us to succeed in delivering on our Strategy and Purpose for 
customers: Care, Collaboration, Courage, Agility and Delivery.

People and Planet
Our People & Planet Plan aims to create a more inclusive and 
sustainable future. From being a net zero business by 2045 and 
helping our customers be net zero by 2050, to creating the diverse 
and inclusive team to get there.

+  Read more on page 7

+  Read more on pages 40-54

Risk Management
The Group’s Risk Management framework protects Centrica’s 
financial, operational and strategic assets by identifying, assessing 
and responding appropriately to our key risks and uncertainties.

+  Read more on pages 29-33

Governance
The Group’s governance framework seeks to support the creation 
of long-term value by enabling effective decision-making for delivery 
of the overarching strategy, as well as ensuring that the views of all 
stakeholders are properly considered and that reporting is accurate 
and transparent.

+  Read more on pages 56-71

01

Our strategy and business model

Our strategy is driven by our Purpose to 
help customers live sustainably, simply and 
affordably. We have evolved our strategy 
to help meet the challenges of today and 
prepare us for a net zero future.
+  Read more about our strategy and business 

model on pages 7 to 11

38

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

39

Listening to our people 
We have put in place a Shadow Board which is a unique 
partnership with the Centrica Leadership Team to provide impartial 
insight, review and assurance on strategic topics relating to 
colleagues, customers and cash.

The role of the Shadow Board is to be a forum that the Group 
Chief Executive and Centrica Leadership Team will engage with 
to bring diverse perspectives from across the organisation into 
key discussions to ensure our values and standards are upheld. 
Through the Shadow Board, colleagues will be able to influence 
decisions, positively disrupt assumptions, and challenge the 
thinking of our leaders to support colleague-centred decision-
making. The Shadow Board consists of nine colleagues from 
across Centrica. 

Developing our people
I am delighted that this year we recruited a further 367 apprentices, 
continuing to create new, highly skilled and well-paid British jobs.  
In addition to this we recruited 258 new employees via other 
training opportunities, including newly qualified and trainee 
pathways. 20% of our new colleagues were female via the 
combined engineering entry routes. In addition, our Ex-Forces 
programme got off to a strong start in 2022, hiring 143 former 
service personnel, spouses or family members.

•  3,010 internal moves & promotions happened in 2022
•  3,700 new colleagues joined us across the Group including 

51 graduates, 57 summer placements and 15 Year in Industry 
colleagues 

Centrica stories

Jacqui’s reflections on the Shadow Board
Having left school with a few GCSEs many years 
ago, I’ve had the opportunity to develop a wealth of 
experience and skills at Centrica. So when I heard 
they were creating a Shadow Board, I jumped at the 
chance to become its Chair, because I wanted to give 
something back.

The Shadow Board meets leaders regularly to share 
diverse perspectives from across the business and 
deliver colleague-centric decisions. And I’m incredibly 
proud of how we’ve worked together during our first 
year – from raising awareness and developing and 
supporting solutions for the challenges our engineers 
face, to strengthening our colleague engagement 
survey and providing feedback on how to bring our 
Purpose, Values and Strategy to life for colleagues.

In 2023, we’ll build on this with priorities that include 
how to develop closer relationships with colleagues 
overseas and better support managers to ensure 
success. Following feedback, we will also run quarterly 
diversity network sessions to ensure our engineers are 
aware of, and have the same level of access to our 
support groups as our office-based colleagues.

9 
Diverse colleagues on the Shadow Board,  
each serving an 18-month term

Colleague headcount full-time equivalent (FTE)

2022

2021

2020

19,743

19,783

XX.X

21,239

Colleague networks
I am incredibly proud that we have a number of active colleague-led 
networks that operate across Centrica. Our networks cover areas 
such as gender/sexual orientation, family, disability and ethnicity. 
I have highlighted some examples below.

Centrica Forces Network is a group of colleagues across all areas 
of Centrica who have either served in, or are serving reservists in 
the Armed Forces, or have an interest in being part of a community 
that supports these groups of colleagues. The objective is to 
create a diverse community that supports veterans and reservists 
within Centrica ensuring that we become an employer of choice  
for these groups.

Our Carers Network is a supportive group where colleagues are 
able to connect with others (who may or may not be carers) who 
can share ideas and information about any aspect of caring. 
This year the network and Carers UK collected two trophies at 
the Corporate Engagement Awards. Following the success of 
our three-year strategic charity partnership with Carers UK, we 
won bronze for Best Collaborative Approach and were highly 
commended in the Best Charity, NGO or NFP category. The 
partnership was recognised for its work to bring about a step 
change in the way that society recognises, values and supports 
carers. Whilst our strategic charity partnership has now ended, 
we continue to work closely together.

Jill Shedden, Group Chief People Officer 
15 February 2023

People and Planet

Creating a more inclusive and 
sustainable future that supports 
communities, our planet and each other.

Over the next decade, we’ll continue to harness the expertise 
of colleagues and collaborate with key stakeholders such as 
government and local communities, to drive the necessary action 
to deliver our People & Planet Plan and ensure we do business 
responsibly across our wider activities. 

Our People & Planet Plan has five Group-wide goals that accelerate 
action on issues that matter deeply to our business and society, 
and where we’re well-placed to make a world of difference – from 
achieving net zero(1) and creating the diverse and inclusive team 
we need to get there, to contributing to the communities we’re all 
part of. 

Whilst we’ve made really positive progress towards the majority of 
our goals, we’re behind on some of our shorter-term milestones 
but are confident we’ll get back on track in the years ahead. 
Unprecedented events including COVID-19, the collapse of failed 
energy suppliers and the rising cost of energy during the energy 
crisis, meant that we needed to shift our focus beyond the People 
& Planet Plan, to provide the urgent help our customers and 
communities need right now – including stepping up to give 10% of 
our British Gas Energy and Bord Gáis Energy profits to help people 
pay for the rising cost of energy. 

Ultimately, this will enable us to deliver on our Purpose of 
helping our customers live sustainably, simply and affordably 
whilst contributing positively to the United Nations Sustainable 
Development Goals (SDGs).

“2022 has been a year like no other and I’m really 
proud of the way we’ve worked together and 
with others, to provide the UK’s largest voluntary 
support package for customers to help them with 
their energy bills, whilst making strong progress on 
our People & Planet Plan. We’ve a long way to go 
to achieve the inclusive and sustainable world we 
need, but I’m fully committed to making sure we 
get there.” 

Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive

(1) Net zero is the point at which there is a balance between human-related carbon 

dioxide (CO2) being emitted into the atmosphere and the CO2 taken out.

+  Read more about our People & Planet Plan, Climate Transition Plan, SDGs 
and SASB disclosure amongst others at centrica.com/peopleandplanet

+  Read more about our non-financial KPIs on pages 258 to 260

Our People & Planet Plan
Supporting communities, our planet and each other

People
Supporting every colleague to be themselves 
to better serve our customers and 
communities

Planet
Supporting every customer to live more 
sustainably

We want to:

We want to:

•  Create a more engaged and inclusive team that reflects the 

•  Help our customers be net zero by 2050 

full diversity of the communities we serve by 2030*

(28% carbon intensity reduction by the end of 2030)

•  Recruit 3,500 apprentices and provide career development 

•  Be a net zero business by 2045 

opportunities for under-represented groups by 2030 
(1,000 apprentices by the end of 2022)

(40% carbon reduction by the end of 2034)

•  Inspire colleagues to give 100,000 days to build inclusive communities by 2030 (20,000 days by the end of 2022)

Doing business responsibly
Underpinned by strong foundations to ensure we act fairly and ethically – from customer service to human rights 

* All company and senior leaders to reflect 2011 Census data for working populations. This means 47% women, 14% ethnically diverse, 15% disability, 3% LGBTQ+ 
and 3% ex-service by 2030 (30% women, 13% ethnically diverse, 4% disability, 3% LGBTQ+ and 3% ex-service by the end of 2022). See page 40 for more.

02

People and Planet

Our People & Planet Plan aims to create a 
more inclusive and sustainable future. From 
being a net zero business by 2045 and 
helping our customers be net zero by 2050, 
to creating the diverse and inclusive team to 
get there.
+  Read more on pages 39 to 54

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Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

13

Stakeholder 
Engagement

Engaging a diverse range of 
stakeholders enables us to deliver on our 
strategic objectives by understanding 
risks and opportunities better, whilst 
creating stronger outcomes for people 
and planet. 

Energy is at the heart of everyone’s lives. So our actions can have 
a big impact on a broad range of stakeholders. That’s why we 
strive to collaborate with all of our stakeholder groups to effectively 
understand, consider and evolve our strategy in a way that meets 
their expectations. This not only aids the success of our business 
by enabling us to deliver on our Purpose of helping our customers 
live sustainably, simply and affordably, but it allows us to maximise 
the wider positive contribution we can make to society.

Engagement is often led by our senior leadership team who 
regularly update the Board through briefings and presentations. 
As a result, the Board is well-placed to consider the long-term 
consequences of its decisions from the perspective of a range 
of stakeholders. 

Section 172(1) Companies  
Act 2006 Statement

The Directors consider that they have performed their 
duty as stipulated under Section 172, to promote the 
success of the Company for the benefit of all of our 
stakeholders throughout its decision-making.

These pages set out our key stakeholders together 
with an example of how engagement was vital to 
navigating one of the most material issues faced in 
2022. Further detail on how the Board engages and 
balances the needs of different stakeholders, together 
with the key decisions made in 2022, can be found  
in the Governance section.

+  Read more about how we considered the interests  
of different stakeholders in the Governance section on 
pages 68 to 71

Centrica stories 

Helping people with their energy bills in 
the UK
In 2022, the energy market faced unprecedented 
challenges as the war in Ukraine constricted already 
tight global energy supplies, causing energy costs 
to soar. With the duration of the energy crisis 
unknown, rising energy bills have been a real worry 
for many. We’ve therefore worked with stakeholders 
to understand what we can do to help, enabling the 
Directors to take swift action.

To ensure customers can get in touch more easily, 
we invested £25 million in customer service with the 
recruitment of 700 additional UK-based agents, who 
have guided customers through the crisis with expert 
advice and support. 

And on top of the millions of pounds we already provide 
in energy bill support, the Directors recognised that 
more needed to be done. So we committed £50 million 
to help people with their energy bills, including through 
our promise to donate 10% of British Gas Energy’s 
profit for the duration of the crisis. This enabled us to 
establish the UK’s largest voluntary customer support 
package. Of this, £25 million was given to the British 
Gas Energy Trust to create a dedicated cash support 
fund for customers and to help communities. To reach 
those who needed it most, we collaborated closely 
with the Trust by running a marketing campaign 
urging people not to suffer in silence, volunteered at 
over 100 Post Office Pop-Ups at over 50 locations 
to share advice at the heart of communities, and 
collaborated with charities like StepChange, to help 
more people access support. The remaining £25 million 
is administered by British Gas and largely supports 
prepayment customers and businesses with grants.

At the same time, the Directors alongside specialists in 
Corporate Affairs and Regulatory Affairs worked at pace 
with the UK Government and Ofgem. Parliamentarians 
were engaged to ensure they were up-to-date with 
the support available via information leaflets, meetings 
and drop-in sessions. Together, we also worked on 
short and longer-term improvements to achieve a 
more robust and sustainable market for consumers. 
We suspended all prepayment warrant activity until at 
least the end of Winter. And we increased volumes of 
renewable energy, reopened our Rough gas storage 
site and worked with Norwegian partners to secure 
gas supplies sufficient to heat 4.5 million homes, which 
increases greenhouse gas emissions in the short-term 
but was vital to boost energy security and reduce costs 
for consumers. Meanwhile, we continued to manage 
price volatility through agile hedging policies and 
effective demand forecasting. 

As we balance different stakeholder needs and the 
transition to net zero, we’re doing whatever we can 
to help people today and avoid another energy crisis 
in the future.

+  Read more on pages 40, 51 and 68

Our Key 
Stakeholders

Customers 
Importance – It’s vital that we listen to our customers 
and act on feedback so that we can understand what 
they want and need. This will enable us to satisfy existing 
customers and attract new ones too. 

Colleagues 
Importance – Colleague feedback helps us create a 
team where everyone can be themselves and thrive. 
In doing so, we can attract, promote and retain more 
diverse talent to meet the needs of our customers. 

Main focuses – Energy efficient and low carbon services and 
solutions, customer service, energy prices and bill support.

Main focuses – Reward, development, diversity and inclusion, 
safety, business strategy and transformation.

Engagement – We mainly engage through focus groups, surveys, 
proposition and usability testing amongst other channels. In 
response, we’re investing in sustainable services and solutions that 
help our customers save time, money and energy. And we provide 
extra support for those who need help with their energy bills. 

+  Read more on pages 12, 22 to 23, 40, 44 and 68 to 69

Engagement – Feedback is sought through channels like our 
Shadow Board of diverse colleagues who regularly meet leaders, 
townhalls, quarterly engagement surveys, performance reviews and 
structured engagements with trade unions. Together, we’re working 
to co-create a fair, safe and inclusive environment by rolling out our 
inclusion action plan alongside initiatives including training, policy 
development and colleague benefits.

+  Read more on pages 6, 37 to 38, 40 to 42, 44 and 68 to 71

Investors
Importance – Shareholders and debt holders from 
across the world provide funds that help us run and grow 
our business. 

Government and Regulators 
Importance – Government and regulatory policies 
can have a significant impact on how we do business. 
The Directors therefore recognise the importance of 

Main focuses – Financial and operational performance, 
shareholder returns and dividend, strategy and growth, and 
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors like net zero.

Engagement – Engagement with investors occurs throughout the 
year, predominantly via post-result investor roadshows, the Annual 
General Meeting (AGM), and ad-hoc meetings. We also respond to 
information requests and assessments from ESG ratings agencies. 
This enables us to consider and reflect the views of a diverse range 
of investors when updating on our strategy, to provide a sustainable 
return on investment. 

working closely to deliver a stable regulatory environment where 
policy is developed in the interests of consumers, whilst enabling 
a sustainable and investable market. 

Main focuses – Market design, customer service, net zero, skills, 
energy security and energy prices.

Engagement – Expertise is shared through participation in 
consultation processes, meetings and site visits. Through these 
interactions, we can effectively support policy development 
and reforms to help deliver on key issues like energy security, 
progressing net zero targets and support for vulnerable customers. 

+  Read more on pages 46, 57 and 68 to 70

+  Read more on pages 12, 43, 46 and 68 to 69

Suppliers 
Importance – The Directors fully support collaboration 
across our 3,500-strong supply chain. This reduces 
risk in our supply chain by targeting high standards of 
business conduct whilst securing a stable supply of 
services and solutions for customers. 

Communities and NGOs 
Importance – Communities expect companies to 
support issues that are important to them. By working 
alongside charities, non-governmental organisations 
(NGOs) and community groups, we can create stronger 
and more inclusive communities. 

Main focuses – Payment practices as well as social and 
environmental compliance on issues like human rights.

Main focuses – Tackling urgent social and environmental issues 
like fuel poverty and net zero.

Engagement – We interact with suppliers in many ways such as 
tendering, surveys, site inspections and remote worker surveys. 
Through engagement, we ensure we pay suppliers fairly and 
enforce our Responsible Sourcing Policy which sets out ways of 
working to benefit communities and the environment, including 
obligations under anti-modern slavery laws. 

+  Read more on pages 44 and 68

Engagement – Through meetings and collaborative research 
projects, the Board understands community issues and is able to 
determine how we can make a big difference – from donating to 
the British Gas Energy Trust to provide advice and grants alongside 
energy efficiency measures that help people with their energy bills, 
to volunteering and match funding for local schools, hospices 
and more.

+  Read more on pages 12, 40, 42 and 68

03

Our stakeholders

Engaging a diverse range of stakeholders, 
including our workforce, enables us to 
deliver on our strategic objectives by 
understanding risks and opportunities better, 
whilst creating stronger outcomes for people 
and planet.
+  Read more on pages 12 to 13, 37 to 38 

and 70 to 71 

Strategic Report

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

1

Group Highlights

Group Highlights

Chairman’s Statement

Our Strategy & Business Model

Our Purpose, Culture and Values

Group Chief Executive’s Statement

1 
2 
4 
7 
8 
10  Macro Trends
11  Market Changes
12  Stakeholder Engagement
14  Group Chief Financial Officer’s Report 
21  Our View on Taxation
22  Business Review
26  Key Performance Indicators
28  Our Principal Risks and Uncertainties
34  Assessment of Viability Disclosure
37  Group Chief People Officer’s Report
39  People and Planet

– Non-Financial Information Statement

–  Task Force on Climate-related 

Financial Disclosures

Governance

56  Directors’ and Corporate 
Governance Report

58  Corporate Governance Statement

– Board of Directors
72  Committee Reports

– Audit and Risk Committee

– Nominations Committee

– Safety, Environment and

Sustainability Committee

– Remuneration Committee
104  Other Statutory Information

Financial Statements

Independent Auditor’s Report

108 
121  Group Income Statement
122  Group Statement of Comprehensive 

Income

123  Group Statement of Changes in Equity
124  Group Balance Sheet
125  Group Cash Flow Statement
126  Notes to the Financial Statements
225  Company Financial Statements
237  Gas and Liquids Reserves (Unaudited)
238  Five Year Summary (Unaudited)
239  Ofgem Consolidated Segmental 

Statement

Other Information

252  Shareholder Information
253  Additional Information 

– Explanatory Notes (Unaudited)

258  People and Planet

– Performance Measures

IBC  Glossary

Group Operational Metrics

British Gas Services & Solutions
– Services Engineer Net
Promoter Score(1) 

Total recordable injury
frequency rate
(per 200,000 hours of worked)

2022

2021

+64

2022

+60

2021

1.12

1.07

Colleague engagement 

Total greenhouse gas
emissions (tCO2e)

73%

2022

2,007,655†

55%

2021

1,032,807(2) 

2022

2021

† Included in DNV Business Assurance Services UK Limited (DNV)’s independent limited assurance 
engagement. See page 258 or centrica.com/assurance for more. 
(1) Measured independently, through individual questionnaires, the customer’s willingness  

to recommend British Gas following an engineer visit.

(2) Restated due to Liquified Natural Gas shipping and the retained Spirit Energy assets in the UK 

and the Netherlands moving into scope. See pages 43 and 52.

Group Financial Metrics (Year ended 31 December 2022)

Strong underlying financial performance, with the Company managing 
elevated and volatile commodity prices very well.

Group adjusted 
operating profit

Group adjusted 
basic EPS

Group free cash flow 
from continuing 
operations

£3,308m

34.9p

£2,487m

2021  £948m

2021  4.1p

2021  £1,174m

Adjusted net cash

Full year dividend 
per share

£1,199m

2021  £680m

3.0p

2021  –

Statutory loss and earnings predominantly reflects the impact of falling 
commodity prices towards the end of the year, on the value of forward 
commodity purchases. This will unwind over future periods.

Group statutory operating 
(loss)/profit

Group statutory 
basic EPS

Group statutory net 
cash flow from 
operating activities

£(240)m

(13.3p)

£1,314m

2021  £954m

2021  20.7p

2021  £1,611m

 
2

Chairman’s Statement

Scott Wheway
Chairman

In many ways Centrica’s centrally 
important role in the energy market has 
been affirmed over the last 12 months. 
During times of uncertainty, our size, 
strength and responsible approach 
has helped provide stability in a crisis 
that, despite it being no fault of energy 
customers, has left many struggling.

I’m proud of what we’ve managed to achieve over the last year 
to stabilise the market. We have taken on more than 700,000 
customers from failed energy suppliers since the second half 
of 2021. We agreed a deal with Equinor to bring additional gas 
supplies to the UK, which has already started delivering enough 
gas to heat an additional 4.5 million UK homes over the next three 
years. We brought 36 Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) cargoes into the 
UK, enough to supply millions of homes. And we have re-opened 
our Rough gas storage facility in the North Sea, adding 50% to the 
UK’s capacity and boosting the UK’s energy resilience. 

All of these actions help incrementally reduce costs for our 
customers and strengthen the UK’s energy security.

We’ve also taken more direct action for customers, having created 
the largest voluntary energy support fund for customers in the UK, 
helping those struggling with rising costs through grants of up to 
£1,500. Nobody has done more than Centrica in this space. We 
donated more money in grants for support and invested more in 
customer service to meet additional demand, than we made in 
profit from British Gas Energy.

Outperforming expectations 
We’ve been clear that Centrica has been in a period of turnaround 
since 2020. In 2022, while we reported a statutory loss, we 
delivered strong operational performance, which is reflected in 
our underlying financial result. Elevated market prices and volatility 
provided favourable market conditions for our Energy Marketing & 
Trading business, which continues to play a critical role in storing, 
transporting and balancing energy supply across Europe. However, 
I am confident that even in a more benign environment we would 
have seen adjusted earnings growth, demonstrating our progress 
towards delivering the turnaround of Centrica. 

I was pleased that we have been able to reinstate the dividend 
at a prudent and sensible level. As shareholders you have been 
very patient during years of underperformance. The reinstatement, 
and the start of a share repurchase programme in November, 
underpins the Board’s confidence in the strength of Centrica and 
the journey we are on to grow a sustainable business that delivers 
for our colleagues, our customers, our shareholders and the UK 
as a whole. 

Responding to the cost of energy supplier failures
We know that customers are struggling financially in these 
challenging economic times. On a number of occasions this year 
I have spent time speaking with colleagues who take calls from 
our customers. No one could fail to be touched by some of the 
accounts our staff hear every day of people genuinely struggling 
to make ends meet. 

Almost 30 suppliers failed during 2021-2022, leaving the customers 
of other suppliers to bear the cost. Given how high customer bills 
are already, many simply cannot afford to keep picking up the tab 
for the failure of suppliers. This is why we are continuing to engage 
with both the UK energy regulator and the Government to put in 
place a robust regulatory framework that will deliver a future retail 
energy market that is stable and puts at its heart the long-term 
interests of customers.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 20223

It’s estimated around £500 billion could need to be spent on 
transforming the UK and Ireland’s housing stock for net zero. 
Having the largest engineering force in the industry positions 
us to deliver a significant proportion of those upgrades.

We are laying the groundwork by growing our apprenticeship 
programme and providing world-class engineer training in 
our academies – to help develop the right capabilities for future 
net zero driven growth. This gives us confidence for the future 
of our services business.

We’re excited too about the role that hydrogen can play in energy 
generation, heating homes and decarbonising transportation.

Hydrogen represents an opportunity for the UK to return to energy 
independence. But it will need long-term thinking beyond the usual 
political cycles, as well as both public and private investment to 
deliver at the scale and pace required. We’re in a race with other 
developed economies for first mover advantage and the rewards 
for the winner could be very attractive. 

Without question, a combination of technologies will be required, 
creating opportunities for companies with strong balance sheets, 
flexible business models and detailed knowledge of markets. 

In summary
This year’s strong performance demonstrates the new resilience 
of Centrica, showing our ability to trade through difficult times 
while providing support to our customers struggling with the  
cost of living crisis.

There is still work to do, and we haven’t got everything right, 
but we’re striving to improve.

Centrica is evolving into a new type of integrated energy company 
using our strong established positions in retail, optimisation and 
infrastructure. These capabilities and our financial strength are a 
result of the magnificent work of every member of the Centrica 
team and I want to take this opportunity to thank them for 
everything they have done for our customers, shareholders 
and our wider stakeholders in 2022.

Scott Wheway, Chairman 
15 February 2023

Strong expertise and capability in risk 
management and managing commodity markets 
While 2022 has been a challenging year for our retail energy  
supply and services businesses, this has been compensated by 
the rest of our portfolio, with our Optimisation and Infrastructure 
businesses delivering strong operational and financial performance. 
This is a demonstration of the resilience that comes from having  
a balanced portfolio. 

Part of the reason we have been able to manage the storm is 
our ability to manage our commodity exposure and risk in core 
markets, thanks to the strong expertise and capability we have 
built over a number of years within our Energy Marketing & 
Trading business. 

With European energy markets increasingly interlinked, it is an 
advantage to have expanded our activities outside our core 
markets of the UK and Ireland. In total, we now trade in 24 markets 
across Europe and employ around 600 colleagues across our main 
offices in Aalborg, London, and Antwerp. This is a core platform 
for growth within the business.

The important role of natural gas in the net 
zero transition 
The significant increase in energy costs was born not just of the 
conflict in Ukraine, which has created greater uncertainty in energy 
markets, but also the premature disinvestment in natural gas driven 
by the urgent necessity to move away from carbon-emitting assets. 

The net zero transition is happening at pace, but the reality is 
that given current capacity and the time it takes to build new 
infrastructure, the combination of solar, wind, nuclear and battery 
storage are not yet sufficiently developed to allow us to turn our 
back on gas completely. 

It is likely that for the next 15 years methane will continue to play 
a role as a transition fuel. On one hand, by helping to keep UK 
homes warm, and on the other providing vital balance to support 
the growth of renewables. At present, around 40% of the UK’s 
power comes from gas-fired turbines, which are typically brought 
online to fill the gap when renewables aren’t generating sufficiently 
to meet our needs. 

Although this figure is likely to decrease year on year, as more 
renewable assets are built and technologies develop, gas is likely 
to continue to play an important role for the foreseeable future – 
playing a vital balancing role in energy markets.

Transitional times for energy
A strong and responsible Centrica is uniquely placed to help see 
us through to the next phase of the energy transition. 

The roll-out of net zero technology remains at a nascent stage, 
nevertheless we installed around 8,000 electric vehicle charging 
points and nearly 50,000 hydrogen blend ready boilers last year. 
And while demand hasn’t been as high in 2022 as we’d hoped, 
we still installed more heat pumps than any other supplier in the 
UK and we’ve got plans to significantly ramp up roll-out through 
our British Gas Net Zero Ventures business which has launched 
a market-leading price guarantee to tackle affordability. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 20224

Group Chief 
Executive’s Statement

Chris O’Shea
Group Chief 
Executive

When I wrote to you last year, I said it 
appeared that this decade may be one 
of the most eventful for a long time, 
one where we learn and adapt more 
quickly than we’ve done in the past. 
I’m sure you’ll agree that 2022 was 
another year where the unexpected 
became the norm!

It’s hard to look at a news site or watch a news programme 
without seeing a mention of ‘global warming’, ‘climate change’, 
‘net zero’, ‘energy transition’ or ‘decarbonisation’. And it’s difficult 
to know what to think – is it a real threat? Is it exaggerated? 
What does it mean for society, and for your Company, both today 
and in the future?

My belief is that climate change is the biggest single threat facing 
civilisation today, and net zero is the biggest single opportunity 
we have at Centrica.

Climate change is real, it’s here, and it’s impacting lives across the 
planet. We can see that clearly with changing weather patterns. 
Reducing the carbon we put into the atmosphere is the best way 
to stop the march towards a climate catastrophe. Transforming 
how we generate, store and use energy can make a huge 
difference to reducing the warming of our planet. 

Longer term, if the net zero transition is thoughtful and targeted, 
it can keep prices stable for customers and drive economic growth, 
especially for those companies and countries at the forefront of 
the transition.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to an energy crisis on a scale not 
seen in decades. Using our agility, skills and assets to support 
energy security in our core markets of the UK and Ireland and 
help customers navigate through the cost of living crisis has been 
mission critical. 

Protecting vulnerable customers is also an absolute priority and we 
have clear processes and policies to ensure we manage customer 
debt carefully and safely. We need to strike a balance between 
managing spiralling bad debt and being aware that there are those 
who refuse to pay and those who cannot pay. 

However, allegations around a third-party contractor 
were unacceptable. I was deeply concerned to hear how 
some vulnerable customers appeared to be treated in our name, 
this is simply not how we should do business. We will get to the 
bottom of this and where we got it wrong, we’ll make it right.

No one else in the industry has put in place the level of support 
for those struggling to pay that we have. We were right to invest 
in customer care and to set up a £50 million support fund for 
vulnerable customers. We have taken the decision to suspend 
prepayment warrant activity and have called on Government, 
industry and the regulator to come together to agree a long-term  
plan to address the issue of affordability and the needs of 
vulnerable customers and, ultimately, create an energy market  
that is sustainable.

Uniquely integrated
Your Company is a uniquely integrated energy company operating 
primarily in the UK and Ireland, active in both energy and related 
services. We operate across the energy sector with distinct but 
complementary businesses. 

•  We Make it – Producing gas at Spirit Energy and generating 

electricity through our Nuclear stake and in Centrica Business 
Solutions

•  We Store it – Both gas storage through Centrica Storage Limited 
and electricity storage in our Centrica Business Solutions battery 
projects

•  We Move it – Our Energy Marketing & Trading team is one 

of Europe’s largest wholesalers of gas and electricity 
•  We Sell it – Over 8 million homes are supplied with gas 
and electricity through British Gas and Bord Gáis Energy

•  We Mend it – We install and maintain heating systems 

in more than 3 million homes

No other company is as comprehensively involved in the UK & 
Ireland energy markets and as well placed to both drive, and 
benefit from, the energy transition. In 2022, we have been busy 
dealing with the energy crisis in Europe and its impact on our 
customers, investing in improved customer service, simplifying our 
business, growing our workforce for the future, and empowering 
our colleagues to deliver for our customers – happy colleagues 
mean happy customers, which leads to happy shareholders.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 20225

gas from Norway and the USA amongst other countries, and 
electricity from the Nordics, Spain, France, Belgium and elsewhere, 
helping to maintain supplies for homes and businesses in the UK 
and Ireland. We put well over £1 billion of gas into storage across 
Europe to withdraw in 2023 when customers need it most, and 
we continued to play a major role in balancing physical gas and 
electricity markets across many European countries. This team of 
around 600 colleagues, based in the UK and Denmark, sit in the 
background quietly doing their work to make sure countries have 
the right amount of gas and power in the right place at the right 
time, moving gas around the world on ships as LNG or through 
pipelines in Europe, and moving power through the cables and 
interconnectors which connect different European power markets.

In British Gas Energy, we grew our customer numbers organically 
for the first time in many years. We now have more than 2 million 
customers on our new cloud-based IT platform and I’m looking 
forward to accelerating the transition of customers during 2023. 
This is not only to give our customers better service, but to allow 
us to use an integrated system which will allow households to 
dynamically manage their energy use and earn new revenue 
streams by what is known as Demand Side Response (DSR). 

British Gas Services and Solutions completed the first year of 
its turnaround. We made material investments in improving our 
customer service, and whilst this means that this year’s financial 
performance is disappointing, we leave 2022 with our operations 
in a stronger place than they have been for many years. In 2023, 
our efforts will be on maintaining the operational improvements 
and rebuilding commercial offerings to our customers, focused on 
what they want to buy. Undoubtedly the current cost of living crisis 
has had an impact on customer demand in 2022, and whilst this 
is expected to continue into 2023, we believe that longer term, this 
business will be at the forefront of the UK’s journey to net zero. 

The building blocks are being put in place with the formation of 
the British Gas Net Zero Ventures team, which is already delivering 
greater flexibility for customers through the launch of Peak Save, 
as well as installing the electric vehicle (EV) charge points and 
heat pumps that put our customers at the very heart of residential 
decarbonisation, and in greater control of their energy future.

Bord Gáis Energy performed well in the year, demonstrating the 
value of vertical integration as we invested some of the additional 
profits from our Whitegate power station in keeping customer 
prices as low as we could. During the year we took the decision to 
invest €250 million in two new hydrogen-ready gas-fired electricity 
plants to bring much-needed flexible and readily available electricity 
to the Irish market.

Demand Side 
Response
When there’s not enough 
electricity on the grid, consumers 
can be paid to reduce demand, 
thus helping balance the grid.

When we set out on the turnaround of Centrica three years 
ago, we had a clear view of the three stages: 

1.  Simplifying the portfolio and strengthening  

the balance sheet;

2.  Stabilising the Company and driving operational 

performance; and

3.  Delivering growth and positioning ourselves for net zero.

Progress made in 2022
Every one of our eight business units has substantial growth 
opportunities, whether it’s growing customer numbers and new 
customer offerings in our Retail businesses; expanding both our 
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) business and our Route-to-Market 
activities for third-party power producers in our Optimisation 
businesses; or growing both our gas and electricity storage and our 
electricity generation capacity in our Infrastructure businesses. 

In order to capture these opportunities, we needed to make sure 
our foundations were solid so that whatever we build is sustainable. 
Some of our businesses are further on than others, and you can 
see from the results that 2022 has been a year of building on the 
foundations we laid in 2020 and 2021, and starting to show that 
we can grow again.

The glue that holds our Group together is our Energy Marketing & 
Trading business, matching our energy production to our customer 
needs and making sure we have access to additional third party 
gas and electricity where needed to make up any shortfall. Our 
operations are critical to security of supply across Europe, and 
the team did an amazing job in 2022, making sure that we had 
enough gas and electricity to supply our customers. They secured 

Energy Movers by Nature

On Wednesday 20 July 2022 parts of East London 
came perilously close to a blackout due to surging 
electricity demand combined with a still day which 
meant wind farms were not turning. 

Our Energy Trading & Marketing team did what they 
do many times a day and found a solution, which 
played an important role in ensuring that the lights 
stayed on and homes and businesses could continue 
with their daily operations. Because we operate 
across the continent, we were able to move electricity 
from Belgium, where conventional electricity plants 
were fired-up and the electrons propelled back across 
the channel. All of this happened in under two hours.

We provide 15% of the traded volume that the UK 
electricity grid relies upon. Every year we are playing 
a more significant role as the energy makers and 
movers that keep the wheels turning. We currently 
manage more than 15GW of third-party electricity 
generation assets, with everything from solar farms 
to grid-scale batteries helping to put power where 
it’s needed. Our team in Denmark help to physically 
balance gas and power markets across Europe and 
our team in Belgium operates one of Europe’s biggest 
virtual power plants, combining thousands of assets 
to provide the flexibility grid operators need.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 20226

Centrica Business Solutions delivered a profit, made material 
progress towards building out its 900MW target of flexible 
generating assets and has an exciting, diverse pipeline of projects. 

In our Infrastructure businesses I was delighted that we were 
able to return the Rough gas field in the North Sea to storage 
operations in September, and withdrew the first gas from storage 
for five years on 30 November. Whilst only at 20% of its previous 
capacity, this is a critical first step to underpin the return to full 
capacity, and an investment of up to £2 billion to build the world’s 
largest hydrogen storage facilities right here in the UK. Spirit 
Energy had a strong year in gas production, while also beginning 
to prepare for a carbon-free future by submitting an application for 
a carbon storage licence for the huge Morecambe Bay gas field in 
the East Irish Sea. This is the first step towards building what could 
be one of the world’s largest carbon storage facilities. And our 
Nuclear electricity generation business had a strong year, delivering 
higher volumes and profits in 2022.

Managing responsibly for all stakeholders 
Companies have a responsibility to make sure they are a 
constructive and responsible part of society, and at Centrica  
we are focused on delivering for all stakeholders – including 
colleagues, customers, communities and our shareholders.

We are supporting our 20,000 colleagues through these 
challenging times, including through the payment of two significant 
one-off cost of living payments. For customers, we provided by 
some distance the largest ever energy support package in the  
UK and Ireland. And we’ll continue to review what more we can  
do as times remain hard for many customers, having committed  
to donate 10% of both British Gas Energy and Bord Gáis Energy’s 
profits to help until the current crisis is over.

We donated £4.5 million to a number of charities, including over 
£1 million to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine fund. 
We also took the decision in January to return £27 million received 
in 2020 from the UK Government under the furlough scheme.

I also feel it’s important that we continue to be good neighbours 
in the communities we serve. This has seen us commit to give 
100,000 volunteering days into local communities by 2030, as 
part of our People & Planet goals. All of our colleagues can use 
15 hours of their time each year to support local communities.

And we also delivered for our shareholders – restarting dividend 
payments and commencing our £250 million share repurchase 
programme.

Reflecting on our 2022 financial performance 
While a detailed breakdown of our financial performance is within 
the Group Chief Financial Officer’s Report on pages 14 to 20, 
I would like to briefly reflect on a year which has seen us expertly 
navigate volatile trading conditions. 

The Group’s adjusted earnings per share from continuing 
operations reached 34.9 pence, up from 4.1 pence during the 
previous year, as we delivered strong performance in Energy 
Marketing & Trading and our Upstream businesses. Free cash 
flow was also up significantly, and we closed the year with 
£1.2 billion of adjusted net cash. 

Continuing what we started 
Last year, I noted that our people had started to adopt a winning 
mindset, and I have seen that our passion and determination to 
succeed continued to build momentum throughout 2022. We have 
a plan of action underpinned by our Purpose, and customers are 
at the heart of it. 

We’ll continue to focus on the end goal; by doing that, we’ll put 
ourselves in the best position to drive further improvements in our 
performance and ultimately deliver long-term shareholder value. 

We’ll continue to do all we can to support colleagues and 
customers through difficult, uncertain times. And we’ll continue 
to see the opportunities where others see the obstacles, moving 
faster than the competition to deliver an energy transition which 
leaves no one behind. I expect to see material progress in growing 
our market share in the residential net zero arena with heat pumps 
and EV chargers, as well as the expansion of the demand side 
response part of our business, from one which primarily focuses 
on B2B customers to one which ultimately sees a huge proportion 
of our customers being able to earn money for turning down their 
electricity demand. This is the future for energy markets – smarter, 
more interconnected energy systems. And your Company has 
everything needed to deliver this system and make it simple, 
sustainable and affordable for our customers.

It is a huge privilege to be your Chief Executive, to lead an 
incredible team of 20,000 colleagues, to serve over 10 million 
amazing customers and to work for over 450,000 incredible 
shareholders. I’m so very grateful for your support, and your 
patience, as we continue to transform your Company.

Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive 
15 February 2023

Our Purpose
Helping you live sustainably, 
simply and affordably. This 
is our Purpose – it’s why we 
come to work every day.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 20227

Our Purpose, Culture 
and Values

At Centrica we are strongly led by our Purpose – “to 
help customers live sustainably, simply and affordably”. 
Our Strategy is driven by our Purpose and our 
enduring Values at Centrica underpin our delivery and 
culture. Whilst we have evolved our Strategy to help 
meet the challenges of today and prepare us for a net 
zero future, our Values remain firmly embedded in who 
we are and give direction to everything we do.

Our Values

Care

Collaboration

Courage

Agility

Delivery

We care deeply about 
our impact on the 
planet, our customers 
and our colleagues. 
We want to make a 
difference to society 
and the safety and 
well-being of our team 
and customers is 
paramount

We are delivering 
crucial support for 
customers through 
the volatile market 
conditions and 
exceptional cost of 
living crisis delivering 
material, targeted 
support including 
through funding the 
British Gas Energy 
Trust and committing 
10% of our energy 
profits to help those 
who need it.

Together we win, 
we build winning 
relationships 
throughout our own 
organisation and with 
others to deliver on  
the scale challenges 
the industry faces

We step up and 
take responsibility. 
We recognise the 
importance of 
challenging the industry 
to make difficult 
decisions for our 
future and we stand 
by our beliefs

We are nimble, curious 
and innovative; we 
adapt to our markets 
rapidly and seek 
out opportunities to 
support the system 
and succeed

We do things right 
and deliver for all of 
our stakeholders

We collaborate 
closely across 
our businesses 
to understand 
how our Group 
is exposed and 
responding to the 
climate challenge. 
Our ability to draw 
insights effectively 
between our 
businesses through 
close collaboration 
is demonstrated 
by our strong 
performance in 
climate disclosures.

We’ve stepped 
up to support the 
UK’s security of 
supply, reinstating 
the Rough field as 
gas storage. We 
recognise the long-
term needs for the 
UK and will invest in 
long-term security 
and decarbonisation 
through hydrogen 
and carbon capture.

Our Optimisation 
businesses have 
rapidly responded 
to volatile 
energy markets, 
managing risk 
across our Group 
and proactively 
supporting our 
customers through 
access to scale 
long-term gas supply 
and Liquified Natural 
Gas deals. 

We value delivering 
great service and 
customer outcomes. 
We are rigorous, and 
do things the right 
way. We have been 
recognised by Ofgem 
as a well run supplier, 
been protecting 
customers’ credit 
balances and 
invested an additional 
£25 million in 
customer service 
through the crisis. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 20228

Our Strategy & 
Business Model

Our strategy is driven by our Purpose to 
help customers live sustainably, simply 
and affordably. 

As the pace of change continues to accelerate, we are responding 
by focusing colleagues and technology on helping businesses 
and households to use energy more efficiently and sustainably. 
We recognise the need to help enable a more flexible energy 
system and are deploying a range of technologies to help build the 
grid of the future with both electric and hydrogen technologies. 

Our Purpose | Helping you live sustainably, simply and affordably

Our Strategic 
Framework

Retail
We remain relentlessly 
focused on providing leading 
customer service and 
experience helping them to 
save money and decarbonise 
through innovative offerings.

Optimisation
We are supporting the 
responsible buying and 
selling of energy, managing 
risk across our business and 
accessing value from green 
generation in our trading 
business while continuing to 
build out the flexibility required 
for the future energy system.

Infrastructure
Investing to build a low 
carbon, reliable energy system 
including power generating 
renewables, flexible peaking 
generation and energy 
storage through batteries and 
geological storage.

Focusing on delivery

Positioned for growth

Energy supply for 
residential and small 
business customers 
in England, Scotland 
and Wales

Services and 
solutions for 
residential 
customers In 
England, Scotland, 
and Wales

Energy supply 
services and 
solutions for 
residential and 
business customers 
in the Republic of 
Ireland

Energy supply and 
low carbon solutions 
for businesses, 
building and 
operating a portfolio 
of flexible assets

British Gas Energy is 
transitioning onto a 
new digital platform 
to lower cost per 
customer and 
improve service

Services & Solutions 
is focused on fixing 
delivery and helping 
customers with the 
energy transition 

Bord Gáis is 
an established 
business with 
opportunity to 
explore future 
growth

Retail

Centrica Business 
Solutions is 
refocusing on its 
strengths in supply 
and services 
and increasing 
investment in energy 
transition assets

Optimisation

Our Values
At Centrica we have clear values that guide us every day and 
enable us to succeed in delivering on our Strategy and Purpose for 
customers: Care, Collaboration, Courage, Agility and Delivery.

People and Planet
Our People & Planet Plan aims to create a more inclusive and 
sustainable future. From being a net zero business by 2045 and 
helping our customers be net zero by 2050, to creating the diverse 
and inclusive team to get there.

+  Read more on page 7

+  Read more on pages 40-54

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Our Purpose | Helping you live sustainably, simply and affordably

9

Financial Framework underpinned by 
balance sheet strength.

Alongside our Interim Results in July we reinstated a progressive 
dividend policy, with dividend cover from earnings moving to 
around 2x over time. We also signalled our intent to make efficient 
use of capital, including the return of surplus structural capital 
to shareholders, and in November launched a £250m share 
repurchase programme. We will continue to invest in both organic 
growth and capital projects, focused on the energy transition 
and net zero. We intend to set out our longer term investment 
and return plans alongside our 2023 Interim Results in July.

Creating value from optionality 

Nuclear

Trading and 
optimisation of 
energy globally, 
managing energy 
procurement 
and risk

Storing and 
producing gas to 
manage seasonal 
demand and energy 
security

Oil and gas 
production in 
existing UK assets

Minority stake in the 
UKs portfolio of 
existing nuclear 
power stations

Energy Marketing & 
Trading is an 
established business 
with proven 
capability ready 
to grow further

Centrica Storage 
has an opportunity 
to explore its role 
in the future of 
hydrogen 

Spirit has an 
opportunity to 
explore its role in the 
future of hydrogen 
and carbon capture

We have a 20% 
minority stake in a 
declining portfolio, 
Centrica is exploring 
further investment in 
nuclear generation

Infrastructure

The Value we create

Customers 
Helping our customers live sustainably, 
simply and affordably through 
investment in services and solutions 
alongside our desire to do the right thing.

Colleagues 
Working together to achieve a more 
inclusive team where everyone feels 
motivated, safe and able to reach their 
full potential.

Investors
Evolving our strategy in a sustainable 
and responsible way to strengthen the 
success of our Company and deliver a 
return on investment.

Government and regulators
Enabling the delivery of national priorities 
through collaboration on key issues like 
decarbonisation, energy security and 
affordability.

Suppliers
Ensuring communities benefit from our 
business by targeting high standards 
across our supply chain and treating 
suppliers fairly.

Communities and NGOs
Tackling urgent social and environmental 
issues through local and national 
partnerships.

+  Read more on pages 12 to 13 and 
pages 68 to 69 in our S172 disclosure

Risk Management
The Group’s Risk Management framework protects Centrica’s 
financial, operational and strategic assets by identifying, assessing 
and responding appropriately to our key risks and uncertainties.

+  Read more on pages 29-33

Governance
The Group’s governance framework seeks to support the creation 
of long-term value by enabling effective decision-making for delivery 
of the overarching strategy, as well as ensuring that the views of all 
stakeholders are properly considered and that reporting is accurate 
and transparent.

+  Read more on pages 56-71

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202210

Macro Trends

The need to decarbonise

Enabling system flexibility

We continue to face into 
the biggest challenge our 
industry, Government 
and customers have 
faced – climate change. 
Our ultimate long-term 
ambition is to support 
the transition to net 
zero by developing the 
green economy, finding 
sustainable solutions for 
customers, and ensuring 
a just transition. 

How we’re responding
•  Investing in green and flexible generation and 

storage through a range of participation models
•  Developing potential options for scale investment 

in low carbon infrastructure supporting the 
system today and in the future

•  Helping customers on their decarbonisation 
journeys, installing heat pumps and electric 
vehicle chargers while exploring the future 
of hydrogen 

The energy system of 
the future will need to be 
flexible, creating a greener 
and more intelligent grid 
alongside increasingly 
connected demand in 
customers’ homes and 
businesses is our ultimate 
vision. We continue to 
develop our market-
leading solutions to enable 
this future.

How we’re responding
•  We are optimising the buying and selling of 

renewable power through our trading business

•  Our leading connectivity and optimised 

trading technology is being embedded in our 
customer solutions and systems

•  Through Hive we are bringing customers 

along the journey and building solutions that 
allow them to be active participants in helping 
manage the UK’s energy system, accessing 
rewards, saving costs and decarbonising

The need to support consumer change

Consumers continue 
to be at the core of 
our priorities with our 
focus being providing 
the best service and 
cost competitiveness 
throughout the transition, 
while providing the 
confidence and tools to 
enable the roll-out of the 
technology of the future.

How we’re responding
•  Through digitalising our energy and services 

businesses with new, flexible platforms we will 
be able to ensure our customers have access 
to quality service at an affordable price

•  We are committed to enabling the transition to 
net zero and will continue to provide the best 
energy and heating solutions to our customers, 
tailored to their homes and businesses

•  We advocate for the policy changes needed 

to reach net zero and drive the market on our 
customers’ behalf

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202211

Market Changes

Cost of living crisis

Energy market volatility

System security

The rapidly rising cost 
of living poses a major 
near-term challenge 
that affects our 
customers, colleagues 
and our business. 

How we’re responding
•  Providing vulnerable customers with the support 
they need with £50 million in donations, including 
through the British Gas Energy Trust and the 
British Gas Energy Support Fund

•  Helping customers lower their consumption and 

save on their bills with innovative products in Hive 

•  Striving to complete the transformation of our 
business, lowering costs for customers while 
continuing to provide the energy and services 
they need

•  We are passionate about protecting and 

rewarding our colleagues with fair pay deals 

This year has seen 
unprecedented 
volatility in global 
energy markets directly 
impacting the prices of 
the gas and power we 
buy for our customers.

How we’re responding
•  We have used our Optimisation businesses 
to help manage risk across the Group and 
responsibly procure energy for our customers

•  We’ve acted responsibly in our supply 

businesses ensuring we hedge our customers’ 
demand and ring fence credit balances to 
protect their money

•  We’ve continued to invest in flexible generation 
which will help reduce and stabilise energy 
costs in the long term

Geopolitical tensions 
and rising prices 
have created security 
of supply concerns 
and risks of energy 
shortages globally.

How we’re responding
•  Helping to keep our customers warm by 

signing scale long-term purchasing agreements 
for the import of European gas and US LNG 
into the UK

•  Converting the Rough facility back to gas 

storage supporting supply security for homes 
and businesses

•  Both directly and indirectly investing in bringing 
online additional green, low cost generation 
capacity 

•  Continuing to explore long-term scale 

investments in nuclear which will provide 
reliable baseload power

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202212

Stakeholder 
Engagement

Engaging a diverse range of 
stakeholders enables us to deliver on our 
strategic objectives by understanding 
risks and opportunities better, whilst 
creating stronger outcomes for people 
and planet. 

Energy is at the heart of everyone’s lives. So our actions can have 
a big impact on a broad range of stakeholders. That’s why we 
strive to collaborate with all of our stakeholder groups to effectively 
understand, consider and evolve our strategy in a way that meets 
their expectations. This not only aids the success of our business 
by enabling us to deliver on our Purpose of helping our customers 
live sustainably, simply and affordably, but it allows us to maximise 
the wider positive contribution we can make to society.

Engagement is often led by our senior leadership team who 
regularly update the Board through briefings and presentations. 
As a result, the Board is well-placed to consider the long-term 
consequences of its decisions from the perspective of a range 
of stakeholders. 

Section 172(1) Companies  
Act 2006 Statement

The Directors consider that they have performed their 
duty as stipulated under Section 172, to promote the 
success of the Company for the benefit of all of our 
stakeholders throughout its decision-making.

These pages set out our key stakeholders together 
with an example of how engagement was vital to 
navigating one of the most material issues faced in 
2022. Further detail on how the Board engages and 
balances the needs of different stakeholders, together 
with the key decisions made in 2022, can be found  
in the Governance section.

+  Read more about how we considered the interests  
of different stakeholders in the Governance section on 
pages 68 to 71

Centrica stories 

Helping people with their energy bills in 
the UK
In 2022, the energy market faced unprecedented 
challenges as the war in Ukraine constricted already 
tight global energy supplies, causing energy costs 
to soar. With the duration of the energy crisis 
unknown, rising energy bills have been a real worry 
for many. We’ve therefore worked with stakeholders 
to understand what we can do to help, enabling the 
Directors to take swift action.

To ensure customers can get in touch more easily, 
we invested £25 million in customer service with the 
recruitment of 700 additional UK-based agents, who 
have guided customers through the crisis with expert 
advice and support. 

And on top of the millions of pounds we already provide 
in energy bill support, the Directors recognised that 
more needed to be done. So we committed £50 million 
to help people with their energy bills, including through 
our promise to donate 10% of British Gas Energy’s 
profit for the duration of the crisis. This enabled us to 
establish the UK’s largest voluntary customer support 
package. Of this, £25 million was given to the British 
Gas Energy Trust to create a dedicated cash support 
fund for customers and to help communities. To reach 
those who needed it most, we collaborated closely 
with the Trust by running a marketing campaign 
urging people not to suffer in silence, volunteered at 
over 100 Post Office Pop-Ups at over 50 locations 
to share advice at the heart of communities, and 
collaborated with charities like StepChange, to help 
more people access support. The remaining £25 million 
is administered by British Gas and largely supports 
prepayment customers and businesses with grants.

At the same time, the Directors alongside specialists in 
Corporate Affairs and Regulatory Affairs worked at pace 
with the UK Government and Ofgem. Parliamentarians 
were engaged to ensure they were up-to-date with 
the support available via information leaflets, meetings 
and drop-in sessions. Together, we also worked on 
short and longer-term improvements to achieve a 
more robust and sustainable market for consumers. 
We suspended all prepayment warrant activity until at 
least the end of Winter. And we increased volumes of 
renewable energy, reopened our Rough gas storage 
site and worked with Norwegian partners to secure 
gas supplies sufficient to heat 4.5 million homes, which 
increases greenhouse gas emissions in the short-term 
but was vital to boost energy security and reduce costs 
for consumers. Meanwhile, we continued to manage 
price volatility through agile hedging policies and 
effective demand forecasting. 

As we balance different stakeholder needs and the 
transition to net zero, we’re doing whatever we can 
to help people today and avoid another energy crisis 
in the future.

+  Read more on pages 40, 51 and 68

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Our Key 
Stakeholders

13

Customers 
Importance – It’s vital that we listen to our customers 
and act on feedback so that we can understand what 
they want and need. This will enable us to satisfy existing 
customers and attract new ones too. 

Colleagues 
Importance – Colleague feedback helps us create a 
team where everyone can be themselves and thrive. 
In doing so, we can attract, promote and retain more 
diverse talent to meet the needs of our customers. 

Main focuses – Energy efficient and low carbon services and 
solutions, customer service, energy prices and bill support.

Main focuses – Reward, development, diversity and inclusion, 
safety, business strategy and transformation.

Engagement – We mainly engage through focus groups, surveys, 
proposition and usability testing amongst other channels. In 
response, we’re investing in sustainable services and solutions that 
help our customers save time, money and energy. And we provide 
extra support for those who need help with their energy bills. 

+  Read more on pages 12, 22 to 23, 40, 44 and 68 to 69

Engagement – Feedback is sought through channels like our 
Shadow Board of diverse colleagues who regularly meet leaders, 
townhalls, quarterly engagement surveys, performance reviews and 
structured engagements with trade unions. Together, we’re working 
to co-create a fair, safe and inclusive environment by rolling out our 
inclusion action plan alongside initiatives including training, policy 
development and colleague benefits.

+  Read more on pages 6, 37 to 38, 40 to 42, 44 and 68 to 71

Investors
Importance – Shareholders and debt holders from 
across the world provide funds that help us run and grow 
our business. 

Government and Regulators 
Importance – Government and regulatory policies 
can have a significant impact on how we do business. 
The Directors therefore recognise the importance of 

Main focuses – Financial and operational performance, 
shareholder returns and dividend, strategy and growth, and 
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors like net zero.

Engagement – Engagement with investors occurs throughout the 
year, predominantly via post-result investor roadshows, the Annual 
General Meeting (AGM), and ad-hoc meetings. We also respond to 
information requests and assessments from ESG ratings agencies. 
This enables us to consider and reflect the views of a diverse range 
of investors when updating on our strategy, to provide a sustainable 
return on investment. 

working closely to deliver a stable regulatory environment where 
policy is developed in the interests of consumers, whilst enabling 
a sustainable and investable market. 

Main focuses – Market design, customer service, net zero, skills, 
energy security and energy prices.

Engagement – Expertise is shared through participation in 
consultation processes, meetings and site visits. Through these 
interactions, we can effectively support policy development 
and reforms to help deliver on key issues like energy security, 
progressing net zero targets and support for vulnerable customers. 

+  Read more on pages 46, 57 and 68 to 70

+  Read more on pages 12, 43, 46 and 68 to 69

Suppliers 
Importance – The Directors fully support collaboration 
across our 3,500-strong supply chain. This reduces 
risk in our supply chain by targeting high standards of 
business conduct whilst securing a stable supply of 
services and solutions for customers. 

Communities and NGOs 
Importance – Communities expect companies to 
support issues that are important to them. By working 
alongside charities, non-governmental organisations 
(NGOs) and community groups, we can create stronger 
and more inclusive communities. 

Main focuses – Payment practices as well as social and 
environmental compliance on issues like human rights.

Main focuses – Tackling urgent social and environmental issues 
like fuel poverty and net zero.

Engagement – We interact with suppliers in many ways such as 
tendering, surveys, site inspections and remote worker surveys. 
Through engagement, we ensure we pay suppliers fairly and 
enforce our Responsible Sourcing Policy which sets out ways of 
working to benefit communities and the environment, including 
obligations under anti-modern slavery laws. 

+  Read more on pages 44 and 68

Engagement – Through meetings and collaborative research 
projects, the Board understands community issues and is able to 
determine how we can make a big difference – from donating to 
the British Gas Energy Trust to provide advice and grants alongside 
energy efficiency measures that help people with their energy bills, 
to volunteering and match funding for local schools, hospices 
and more.

+  Read more on pages 12, 40, 42 and 68

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202214

Group Chief Financial 
Officer’s Report

Kate Ringrose
Group Chief 
Financial Officer

Our underlying financial performance 
was strong in 2022, with significant 
improvements in adjusted operating 
profit, adjusted earnings per share and 
free cash flow. Our balance sheet is in 
a much more robust place now than it 
was two years ago, providing us with 
cash agility and resilience against the 
current volatile environment, and the 
ability to respond to attractive investment 
opportunities aligned to the energy 
transition when they arise. And I’m 
pleased we were able to recommence 
returns to shareholders in 2022, with  
the restart of our dividend and the launch 
of a share repurchase programme.

Financial overview
The environment was unprecedented in 2022, with high and 
volatile commodity prices being a key driver of the Group’s financial 
performance, position and cash flow. The Group’s adjusted 
operating profit was £3.3bn (2021: £0.9bn), with Energy Marketing 
& Trading (EM&T) increasing to £1.4bn (2021: £0.1bn) as we 
managed commodity volatility very well, and Upstream increasing 
to £1.8bn (2021: £0.7bn), a reflection of high market prices. British 
Gas Energy adjusted operating profit of £0.1bn was slightly lower 
than in 2021, reflecting voluntary support given to customers during 
the year. The Group’s adjusted EPS was 34.9p (2021: 4.1p).

The Group’s total Free Cash Flow (FCF) from continuing operations 
rose to £2.5bn (2021: £1.2bn), reflecting the higher adjusted 
operating profit and some big swings in working capital, including  
a £1.1bn inflow due to accelerated cash flows in British Gas Energy 
from government support schemes, offset by a £1.2bn outflow in 
EM&T, with a large proportion of profit in EM&T expected to settle 
from a cash perspective in 2023 and a significant year-on-year 
increase in gas held in storage. The reopening of the Rough asset 
also led to a £0.4bn outflow as we bought gas held in storage  
in the Upstream segment.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022From a statutory perspective, the numbers include a large certain 
re-measurement loss during the year of £3.4bn (2021: £1.2bn) 
which, when added to business performance adjusted operating 
profit, leads to an overall statutory operating loss of £0.2bn (2021: 
£1.0bn gain). The certain re-measurement loss is predominantly 
because our net buy portfolios (mainly for future downstream 
supply requirements) bought forward commodity when prices were 
high, and market prices then fell towards year-end, thus leading 
to losses on the re-measurement of those derivatives on the 
balance sheet. In addition, commodity derivatives that had been 
in-the-money at the end of FY21 unwound to the middle column 
as certain re-measurements. These losses of £5.2bn were partially 
offset in the middle column of the income statement by a significant 
£1.8bn positive movement in the onerous supply contract provision 
over the course of 2022. None of the items reported in the middle 
column are considered to reflect the underlying performance of the 
business as they are economically related to our upstream assets, 
capacity/off-take contracts or our downstream demand, which are 
typically not fair valued, and hence they are reported in a separate 
performance column in the Income statement.

The Group’s net assets fell to £1.3bn (2021: £2.8bn) as a result 
of the statutory loss, in addition to the impact of items reported in 
other comprehensive income or directly in equity, which include 
IAS 19 pension losses arising from our equity accounted Nuclear 
investment (£0.3bn), the share buyback programme (£0.3bn) 
and dividend payments to both shareholders and non-controlling 
interests (£0.3bn).

15

From a statutory cash flow perspective, net cash flow from 
operating and continuing investing activities was £0.7bn 
(2021: £1.3bn). This was lower than the Free Cash Flow balance 
noted above because of the exclusion from that measure of 
movements in variation margin and collateral (£1.2bn) to support 
our commodity hedging activity and the trading business, pension 
deficit payments (£0.2bn) and a loan to the pension scheme 
(£0.4bn).

Revenue
Group statutory revenue increased by 61% to £23.7bn 
(2021: £14.7bn). Group revenue included in business performance, 
which includes revenue arising on contracts in scope of IFRS 9 
(see note 4b for further details) increased by 84% to £33.6bn 
(2021: £18.3bn). 

Gross segment revenue, which includes revenue generated from 
the sale of products and services between segments, increased 
by 82% to £37.2bn (2021: £20.5bn). This was driven largely by the 
impact of higher wholesale commodity prices on Energy Marketing 
& Trading and Upstream, and the impact of higher wholesale prices 
on retail tariffs in British Gas Energy, Bord Gáis Energy and Centrica 
Business Solutions.

A table reconciling the different revenue measures is shown in the 
table below:

Year ended 31 December 

British Gas Services & Solutions
British Gas Energy
Bord Gáis Energy
Centrica Business Solutions
Energy Marketing & Trading
Upstream

Group revenue included in business performance

Less: revenue arising on contracts in scope of IFRS 9 
included in business performance

Group revenue

Gross  
segment  
revenue 
£m 

1,527
13,096
1,771
3,000
14,441
3,351
37,186

2022

Less inter-
segment 
revenue 
£m

(50)
–
–
(19)
(219)
(3,261)
(3,549)

Group  
revenue 
£m

1,477
13,096
1,771
2,981
14,222
90
33,637
(9,896)

23,741

Gross  
segment  
revenue 
£m 

1,513
7,513
1,111
1,981
6,082
2,282
20,482

2021

Less inter-
segment 
revenue 
£m

(53)
–
–
(28)
(214)
(1,887)
(2,182)

Group  
revenue 
£m

1,460
7,513
1,111
1,953
5,868
395
18,300
(3,556)

14,744

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202216

Operating profit/(loss)
Adjusted operating profit increased to £3,308m (2021: £948m). Excluding the disposed Spirit Energy assets, adjusted operating profit 
increased to £2,823m (2021: £392m). The statutory operating loss from continuing operations was £240m (2021: profit of £954m). 
The difference between the two measures of profit relates to exceptional items and certain re-measurements, which are explained  
on pages 17 to 18. A table reconciling the different profit measures is shown below:

2022

Exceptional 
items and 
certain re-
measurements 
£m

Business 
performance 
£m

Notes

2021

Exceptional 
items and 
certain re-
measurements 
£m

Statutory 
result 
£m

Statutory 
result 
£m

Business 
performance 
£m

Year ended 31 December 

Continuing operations

British Gas Services & Solutions

British Gas Energy

Bord Gáis Energy

Centrica Business Solutions

Energy Marketing & Trading

Core EM&T

Legacy gas contract

Upstream

Spirit Energy (retained)

Centrica Storage

Nuclear

Profit Share

Total Group excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets

Spirit Energy disposed assets

Group operating profit/(loss)

Net finance cost

Taxation

Profit/(loss) from continuing operations

Profit attributable to non-controlling interests

Adjusted earnings from continuing operations attributable 
to shareholders

Discontinued operations

Adjusted earnings attributable to shareholders

Adjusted earnings attributable to shareholders excluding 
disposed Spirit Energy assets

4(c)

8

9

(9)

72

31

44

1,400

1,381

19

1,308

245

339

724

(23)

2,823

485

3,308

(143)

(1,046)

2,119

(69)

2,050

—

2,050

2,005

121

118

28

(52)

70

155

(85)

107

68

77

(38)

—

392

556

948

(187)

(454)

307

(70)

237

—

237

162

6

—

236

242

107

349

624

973

954

(187)

(218)

549

37

586

624

1,210

(3,548)

—

793

(2,755)

(77)

(2,832)

(240)

(143)

(253)

(636)

(146)

(782)

—

—

(2,832)

(782)

Profit and inventory from Rough operations are reported under Centrica Storage Limited for presentational purposes only. Centrica Storage Limited does not produce, 
supply or trade gas, except to the extent necessary for the efficient operation of the storage facility. In accordance with the Gas Act 1986, such production, supply and 
trading of gas is carried out wholly independently of Centrica Storage Limited by other Centrica group companies.

Group operating profit from business performance (adjusted operating profit)
The increase in adjusted operating profit was primarily in Energy Marketing and Trading, with our diverse range of contractual gas storage, 
pipeline and power generation capacity proving very valuable in elevated and volatile commodity markets, and in Upstream, reflecting 
strong gas production and nuclear generation volumes against a backdrop of higher commodity prices and the return of Rough to gas 
storage operations.

In Retail, British Gas Energy profit fell, as we provided £50m of additional support to customers struggling in the current environment, 
while British Gas Services & Solutions reported a small loss, as we invested in improving customer service and pricing, and saw weak 
commercial performance against a challenging external backdrop.

More detail on specific business unit adjusted operating profit performance is provided in the Business Review on pages 22 to 25. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Group finance charge and taxation
Finance costs
Net finance costs from continuing operations decreased to £143m 
(2021: £187m), largely due to an increase in interest income on 
cash balances reflecting higher UK interest rates. Interest costs 
on bonds, bank loans and overdrafts were slightly down, with the 
impact of the decision to redeem the €750m hybrid bond at its 
first call date in April 2021 and the further maturity of two bonds 
in early 2022 largely offset by the impact of the higher interest rate 
environment on floating debt.

Taxation
Business performance taxation on profit from continuing operations 
increased to £1,046m (2021: £454m). After taking account of tax 
on joint ventures and associates, the adjusted tax charge was 
£1,077m (2021: £433m). 

The resultant adjusted effective tax rate for the Group was 34% 
(2021: 59%), with the profit mix moving away from highly taxed 
E&P activities.  

The adjusted effective tax rate calculation is shown below:

Year ended 31 December 

Adjusted operating profit from continuing 
operations before impacts of taxation
Add: JV/associate taxation included in 
adjusted operating profit
Net finance cost from continuing 
operations
Adjusted profit before taxation
Taxation on profit from continuing operations
Share of JV/associate taxation
Adjusted tax charge
Adjusted effective tax rate

2022

£m

3,308

31

(143)

3,196
(1,046)
(31)
(1,077)
34%

2021

£m

948

(21)

(187)

740
(454)
21
(433)
59%

Exceptional items and certain re-measurements
Total certain re-measurements and exceptional items from 
continuing operations included within Group operating profit 
generated a pre-tax loss of £3,548m (2021: profit of £6m), made 
up of a loss on certain re-measurements of £3,393m (2021: loss 
of £1,241m) and an exceptional loss of £155m (2021: profit of 
£1,247m). 

Total certain re-measurements and exceptional items from 
continuing operations generated a tax credit of £793m 
(2021: £236m), with a credit of £1,000m (2021: £486m) related to 
certain re-measurements and a charge of £207m (2021: £250m) 
related to exceptional items from continuing operations.  

17

Certain re-measurements
The Group enters into a number of forward energy trades to 
protect and optimise the value of its underlying production, 
generation, storage and transportation assets (and similar capacity 
or off-take contracts), as well as to meet the future needs of our 
customers. A number of these arrangements are considered to be 
derivative financial instruments and are required to be fair valued 
under IFRS 9. 

The Group has shown the fair value adjustments on these 
commodity derivative trades separately as certain 
re-measurements, as they do not reflect the underlying 
performance of the business because they are economically 
related to our upstream assets, capacity/off-take contracts 
or downstream demand, which are typically not fair valued.

As a result of significant commodity price increases, since 2021 the 
Group has also recognised an onerous contract provision for its 
UK downstream energy supply contract portfolio. Although gains 
and losses on the commodity derivative hedge trades are already 
separately recognised in the income statement, the Group must 
assess whether downstream customer contracts have become 
onerous, taking into account the reversal of any mark-to-market 
gains. Movement in the amount provided is recognised in certain 
re-measurements, as the supply contracts are economically related 
to both the hedges and forecast future profitability of supply and 
therefore do not reflect underlying performance. 

The operating profit in the statutory results includes a net pre-tax 
loss for continuing operations of £3,393m (2021: loss of £1,241m) 
relating to re-measurements, comprising:

–  A net loss of £5,160m on the re-measurement of derivative 
energy contracts. With the Group generally a net purchaser  
of commodity, we saw a negative revaluation of energy supply 
contract hedge purchases entered into over 2022 due for 
delivery in future periods given the reductions in forward 
commodity prices towards the end of the year, after the contracts 
were entered into. These re-measurements should unwind as 
the commodity is delivered to customers, mostly in H1 2023. In 
addition there was an unwind of in-the-money positions for the 
UK downstream energy supply business from December 2021 
as the commodity was delivered to customers in 2022. The net 
negative impact of these two factors was £6,364m. This was 
partially offset by the unwind of Upstream and Energy Marketing 
& Trading out-the-money positions from December 2021, 
together with the revaluation of their sell trades due for delivery 
in future periods. The net positive impact of these two factors 
was £1,204m.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202218

–  A £1,766m release from the onerous energy supply contract 
provision. As the Group purchases the commodity required 
for future supply in advance, the decline in commodity prices 
towards the end of 2022 meant the costs of fulfilling residential 
downstream customer contracts would now be lower than the 
fixed/capped charges recoverable from customers. As a result, 
this portion of the provision has been reversed. The remaining 
provision of £999m relates to non-domestic customers on 
longer-term fixed contracts agreed at levels below the current 
forward commodity prices. The gain from releasing this provision 
will offset losses from the ultimate unwinding of in-the-money 
hedge positions, without affecting the ultimate profitability of the 
underlying transactions.

–  There was also a £1m net gain arising on re-measurement of 

certain associates’ contracts (net of taxation).

These re-measurements generated a taxation credit of £1,000m 
(2021: credit of £486m), including £473m associated with re-
basing deferred tax on certain relevant derivatives for the Energy 
Profits Levy. As a result, the total loss from net re-measurements 
after taxation for continuing operations was £2,393m (2021: loss 
of  £755m). 

The Group recognises the realised gains and losses on commodity 
derivative and onerous supply contracts when the underlying 
transaction occurs. The business performance profits arising 
from the physical purchase and sale of commodities during the 
year, which reflect the prices in the underlying contracts, are not 
impacted by these re-measurements.

Further details can be found in note 7(a).

Exceptional items
An exceptional pre-tax charge of £155m was included within 
the statutory Group operating profit from continuing operations 
in 2022. In 2021, an exceptional pre-tax profit of £1,247m was 
recognised, largely relating to the write-back of Upstream gas 
production and electricity generation assets. 

The 2022 pre-tax exceptional charge was made up of: 

–  A charge of £362m relating to the Spirit Energy Norwegian 

E&P and Statfjord disposal, which completed on 31 May 2022. 
See note 12 for further details.

–  A £207m write-back of power assets, predominantly relating 
to the write-back of the nuclear investment as a result of 
higher forecast forward commodity prices, largely offset by the 
projected impact of the Electricity Generator’s Levy announced  
in November 2022 and applicable from 1 January 2023.

The taxation charge on exceptional items was £207m (2021: 
£250m), which includes a £121m credit associated with deferred 
tax provisions related to E&P tax losses and decommissioning 
carry-back, due to the increase in forecast commodity prices 
and an exceptional £325m charge from the recognition of higher 
deferred tax liability balances due to the implementation of the 
Energy Profits Levy. 

As a result, the total post-tax exceptional loss recognised in 
continuing operations after taxation was £362m (2021: profit 
of £997m).

Further details on exceptional items, including on impairment 
accounting policy, process and sensitivities can be found in notes 
7(b) and 7(c).

Discontinued operations
There was no adjusted operating profit or adjusted earnings from 
discontinued operations in 2021 or 2022. Statutory earnings of 
£624m from discontinued operations in 2021 are related to the 
profit on disposal and release of a tax provision following the 
disposal of Direct Energy, which completed on 5 January 2021.

Group earnings 
Adjusted earnings
Profit for the year from business performance from continuing 
operations after taxation was £2,119m (2021: £307m). After 
adjusting for non-controlling interests relating to Spirit Energy, 
adjusted earnings were £2,050m (2021: £237m). Excluding the 
disposed Spirit Energy assets, adjusted earnings were £2,005m 
(2021: £162m).

Adjusted basic EPS was 34.9p (2021: 4.1p). Excluding Spirit 
Energy assets, adjusted basic EPS was 34.2p (2021: 2.8p).

Statutory earnings
After including exceptional items, certain re-measurements 
and earnings from discontinued operations, the statutory loss 
attributable to shareholders for the period was £782m (2021: profit 
of £1,210m). 

The Group reported a statutory basic EPS loss of 13.3p (2021: 
profit of 20.7p, of which 10.0p related to continuing operations). 

Dividend
In addition to the interim dividend of 1.0p per share, the proposed 
final dividend is 2.0p per share, giving a total full year dividend of 
3.0p per share (2021: nil).

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Group cash flow, net debt and balance sheet
Group cash flow
Free cash flow is the Group’s primary measure of cash flow as 
management believe it provides relevant information to show the 
cash generation of the business after taking account of the need 
to maintain its capital asset base. Free cash flow is reconciled to 
statutory net cash flow from operating and investing activities in the 
table below. See the explanatory note in note 4(f) for further details.

Net cash outflow from continuing investing activities increased to 
£566m (2021: £325m), with lower net investment in gas production 
more than offset by higher net investment in non-E&P activities and 
a £400m loan to the pension schemes in October 2022 to help 
them manage through volatile market conditions. 

Group total free cash flow from continuing operations was £2,487m 
(2021: £1,174m), as reconciled to statutory cash flow measures 
in the table above. 

19

Year ended 31 December 

Statutory cash flow from continuing  
operating activities
Statutory cash flow from continuing  
investing activities
Statutory cash flow from continuing operating 
and investing activities
Add back/(deduct):
Sale and purchase of securities
Interest received
Movements in collateral and margin cash
Defined benefit pension deficit payments
Free cash flow from continuing operations
Discontinued operations free cash flow
Free cash flow

2022 
£m

2021 
£m

1,314

1,611

(566)

(325)

748

1,286

398
(46)
1,173
214
2,487
—
2,487

3
(2)
(481)
368
1,174
2,588
3,762

Net cash flow from continuing operating activities of £1,314m was 
down 18% (2021: £1,611m), with the impact of higher adjusted 
EBITDA partially offset by higher tax payments, and material 
working capital and collateral and margin cash outflows. 

These significant working capital movements were largely a 
reflection of the higher commodity price environment and UK 
Government initiatives to address this. British Gas Energy saw 
a working capital inflow of £1.1bn in the year reflecting the 
introduction of the Energy Price Guarantee and Energy Bill Support 
Scheme, which resulted in earlier payment than under standard 
consumer payment patterns. EM&T saw a large working capital 
outflow of £1.2bn driven by a higher volume of gas inventory and 
by the timing of settlements on trading cash flows. In addition, we 
invested £0.4bn of working capital in Rough, having injected 16bcf 
into gas storage. 

We saw a £1.2bn outflow of collateral and margin cash. In an 
elevated and volatile commodity price environment, initial margin 
requirements are greater and the likelihood of large movements on 
variation margin are also increased. At the end of 2022, commodity 
purchases made for our retail customers were out-the-money as 
prices fell towards the end of the year. We would expect these 
outflows to reverse in future periods, as we deliver the commodity 
to customers.

Net cash outflow from continuing financing activities remained 
broadly unchanged at £917m (2021: £938m) with the two bond 
repayments in February and March 2022 resulting in lower cash 
outflow than from the hybrid redemption in 2021, offset by the 
impacts of the distribution of £273m to Spirit Energy’s minority 
partner relating to the disposal of Spirit Energy’s Norway assets 
and the recommencement of returns to shareholders through the 
payment of a 2022 interim dividend and the buyback of shares as 
part of the Group’s £250m share repurchase programme.

Group adjusted net cash
The above resulted in a £169m decrease in cash and cash 
equivalents over the year, and when including the impact of 
reduced gross debt resulting from the bond repayments, the 
loan to the pension schemes and lease adjustments, the Group’s 
adjusted net cash position at the end of December 2022 was 
£1,199m, compared to £680m on 31 December 2021.

Further details on the Group’s sources of finance and net debt 
are included in note 24. 

Pension deficit
The Group’s IAS 19 net pension position improved to a £40m 
surplus as at the year-end, from £nil at 31 December 2021, with 
the impact of pension deficit contributions during the year being 
partially offset by net actuarial losses.

Further details on the post-retirement benefits are included 
in note 22.

Balance sheet
Net assets decreased to £1,280m (2021: £2,750m). This largely 
reflects the impact of the statutory loss in the year, in particular the 
net re-measurements in relation to energy supply contracts, the 
impact of the share repurchase programme, IAS 19 pension losses 
from our equity accounted Nuclear investment and the minority 
dividend payment. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022The Group has actively responded to those risks heightened 
by global wholesale energy prices. Centrica’s approach to risk 
management includes agile hedging policies and effective demand 
forecasting processes. The extent to which the Group may 
continue to be impacted by the consequences of the high level 
of commodity prices will, in part, depend on further government 
and regulatory policy, including setting of future levels of default 
tariff caps, levies on profits and any extension to customer 
support schemes.

Details of how the Group has managed financial risks such as 
liquidity and credit risk are set out in note S3. Details of the 
Group’s capital management processes are provided under 
sources of finance in note 24.

Accounting policies
The Group’s accounting policies and specific accounting measures, 
including changes of accounting presentation and selected key 
sources of estimation uncertainty, are explained in notes 1, 2 and 3.

Kate Ringrose, Group Chief Financial Officer 
15 February 2023

20

2022 acquisitions, disposals and disposal groups 
classified as held for sale
On 8 December 2021, Centrica announced that the Spirit Energy 
Group, of which the Group owns 69%, had agreed to dispose of 
its Norwegian oil and gas exploration and production business 
and its interests in the Statfjord field for headline consideration of 
$1,076m (approximately £800m) on a debt-free cash-free basis, 
plus a deferred commodity price-linked contingent payment. 
The commercial effective date of the transaction was 1 January 
2021, with the transaction approved by Centrica shareholders 
at a General Meeting on 13 January 2022 and completed on 
31 May 2022.

After adjustments for the net post-tax cash flows generated by the 
sale business and interests after the commercial effective date, less 
any remaining tax payable on these cash flows, net consideration 
was £69m, including a deferred commodity price-linked receivable 
and a tax indemnity provided to Sval Energi. Spirit Energy has 
distributed the net cash flow generated since 1 January 2021 and 
the net consideration to Centrica and its joint venture partners in 
proportion to their ownership, with £233m distributed to Centrica’s 
non-controlling interest in June 2022 and a further £40m distributed 
in the second half of 2022.

Further details on assets purchased, acquisitions and disposals 
are included in notes 4(e) and 12.

Events after balance sheet date
Details of events after the balance sheet date are described 
in note 26.

Risks and capital management
The nature of the Group’s principal risks and uncertainties are 
broadly unchanged from those set out in its 2021 Annual Report. 
However, the Group’s top three Principal Risks are now Credit & 
Liquidity Risk, Market Risk (including the outage risk of financial 
loss due to impact of lost asset production) and Weather Risk, 
reflecting the potential impacts of gas and electricity prices 
reaching record levels during 2022 together with extreme volatility.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Our View on Taxation

21

The Group takes its obligations to pay and collect the correct 
amount of tax very seriously.

Responsibility for tax governance and strategy lies with the Group 
Chief Financial Officer, overseen by the Board and the Audit and 
Risk Committee.

In the UK we maintain a transparent and constructive relationship 
with His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC). This includes 
regular, open dialogue on issues of significance to HMRC and 
Centrica. Our relationship with fiscal authorities in other countries 
where we do business is conducted on the same principles.

Our approach
Wherever we do business in the world, we take great care to 
ensure we fully comply with all our obligations to pay or collect 
taxes and to meet local reporting requirements.

We are committed to providing disclosures and information 
necessary to assist understanding beyond that required by law and 
regulation.

We do not tolerate tax evasion or fraud by our employees or other 
parties associated with Centrica. If we become aware of any such 
wrongdoing, we take appropriate action.

Our cross-border pricing reflects the underlying commercial reality 
of our business.

We ensure that income and costs, including costs of financing 
operations, are appropriately recognised on a fair and sustainable 
basis across all countries where the Group has a business 
presence. We understand that this is not an exact science and 
we engage openly with tax authorities to explain our approach.

We carefully manage the tax risks and costs inherent in every 
commercial transaction, in the same way as any other cost.

We do not enter into artificial arrangements in order to avoid 
taxation nor to defeat the stated purpose of tax legislation.

We seek to actively engage in consultation with governments on 
tax policy where we believe we are in a position as a Group to 
provide valuable commercial insight.

The Group’s tax charge, taxes paid and the 
UK tax charge
The Group’s businesses are subject to corporate income tax rates 
as set out in the statutory tax rates on profits table.

The overall tax charge is dependent on the mix of profits and the 
tax rate to which those profits are subject.

Statutory tax rates on profits
Group activities

Tax charge compared to cash tax paid
2022

2022

UK supply of energy services(1)

19.0%(2)

UK oil & gas production

Denmark energy services

22.0%

UK (including Petroleum Revenue Tax)
Norway
Denmark
Ireland
Rest of world

65.0%(3)

Current tax 
charge/(credit)

Cash tax paid/
(received)

618
339
130
(26)
10
1,071

243
300
17
13
1
574

Corporation tax is paid in instalments, generally based on estimates; one-off items 
and fluctuations in mark to market positions may cause divergence between the 
charge for the year and the tax paid.

Republic of Ireland supply of energy and services

+  Further information on the tax charge is set out in note 9 on pages 151 to 153.

12.5%

+  Our Group Tax Strategy, a more detailed explanation of the way the Group’s 
tax liability is calculated and the timing of cash payments, is provided on our 
website at centrica.com/responsibletax

(1) With effect from 1 January 2023, revenues from our Nuclear business (included 
in energy supply and services) will also be subject to Electricity Generator Levy 
at 45% in addition to corporation tax.

(2) With effect from 1 April 2023 the statutory rate applicable to UK supply of energy 

and services will increase to 25%.

(3) With effect from 1 January 2023, the statutory tax rate applicable to UK gas 
production increased to 75%; the statutory rate increased from 40% to 65% 
with effect from 26 May 2022.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202222

Business Review

Business unit operational, commercial and 
financial performance
Improved operational metrics but weak commercial 
performance in British Gas Services & Solutions,  
with increased challenges from cost of living and 
inflationary pressures
British Gas Services & Solutions

2021

2022

Change

Services customers (‘000) (closing) (1)
Installs and on-demand jobs (‘000)
Services complaints per customer (%) (2)
Services Engineer NPS (3)
Adjusted operating (loss) / profit (£m)

3,141
270

3,428
282

(8%)
(4%)
12.6% 12.1% 0.5ppt
4pt
(107%)

60
121

64
(9)

All 2022 metrics and 2021 comparators are for the 12 months ended 31 December 
unless otherwise stated. 
(1) Services customers are defined as single households having a contract with 

British Gas.

(2) Total complaints, measured as any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction,  

as a percentage of average customers over the year.  

(3) Measured independently, through individual questionnaires, the customer’s 

willingness to recommend British Gas following an engineer visit.

We continued to focus on fixing operational delivery in British Gas 
Services & Solutions in 2022, to improve the experience for our 
customers. We have been focused on recruitment, to enable us 
to complete a greater proportion of jobs using our own workforce, 
and in 2022 recruited over 800 engineers. This, coupled with a 
reduction in average sickness rates, resulted in improved capacity. 
Reflecting this, the number of rescheduled appointments fell from 
11% to 6%, while Engineer NPS increased by 4 points to +64 over 
the year. Complaints per customer increased slightly to 12.6% as 
we still let some customers down, but improved in H2 2022 relative 
to H1 and further improvements in customer experience remains a 
focus for 2023. 

Customer retention increased 1ppt to 83%, as we remained 
mindful of price changes that customers can absorb in the current 
economic environment, despite inflationary pressures on our own 
cost base. However, sales remained challenging against the weak 
economic backdrop, and there was also an impact of our decision 
to pause proactive selling for a period earlier in the year to focus on 
delivery for our existing customers. Reflecting this, total customer 
numbers fell by 287,000, or 8%, over the year. We also continue 
to see a trend of more customers trading down to lower priced 
products within our HomeCare range, with the number of services 
products per customer dropping to 2.17 compared with 2.23 at the 
start of the year and 33% of HomeCare products now coming with 
an excess compared with 31% at the start of the year.

The total number of installs and on-demand jobs for the year fell by 
4% compared with 2021. Within this boiler installations increased 
by 9%, but a changed sales mix resulted in a lower average gross 
margin per installation. However, with our focus on catching up on 
a backlog of Annual Service Visits, we completed nearly 600,000 
more in 2022 than in 2021, which reduced capacity for on-demand 
work and resulted in a 10% fall in these type of jobs. 

British Gas Services & Solutions adjusted operating loss was £(9)m 
in 2022 against an adjusted operating profit of £121m in 2021. 

•  The reversal of COVID-19 and industrial action impacts from 
2021 totalling £50m was partially offset by temporary factors 
seen in the first half of 2022, specifically increased workload 
that we believe was a function of customers choosing to have 
non-urgent work completed which they had delayed during the 
COVID-19 pandemic, temporary higher absence rates and  
an increase in the payment of compensation to customers. 
These factors negatively impacted adjusted operating profit  
by approximately £25m.

•  We continued to invest in the future of the business, through 
increasing our direct engineer capacity and upgrading core 
IT systems, to ensure we are able to better serve customers 
today and well placed to capture longer-term opportunities 
arising from the decarbonisation of heating in the UK. This 
investment in service resulted in a negative impact on operating 
profit of approximately £45m in 2022. Having now stabilised 
our operational metrics, we would expect recruitment costs 
to reduce in 2023, while we expect to start benefiting from 
our investments through improved engineer productivity and 
increased sales of net zero products. 

•  We also continue to see inflationary cost pressures, on both 

direct labour as we support our colleagues through the cost of 
living crisis, and on third party costs. We chose not to fully pass 
these through in pricing to our customers, resulting in a negative 
impact on adjusted operating profit of approximately £50m.
•  Lower contract customer numbers coupled with customers 
trading down to lower priced products was a factor in the 
financial result, as was a changed boiler sales mix. These factors 
negatively impacted adjusted operating profit by approximately 
£60m. Improving commercial performance remains a focus and 
we have a clear commercial plan for 2023.

Helping customers in British Gas Energy in a 
volatile and high price environment
British Gas Energy
2022

2021

Residential energy customers (‘000) 
(closing) (1)
Small business customer sites (‘000) 
(closing)
Energy complaints per customer (%) (2)
Energy Touchpoint NPS (3)
Cost per residential energy customer 
(excl. bad debt) (£)
Adjusted operating profit (£m)

7,516

7,260

480

455

Change

4%

5%

14.4%
13
83

8.5% 5.9ppt
2pt
(1%)

11
84

72

118

(39%)

All 2022 metrics and 2021 comparators are for the 12 months ended 31 December 
unless otherwise stated.
(1) Residential energy customers are defined as single households buying energy 

from British Gas.

(2) Total complaints, measured as an expression of dissatisfaction in line with 

submissions made to Ofgem, as a percentage of average customers over the year.
(3) 2021 restated to reflect the average weighted score by channel across the year. 
Measured independently, through individual questionnaires and the customer’s 
willingness to recommend British Gas following contact.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202223

•  The positive impact of increased residential customer numbers 
and average unit gross margins, and demand recovery from 
small business customers following the removal of COVID-19 
restrictions, were more than offset by a £213m increase in the 
bad debt charge reflecting higher customer bills and the wider 
economic uncertainty. 

•  We also made a number of voluntary choices, including the 
repayment of £27m received by the Group under the UK 
Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and 
investments totalling over £70m to support customers who need 
it most and in building our contact centre capacity to improve 
customer service resilience.

Bord Gáis Energy retail energy supply was loss 
making in 2022, but we delivered good operational 
performance, including from the Whitegate CCGT 
which was back online 
Bord Gáis Energy

Change

2021

2022

Customers (‘000) (closing)
Complaints per customer (%) (1)
Journey NPS (2)
Adjusted operating profit (£m)

526
2.2%
19
31

509

3%
1.6% 0.6ppt
(11pt)
11%

30
28

All 2022 metrics and 2021 comparators are for the 12 months ended 31 December 
unless otherwise stated. 
(1) Total complaints, measured as any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, 

as a percentage of average customers over the year.  
(2) Weighted NPS for the main customer interaction channels.

While Bord Gáis Energy saw the return to service of Whitegate 
CCGT, the retail energy supply business was loss making in 2022, 
reflecting our decision to protect customers and absorb higher 
commodity costs. We have committed to donate 10% of Bord 
Gáis adjusted operating profit to our energy support fund to help 
vulnerable customers for the duration of the current crisis.

The number of customers grew by 17,000 in 2022, with the 
addition of customers from failed suppliers, and good retention 
rates reflecting the support we provided for existing customers. 
Customer complaints increased slightly and Journey NPS fell by 
11 points over the year, which reflects market-wide customer 
concerns over the sharp rise in retail tariffs due to the significant 
increase in global commodity prices.

Despite the loss in retail energy, which also includes the impact of 
higher bad debt and lower customer consumption from warmer 
weather and changing customer behaviour, Bord Gáis Energy 
adjusted operating profit increased by 11% to £31m, reflecting 
good wholesale trading performance and strong availability from 
the Whitegate CCGT, which was offline for most of 2021. This 
demonstrates the value of an integrated business model in Ireland. 

As part of the push for increased security of supply and 
decarbonisation in Ireland, we have also taken a positive final 
investment decision on two 100MW flexible gas peaking plants in 
Athlone and Dublin, at an expected cost of over €250m.

We continued to focus on helping our customers in British Gas 
Energy in 2022, choosing to invest as much in customer service 
and support as we made in profits for the year, including through 
the UK’s biggest ever energy support package totalling £50m.

Residential customer numbers increased by 256,000, or 4%, over 
2022. This included a net increase of 158,000 customers who 
joined us through Ofgem’s Supplier of Last Resort Process from 
Together Energy, while we also saw organic net growth of 98,000 
in the year, against a backdrop of low levels of market switching. 
We also delivered a 25,000, or 5%, increase in the number of small 
business customers we serve, to 480,000, including organic net 
growth of 18,000.

With higher wholesale commodity prices resulting in significantly 
higher customer bills, we saw customer contact increase by almost 
a third compared to 2021, with greater customer focus on the level 
of their bill and direct debit payments. This led to a higher number 
of complaints, although almost 70% were resolved within a day, 
while Energy Touchpoint NPS improved to +13. We remain focused 
on ensuring we are able to handle an increased level of customer 
contact at this challenging time for many customers, and have now 
completed the recruitment of an additional 700 UK-based contact 
centre colleagues.

We continue to make good progress in migrating customer 
accounts in a controlled manner onto our new ‘software as a 
service’ IT platform. Around 2.2m customers have now been 
migrated onto the platform, more than double the amount at the 
half year, which combined with more modern ways of working is 
intended to enable a lower cost to serve and improved levels of 
customer service.

Cost per customer (excluding bad debt) decreased by £1 to £83 
per customer, despite the impacts of inflation, a £3 impact of dual 
running IT costs and our investment in additional call centre agents, 
as we continue our drive to become more efficient. This figure 
excludes incremental voluntary support and donations. 

British Gas Energy adjusted operating profit decreased by 39% to 
£72m, which largely reflects voluntary donations made to support 
customers and the repayment of furlough funds received by the 
Group in 2020. 

•  Rising wholesale commodity prices for much of the year meant 
that default tariffs remained cheaper than new fixed-price tariffs, 
resulting in more customers on default tariffs than we had 
hedged for. This required us to purchase more commodity at 
prices above the allowance in the price cap in Q1 2022, although 
with allowances introduced into the price cap from April 2022 
to allow recovery for suppliers, the impact was broadly neutral  
in the year.

•  Warmer than normal temperatures in H1 2022 resulted in lower 

demand and allowed the sale of surplus gas and power back into 
a high-priced market at a profit. Temperatures were also warmer 
in H2 2022, particularly in October and November. However, this 
came alongside a material fall in near-term commodity prices to 
levels below which we had forward purchased gas and power 
for our customers, and resulted in us selling surplus gas and 
power into the market at a loss. We also saw changing customer 
behaviour against a backdrop of higher customer bills, leading to 
a reduction in underlying consumption. Overall, the net impact of 
these factors on adjusted operating profit was slightly positive.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202224

Strong management of commodity market 
volatility in Energy Marketing & Trading
Energy Marketing & Trading (EM&T)

2021

2022

Renewable capacity under  
management (GW)
Total EM&T adjusted operating  
profit (£m)

11.6

11.7

1,400

70

1,900%

All 2022 metrics and 2021 comparators are for the 12 months ended 31 December 
unless otherwise stated. 

Our EM&T business has a diverse portfolio of contracted positions 
and is very well positioned when commodity prices are high  
and/or volatile, given our in-depth understanding of energy markets 
and ability to manage system complexity. We deployed more 
working capital, with an outflow of £1.2bn relating to investment 
in gas inventory for our storage and LNG positions and unrealised 
profit on derivative positions. However, this investment was well 
rewarded, with material in-year profits from our Gas & Power 
trading, Route-to-Market and LNG activities.

In Gas & Power Trading, our contracted pipeline and interconnector 
positions across Europe allowed us to move gas and power 
between markets and benefit during periods of significant price 
dislocations. In addition, our significant gas storage positions 
meant we were able to benefit from volatility in seasonal spreads.

In Route-to-Market, we’ve grown one of Europe’s largest third-
party renewable energy portfolios, creating an advanced, cross-
European virtual power plant, and in 2022 we also benefited from 
the higher power price environment. Capacity under management, 
including renewables and optimisation assets such as battery and 
CHP, increased to 15.4GW from 14.6GW of which approximately 
75% are renewable technologies. The diverse range of markets we 
serve and technologies we offer are proving increasingly valuable, 
as more intermittent generation comes online across Europe to 
increase the importance of balancing services. We remain focused 
on growing our route-to-market capacity as more renewable assets 
come online across Europe.

Our LNG business was profitable in 2022, despite us having 
forward sold all cargoes from our Cheniere contract for 2022 
delivery in times of lower geographical price spreads, as large 
differentials between US and European gas prices provided 
opportunity to capture additional value. In total we traded 284 
physical cargoes in 2022 and we continue to look to build on 
our contractual positions. During the year, we signed a Heads of 
Agreement with Delfin to take 1 million tonnes of LNG from their 
floating facility in the Gulf of Mexico, with a final agreement being 
worked up and operations expected to commence in 2026. 

The remaining legacy gas contract delivered a profit for the year of 
£19m (2021: loss of £85m). At current forward prices we expect 
adjusted operating losses to total around £100m across the period 
2023 to 2025 when the contract ends, an improvement of £50m 
from our expectation at the time of the Interim Results last July. 

Reflecting the strong management of high and volatile commodity 
markets, EM&T adjusted operating profit was £1,400m (2021: 
£70m).   

Delivering improved gross margin and building 
lower carbon and flexible generation assets in 
Centrica Business Solutions
Centrica Business Solutions

2021

2022

Change

Change

(1%)

Energy supply total gas and electricity 
volume (TWh)
Energy supply complaints per  
customer (%) (1)(2)
Energy supply Touchpoint NPS (3)
Services order intake (£m) (4)
Services order book (£m) (4)
Adjusted operating profit / (loss) (£m)

22.3

22.3

nm

9.1%

6.1% 3.0ppt

31
212
670
44

21
371
685
(52)

10pt
(43%)
(2%)
(185%)

All 2022 metrics and 2021 comparators are for the 12 months ended 31 December 
unless otherwise stated. 
(1) Total complaints, measured as any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction,  

as a percentage of average customers over the year.

(2) 2021 restated as previously shown on a per site basis.
(3) Measured independently, through individual questionnaires and the customer’s 

willingness to recommend.

(4) 2021 restated following re-segmentation of activity to EM&T.

The amount of energy supplied by Centrica Business Solutions 
to medium and large sized businesses was flat at 22.3TWh 
compared to 2021, with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and 
underlying growth in medium sized business volumes being offset 
by the impacts of warmer weather and lower underlying customer 
demand in response to higher prices and the economic climate. 
Customer complaints increased, reflecting increased customer 
concern around higher energy prices, however Touchpoint NPS 
increased to +31 reflecting investments to improve overall customer 
service.

Services order intake of £212m was 43% lower than in 2021, 
driven by actions taken to focus the business and weaker uptake 
in the UK. The Services order book of £670m was broadly stable, 
ending the year 2% lower than in 2021.

Centrica Business Solutions operates a portfolio of flexible 
generation assets, principally a 49MW battery at Roosecote and 
a 49MW gas-peaking plant at Brigg. These assets performed well 
in the year, playing important roles for UK security of supply during 
times of high demand or reduced system availability. A further five 
large scale projects totalling nearly 150MW are currently under 
construction, including a 18MW solar farm at Codford, a 50MW 
battery at Brigg and a 30MW battery at Dyce.

Centrica Business Solutions reported an adjusted operating profit 
of £44m (2021: loss of £52m). Energy supply reported a significant 
improvement in adjusted operating profit to £73m (2021: £1m) 
driven by strong gross margins, which included gains from the sell 
back of excess hedged volumes in periods of warmer weather and 
lower underlying customer demand. These impacts were partially 
offset by an increase in the bad debt charge reflecting the current 
weaker economic environment. 

Energy Services and Assets reported a reduced adjusted operating 
loss of £29m (2021: loss of £53m), reflecting higher gross margin 
capture due to improved operational focus and lower operating 
costs due to recent efforts to refocus the business. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202225

Strong gas production and nuclear generation 
volumes and Rough reopened as a storage asset
Upstream

2021

2022

Change

E&P total production volumes (mmboe)
Nuclear power generated (GWh)
Adjusted operating profit (£m)

27.0
8,719
1,793

39.7
8,342
663

(32%)
5%
170%

All 2022 metrics and 2021 comparators are for the 12 months ended 31 December.

Please note that profit and inventory from Rough operations are reported under 
Centrica Storage Limited for presentational purposes only. Centrica Storage Limited 
does not produce, supply or trade gas, except to the extent necessary for the 
efficient operation of the storage facility. In accordance with the Gas Act 1986, such 
production, supply and trading of gas is carried out wholly independently of Centrica 
Storage Limited by other Centrica group companies.

Total E&P production was down 32% to 27.0mmboe. When 
excluding the disposed Spirit Energy assets, production was flat  
at 20.7mmboe.

•  Total volumes from the retained Spirit Energy were down 2% to 

17.5mmboe. Liquids volumes fell from 2.1mmboe to 1.2mmboe, 
with remaining 2P liquids reserves now only 1mmboe. Gas 
production volumes business increased by 3% to 16.3mmboe, 
reflecting strong operational performance at the Greater 
Markham Area and Cygnus.

•  Production volumes from Centrica Storage’s Rough field 

increased by 9% to 3.2mmboe, reflecting strong operational 
performance as a production asset in the first half of the year, 
with the asset then returning to gas storage operations in 
September 2022.

Centrica’s share of nuclear generation volumes of 8.7TWh was 5% 
higher than 2021, despite the end of generation at Hunterston B 
in January and Hinkley Point B in August, reflecting improved plant 
reliability.

Upstream adjusted operating profit increased to £1,793m  
(2021: £663m). Excluding the disposed Spirit Energy assets, 
adjusted operating profit was £1,308m (2021: £107m).

•  The retained Spirit Energy business reported an adjusted 

operating profit of £245m (2021: £68m), with higher wholesale 
commodity prices resulting in a higher achieved price, despite 
the impact of hedging. This was partially offset by a higher 
depreciation charge following impairment write-backs in 2021. 

•  Centrica Storage adjusted operating profit was £339m  

(2021: £77m). This reflects strong production from Rough  
in the first half of 2022 during periods of high commodity  
prices, and capture of higher seasonal gas price spreads  
in the second half of the year following Rough’s return  
to storage operations. 

•  Nuclear reported adjusted operating profit was £724m  

(2021: loss of £38m), reflecting strong generation volumes  
and higher achieved prices. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202226

Key Performance 
Indicators

Our Key Performance Indicators  
(KPIs) help the Board and executive 
management assess performance 
against our Group Priorities set out 
in 2019.

In 2022, metrics across this section have been updated to better 
reflect the lead KPIs that are now employed to track performance 
across our key focus areas. This means that we are no longer 
reporting total shareholder return, aggregated Brand Net Promoter 
Score (NPS), aggregated complaints and process safety incident 
frequency rate (Tier 1 and 2) in this section, although performance 
is available elsewhere in the report. In particular, customer 
complaints and NPS are particularly important to our business  
and are tracked by business unit in the Business Review section. 

Group free cash flow from continuing operations (£m)(1)(2)

Group adjusted operating profit from continuing 
operations (£m)(1)(2)

2022

2021

2020

1,174

685

2,487

2022

2021

2020

948

447

3,308

Free cash flow from continuing operations is the Group’s 
primary measure of cash flow. It reflects the cash generation 
of the business after taking into account the need to continue 
to invest. 

Free cash flow increased by 112% predominantly as a result 
of the increased operating profit in the Upstream segment 
and the acceleration of cashflows in British Gas Energy from 
government support schemes.

Group adjusted operating profit from continuing operations 
is one of our fundamental financial measures. 

Group adjusted operating profit was up 249% 
predominantly reflecting increased profit in Upstream 
and Energy, Marketing & Trading.

Link to Group Priorities

O

Link to Group Priorities

O

Our Group Priorities 

M

S

Most Competitive 
Provider

Safety, Compliance 
and Conduct 
Foundation

Group adjusted basic earnings per share from continuing 
operations (EPS)(1)(2)

CO

CFG

Customer 
Obsession

Cash Flow 
Growth

O

E

Operational 
Excellence

Empowered 
Colleagues

2022

2021

4.1p

2020

2.8p

34.9p

+  Read more about Our Group Priorities on our website centrica.com

+  Read more about adjusted performance measures on pages 253 to 257

EPS is a standard measure of corporate profitability. 
Adjusted EPS is used to measure the Group’s underlying 
performance against its strategic financial framework. 

Group adjusted basic EPS was up 751%, reflecting the 
increased operating profit and lower effective tax rate 
due to the profit tax.

(1) Excludes Direct Energy which was classified as a discontinued operation in 2021.

(2) See notes 2, 4 and 10 to the Financial Statements for definition and reconciliation 

Link to Group Priorities

of these measures. 

O

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022British Gas Services & Solutions – Services Engineer 
Net Promoter Score (NPS)(i)

Total customers (m)(ii)(iii)

2022

2021

2020

+64

+60

+66

2022

2021

2020

27

10,259

10,067

9,794

Everything we do is focused on helping our customers live 
sustainably, simply and affordably. Following the recruitment 
of over 800 engineers coupled with a reduction in average 
sickness rates, our capacity to serve customers improved 
which led to our NPS rising by 4 points. 

Total customer numbers increased year-over-year, reflecting 
both organic growth and the addition of customers from 
failed suppliers in British Gas Energy and Bord Gáis Energy. 
This more than offset customer losses in British Gas 
Services & Solutions.

Link to Group Priorities

CO

Link to Group Priorities

CO

M

Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – 40% reduction 
by 2034 & net zero by 2045 (2019 base year)(ii)(iv)

Total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR)(ii)

2022

-6%†

2021

-53%(v)

2020

-12%(v)

2022

2021

2020

1.12

1.07

1.04

With Whitegate power station resuming normal operations 
following an outage in 2021, savings dropped from the 53% 
temporary reduction achieved that year to a 6%† reduction. 
Overall, we are making positive progress against our long-
term goal to be a net zero business by 2045 (see page 43).

We want to keep our colleagues and customers safe, so 
we work hard to maintain a strong safety culture. Although 
we made good progress in some areas, our TRIFR per 
200,000 hours rose by 5% and was largely due to an 
increase in slips, trips and musculoskeletal injuries.

Link to Group Priorities

O

S

Link to Group Priorities

S

Colleague engagement(ii)(vi)

2022

2021

2020

73%

55%

41%

Our success is reliant on having a motivated and engaged 
team. Having focused on creating a more inclusive and 
supportive place to work whilst connecting colleagues with 
our Purpose and leaders, engagement improved by 18% 
to 73% favourable.

Link to Group Priorities

E

 † Included in DNV Business Assurance Services UK Limited (DNV)’s independent 
limited assurance engagement. See page 258 or centrica.com/assurance 
for more.

(i)  Measured independently, through individual questionnaires, the customer’s 

willingness to recommend British Gas following an engineer visit. KPI moved  
from the previously reported aggregated Brand NPS to more transparently track 
and share performance in this key part of our customer-facing services business. 
For wider business unit NPS performance, see pages 22 to 24. 

(ii)  Excludes Direct Energy which was classified as a discontinued operation in 2021.
(iii) Includes British Gas Energy, British Gas Services and Bord Gáis Energy 

households and small and medium business customer sites in British Gas Energy 
and Centrica Business Solutions.

(iv) Net zero goal measures scope 1 (direct) and 2 (indirect) GHG emissions based on 
operator boundary, which now includes all emissions from our shipping activities 
relating to Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) alongside the retained Spirit Energy assets 
in the UK and the Netherlands. Non-operated nuclear emissions are excluded. 
Target is normalised to reflect acquisitions and divestments in line with changes in 
Group structure against a 2019 base year of 2,132,680mtCO2e. It’s also aligned to 
the Paris Agreement and based on science to limit global warming, corresponding 
to a well below 2°C pathway initially and 1.5°C by mid-century.

(v)  Restated due to LNG shipping and Spirit Energy’s remaining assets moving 

into scope in 2022. 

(vi) Measured through colleague responses to a survey asking them to rate how they 
feel about the company. The survey moved from annual to quarterly in 2021.

+  Read more about our non-financial performance on pages 39 to 54  

and 258 to 260.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202228

Our Principal Risks 
and Uncertainties

We manage risks to support our 
Group strategy 

Risk management
In the following pages we set out an overview of Centrica’s risk 
management framework. Our Principal Risks remain linked to 
our Group Priorities and the Group’s risk appetite is expressed 
in relation to our four categories of risk: Strategic, Operational, 
Financial and Compliance. 

Risk management and internal control
Centrica’s Group Enterprise Risk and Internal Controls Framework 
remains a core element of the Group’s Governance Model which is 
set out below. 

The most significant Principal Risks to the Group are set out on 
pages 30 to 33, in order of magnitude to the Group.

Risk appetite 
The Board is ultimately responsible for aligning the risk appetite 
of the Group with our long-term strategic objectives, taking 
into account the emerging and Principal Risks. The Board has 
determined the risk appetites for the categories of Strategic, 
Operational, Financial and Compliance, and the key risks within 
Centrica’s Risk Universe have been mapped into these categories. 

Centrica Group’s Annual Risk Management Process

Due to the industry and the nature of some of the markets in which 
the Group operates, we have high to moderate risk appetites for 
our strategic and operational risks. However, we have a minimal 
risk appetite for operational safety risks and we continue to 
strive for an incident free workplace. For financial risks we adopt 
a conservative approach to manage our liquidity position and 
balance sheet strength. However, due to the higher risks inherent 
in managing the commodity and weather variables within our 
energy supply businesses, we accept a higher appetite for those 
elements of financial market risk. We are committed to operating 
our businesses in compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

Risks are identified and assessed at a Business Unit (BU) level to 
determine impact and likelihood, with an appropriate risk response 
subsequently evaluated and implemented. The different risk 
responses are

•  Terminate: cease the activity that creates the risk
•  Transfer: pass the risk to another party
•  Tolerate: accept a level of risk
•  Treat: act to reduce the likelihood or impact of risk

During BU and Group risk reviews, the net residual risk scores 
are compared to the Group risk appetite to review the adequacy 
of existing mitigating actions/controls, with further action taken 
to control and monitor risks as required.

Risk framework
Day-to-day ownership of risk sits with business management under 
the regular scrutiny of the Centrica Leadership Team (CLT) to whom 
the Board has delegated principal responsibility for risk oversight. 
The Group Principal Risks are those which could potentially impact 
delivery of our strategic objectives over the medium to long term, 
where medium term is up to three years, as determined through 
our strategic planning process.

The annual risk management process is summarised in the 
diagram below:

Asse s s

I

d

e

n

tif
y

E

v

al

u

a

t

e

Business Unit
risk assessment
and mitigation
update
Functional
advisory teams

Business 
Unit Risk 
and Controls
Committee

Business Unit
risk owners

Quarterly Group
Enterprise Risk and
Controls review

Bi-annual review
of Principal Risks

n tr ol & m onitor

C o

Group 
Enterprise 
Risk and 
Controls 
report

Centrica
Leadership 
Team

Risk deep 
dives
ARC*
SESC**

  * Audit and Risk 

Committee (ARC)
** Safety, Environment  
and Sustainability 
Committee (SESC)

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Quarterly Business Unit risk reviews
•  Each BU is responsible for identifying and assessing its significant 
risks with support from functional subject matter experts. Current 
and emerging risks and issues are formally reviewed quarterly 
by the BU leadership teams.

•  The finalised risk reporting and assessment of each BU’s control 

environment is then formally discussed at a Group Risk and 
Controls Review for each BU. The meetings are chaired by the 
Chief Risk and Audit Officer.

•  At these quarterly reviews, recent assurance reports and findings 
from internal audits and other assurance reviews are discussed. 
Actions from previous audits and assurance reviews are tracked 
to ensure close out in line with agreed timescales.

Executive and Board Committee reviews
•  Bi-annually the Group Principal Risks are presented to the CLT 

for review and challenge.

•  These include the aggregate risk assessments from the BU 
‘bottom-up’ process and any Group-level risk assessments.

•  The Group Principal Risk profile, as updated by the CLT, 

is presented to the ARC for review.

•  Internal Audit presents quarterly to the ARC on any material 

findings as a result of independent assurance work.

•  Risk deep dives are undertaken by the ARC and SESC to review 

high priority risks, ad-hoc topics and emerging matters.

In our assessment of viability, we consider the potential impact 
of ‘severe but plausible’ risks and note linkages to the Group 
Principal Risks as described on pages 30 to 33. The annual viability 
assessment has been presented to and approved by the ARC.

Board
•  The Board reviews risk as part of its strategy review process 
and during the year conducted a robust assessment of the 
Company’s emerging and Principal Risks.

•  At the year-end the Board reviewed and approved the Principal 

Risk and Uncertainties disclosure.

•  We evaluate our System of Risk Management and Control 

annually, which is supported by a certification of controls and 
adherence to Group policies by senior management.

Changes in risk climate and emerging matters
BUs and Functions review their risks and report key changes 
as part of their Business Performance and Risk Reviews. 
Major emerging risks and issues are escalated immediately.

During 2022 a number of Group-level areas of risk were closely 
monitored, and actions taken to mitigate their impact on the Group.

Inflation and cost of living
The cost of living crisis continued through 2022, with the UK 
Consumer Price Inflation rate hitting a 41-year high of 11.1% in 
October. This rate reflects the impact of rising energy and food 
prices but has been limited by the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) 
which came into effect on 1 October. The EPG will be extended for 
a further 12 months from April 2023 for qualifying households.

The Government has provided further support through the Energy 
Bills Support Scheme, whereby all UK households will receive a 
£400 non-repayable discount in six monthly instalments. More 
targeted cost of living support will be provided beyond this to 
vulnerable households. A reduced Energy Bills Discount Scheme 
will replace the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) discount for 
businesses and non-domestic customers from 1 April 2023.

The impact of the Government support schemes is reflected in 
the New Accounting Policies (note 1) and bad debt provision and 
is considered as part of the Going Concern review. 

29

Energy market
Global wholesale energy prices have put pressure on the energy 
market, with gas and electricity prices reaching record levels 
during the year, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and cessation 
of supply to Europe from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. 

Higher price levels and extreme volatility severely increased the 
Credit and Liquidity, Market and Weather risks within year, which 
the Group manages through agile hedging policies, and effective 
demand forecasting.

The reopening of the Rough gas storage facility will further 
strengthen the UK’s energy resilience. The long-term aim is to 
turn Rough into one of the world’s largest methane and hydrogen 
storage facilities. The Group will reallocate capital investment to 
bolster the UK’s energy security, decarbonise the UK’s industrial 
clusters and help reinstate the UK as a net exporter of energy. 

The transfer of Bulb Energy customers to Octopus Energy is now 
subject to a judicial review as we are concerned that the structure 
of the deal could lead to potential market distortion.

Government and regulatory intervention 
In June 2022, the Government enacted the Energy Profits Levy 
(EPL): a 25% surcharge on the extraordinary profits made by the 
oil and gas sector. In the November 2022 Autumn Statement, 
the Government announced this would increase to 35% from 
1 January 2023 to 31 December 2028. They also announced a 
45% Electricity Generator Levy (EGL), which is expected to be 
enacted following the Spring Finance Bill, on nuclear and renewable 
electricity generation from 1 January 2023 to 31 March 2028.

The Autumn Statement also included the announcement of a 
Vehicle Excise Duty on electric vehicles (EVs) starting in April 2025, 
which could impact our EV charging point strategy as increased 
taxes may make EV ownership less attractive.

We continue to sustain our focus on Environmental, Social and 
Governance matters.

Compliance with the many requirements proposed in the 
Government’s paper on Restoring Trust in Audit and Corporate 
Governance is flagged as an emerging risk and there are projects 
in progress to understand, design and implement our responses.

Technology 
We continue to automate and integrate our operations focusing on 
streamlining our finance reporting systems and using automation 
to replace manual controls. We actively monitor the changing 
technology landscape to exploit opportunities. 

Strategic replacement or integration of trading systems and ERP 
systems is being planned in Energy Marketing & Trading, Centrica 
Business Solutions, British Gas Services & Solutions and Group Tax 
to drive efficiency, stability and improved end-to-end interfaces that 
will reduce manual intervention, duplication and the risk of error or 
omission. In British Gas Energy, the migration to the ENSEK digital 
platform is strategically critical in achieving our Purpose. This has 
not led to any changes in Principal Risk, but transformation risk 
will be monitored as these changes are delivered.

Supply chain 
Supply chain issues arising from inflationary pressures and 
component shortages, specifically electronic chips in boilers and 
smart meters, have been managed by securing alternative supply 
routes and challenging price increases directly with suppliers to 
minimise the impact. In 2023, we will monitor China’s economic 
outlook amid the growing tensions with Taiwan and the impact on 
Northern Ireland (NI) border checks if Article 16 of the NI protocol 
is implemented on our supply chain.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202230

Principal Risks 
The following Principal Risks 
were adopted by the Board in 
2022 and reflect the position 
of the Group at the point of 
signing the accounts. Some 
prior year Principal Risks have 
been either split into component 
parts, merged or updated 
to more clearly articulate 
the nature and drivers of the 
risks. These are referenced 
as appropriate in the table 
below. The risks are presented 
in order of magnitude to the 
Group based on net residual 
risk, after mitigations. The Risk 
Climate is the expected change 
in the risk landscape from the 
previous risk review, based on 
the environment and controls 
in place.

Our Group Priorities 

CO

Customer Obsession

Overview

Credit and Liquidity Risk 

Market Risk

Risk Category: Financial

Risk Category: Financial

FY21: Commodity Risk 

FY21: Commodity Risk

Group Priority 

Risk Climate 

Group Priority 

Risk Climate 

CFG

Deteriorated
Risk of financial loss due to counterparty 
default, volatile commodity markets or a credit 
event limiting the availability of financial facilities 
or unsecured credit lines
•  Hedging commodity price risk in the markets 
exposes Centrica to (i) credit risk, which is 
the risk of a loss if a counterparty fails to 
perform on its obligations or (ii) liquidity risk 
when trades on exchange or with margining 
agreements result in collateral postings 
•  Trending directional price moves can lead to 
a build-up of mark to market positions which 
is a key component of credit and liquidity risk

•  Volatile commodity markets can also 
increase cash and working capital 
requirements for both ourselves and our 
counterparties (with the latter increasing the 
risk that one of our counterparties fails to 
perform and consequently increases the risk 
of contagion). Further information is included 
in the S3: Financial risk management section 
within the Supplementary Information to the 
Financial Statements

CFG

Deteriorated

Risk of financial loss due to trends and volatilities 
in commodity prices
•  Commodity exposure arises within the 

trading businesses, which provide a route to 
market for Centrica’s upstream and power 
generation operations, sourcing of electricity 
and gas for the Group’s energy supply 
businesses and proprietary trading activities. 
We also have commodity exposures driven 
by our LNG portfolio, in particular the 
Cheniere contract

•  Material movements in commodity prices can 
impact in-year P&L through revenue on sale 
of asset production, and impact on the long-
term valuation of asset portfolios

•  Hedging commodity price risk in the markets 

exposes Centrica to supply shock, an 
unexpected event that changes the supply of 
a commodity, resulting in a sudden change 
in price

•  Changes in our customer demand 

requirements can result in a commodity 
exposure as we balance our established 
hedges at market prices

O

Operational Excellence

Mitigations

M

Most Competitive Provider

CFG

Cash Flow Growth

E

S

Empowered Colleagues

Safety, Compliance and  
Conduct Foundation

•  Review of hedging policies at least annually 
in Group Risk Hedging Policy Committee 
meetings

•  Review of hedging policies at least annually 
in Group Risk Hedging Policy Committee 
meetings

•  Financial risks reviewed regularly in dedicated 

•  Financial risks reviewed regularly in dedicated 

Risk Committee forums

Risk Committee forums

•  Credit risk teams actively manage and 

•  The monthly Downstream Energy Margin 

reduce credit exposures, taking account of 
liquidity considerations

•  Energy Marketing & Trading and Group 
Treasury work closely to monitor liquidity 
requirements under normal and stressed 
market conditions

Meeting is a forum for all relevant parties to 
review demand forecasting performance, 
hedge positions, risk and P&L, with actions 
recorded and tracked to completion

•  Hedging decisions and risk are agenda items 
at the monthly Finance Performance Reviews 
across the Group

•  Extreme prices and volatility continue to be 
affected by the ongoing Russian invasion of 
Ukraine and sanctions in place

•  Trading positions are scaled to operate within 

market risk appetite

•  The financial impact of outage risk associated 
with the output of Upstream assets remains 
high due to the higher price environment and 
the ageing asset infrastructure

Developments

•  Market prices rose to unprecedented levels 
and credit exposures increased in line with 
this to counterparties where we are net 
buyers. As prices have started to decrease, 
exposures are building to counterparties 
where we are net sellers

•  Business Unit credit limits have been 
recalibrated using an expected loss 
methodology with increased limits available 
for better rated key counterparties
•  To ensure there is sufficient liquidity 

headroom for mark to market positions and 
margin requirements in the event of another 
price spike, Group Treasury approached 
existing banks to extend cash and Letters  
of Credit facilities

•  Management of the balance sheet is being 

improved to more effectively manage capital 
allocation

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 
 
 
 
Weather Risk

Customer

Political, Legal, Regulatory or Ethical 
Intervention/Compliance

Risk Category: Financial

Risk Category: Operational/Strategic

Risk Category: Compliance/Strategic

Group Priority 

Risk Climate 

Group Priority 

Risk Climate 

FY21: Political and Regulatory Intervention
Legal, Regulatory & Ethical Compliance
Group Priority 

Risk Climate 

CFG

Deteriorated

CO

O

New Principal Risk

CO

O

S

Deteriorated 

31

The impact on present or future profitability resulting 
from volume impacts as a result of deviation to 
normal weather
•  The impact is compounded by the application 

of the price cap which limits recovery for unseen 
demand

•  In normal conditions, downstream is exposed 

to revenue loss in warm weather which may be 
compounded by selling hedges at a loss

•  When commodity prices are higher than the cap 

allowance and the risk exposure is primarily to cold 
weather when additional volumes may be required 
for downstream customers at a cost higher than 
can be recharged 

•  The monthly Downstream Energy Margin Meeting 
is a forum for all relevant parties to review weather 
impact and hedging proposals and performance, 
with actions recorded and tracked to completion

•  Options to mitigate weather risk in British Gas 
Energy, to narrow the range of gross margin 
outcomes, are reviewed ahead of winter seasons 
with decision rights held by the Group Chief 
Executive

•  Regular reviews ensure there is adequate access 
to liquidity in stressed cold weather scenarios

Failure to deliver satisfactory customer service leading 
to complaints or loss of customers
 • Cost of living and bad debt impacting customers’ 
ability to pay and management of warrant activity 
to switch customers to prepayment meters
•  Increased call volumes driven by commodity 
prices, Ofgem Price Cap increases, and the 
Government’s Energy Support Schemes

•  Peak service demand exceeding engineer capacity

•  Customer Conduct Board provides oversight  
to minimise customer detriment, complaints  
and regulatory action

•  Customer-facing BUs continue to build delivery 
capacity measures, including strengthening 
demand forecasting methodologies, and winter 
readiness planning activity

•  Recruitment of frontline staff and expansion of web 

chat services to meet customer demand

•  Focused recruitment activity at a qualified and 
apprentice level; use of temporary/contract 
resources and geographical re-deployment of 
engineer workforce to ‘hotspot’ demand areas

•  Increased frequency of updated demand curves 
which capture changes in demand driven by 
deviations from seasonal normal weather

•  Dynamic hedging strategy approved by the Group 
Chief Executive, to reduce the exposure to high 
price and cold weather risk

•  The risk of a winter supply shock has eased 
following mild December weather, and risk is 
skewed to warm weather

•  The cost of living crisis, high levels of inflation and 
concerns over the continuity of energy supply 
arising from the Ukraine conflict and the National 
Grid’s Winter Outlook report driving unprecedented 
levels of customer contact 

•  Suspension of all prepayment warrant activity at 
least until the end of the winter and providing 
£10 million to support prepayment customers
•  We are working constructively with the wider 

industry, the UK Government and the regulator  
on the issue of prepayment warrant activity
•  British Gas Energy and Bord Gáis Energy 

committed to donate 10% of all profits for the 
duration of the energy crisis. This contributed  
to £50 million being donated in the UK and  
€3.6 million in Ireland to help vulnerable customers

•  Implementation of National Grid’s discount 

scheme to manage peak demand and pilot of new 
scheme to reward customers switching energy 
usage to overnight

•  Completing the migration to the ENSEK digital 

platform is strategically critical to reduce our cost 
to serve and deliver a quality service to customers 
at a competitive price

The risk of political or regulatory intervention and 
changes, failure to comply with laws and regulations, 
or greater regulatory scrutiny detecting unknown 
areas of non-compliance
•  Risk of further government intervention to support 
vulnerable customers that may not be funded 
through the price cap mechanism

•  Increased focus on Environmental, Social and 

Governance interventions and impact on investor 
confidence in our responses

•  Material or sustained non-compliance with legal 
or regulatory obligations could lead to financial 
penalties, reputational damage, customer churn 
and/or legal and/or regulatory action

•  Any material real or perceived failure to follow Our 

Code would undermine trust in our business

 • Continuous engagement with policy makers  
to help form future regulatory requirements

 • Dedicated Corporate Affairs and Regulatory teams 
which examine upcoming political and regulatory 
changes and their impact and report to the 
Leadership Team on an ongoing basis

 • Understanding the expectations of stakeholders 
through reputational surveys and review of media 
sentiment

 • The Board sets the tone from the top through  

Our Code and leadership behaviours

 • Regulatory compliance monitoring activities 

performed by dedicated teams to drive Group-
wide consistency and quality

 • Control frameworks in place to deliver customer 

experience in line with requirements over 
sales compliance, billing, retentions, customer 
correspondence and complaints handling. These 
are regularly reviewed by relevant leadership teams 
through KPIs

 • The Financial Crime Team monitors threats 
throughout the business and adequacy of 
response to the threat of bribery and corruption
 • A global ‘Speak Up’ helpline exists to provide a 
consistent Group-wide approach to reporting 
unethical behaviour 

 • Continuous dialogue with Ofgem, consumer 

groups and the FCA to influence the regulatory 
environment

•  Keeping pace with the velocity, volume and 

complexity of political and regulatory change has 
proved challenging, notably timely implementation 
of the various Government support packages
•  We continue to note our concerns of potential 
instability in the supply market given the lack 
of additional regulation of suppliers to ensure 
adequate capitalisation and customer protection

•  The Group Ethics and Compliance team is 

building capability in Energy Assurance to support 
the business with meeting complex regulatory 
requirements

•  British Gas Energy has performed strongly in 
recent Ofgem Market Compliance Reviews 
(MCRs) of Direct Debit Assessments, Treatment of 
Customers in Payment Difficulties and Treatment 
of Vulnerable Customers 

•  We will continue to engage in consultation on  

the security of energy supply and decarbonisation 
of the UK retail energy market

•  The roll-out and adoption of smart meters 
continues to present challenges due to the 
onboarding of c.700k SoLR customers 
disproportionately increasing installation targets. 
This has been exacerbated by supply chain 
disruptions and discussions are ongoing with 
Ofgem and Government

•  The Our Code employee annual training for 

2022 included expense fraud and information 
security dilemmas as part of a campaign to raise 
awareness of increased fraud risks

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 
 
 
 
 
 
32

Overview

People

Safety

Cyber

Risk Category: Operational

FY21: Capability of People

Group Priority

Risk Climate 

Risk Category: Compliance/
Operational
FY21: Health, Safety and 
Environment
Group Priority

Risk Climate 

Risk Category: Operational/ 
Compliance

Group Priority

Risk Climate 

O

E

Stable

O

S

Stable

S

Deteriorated

Risk of failure to attract, develop, engage and 
retain key talent. Risk of deterioration to the 
health and wellbeing of colleagues
•  Failure to attract and retain key capabilities 
and safeguard the health and wellbeing of 
the workforce across the business could 
have a detrimental impact on our ability  
to meet our strategic objectives

•  The cost of living crisis and inflation impact 
on colleague mental health and wellbeing 

•  Labour market shortages for key skills 

impacting retention in some business units 
and locations 

Risk of occupational, transportation, 
customer/third-party fatality or injury due to 
safety hazards
•  Our operations have the potential to result 

in personal harm

•  Significant Health, Safety and Environment 

(HSE) events could have regulatory, 
financial or reputational repercussions that 
would adversely affect some or all of our 
brands and businesses

•  Continued investment in training to ensure 
maintenance of safe operating practices

•  HSE Management Systems are 

established to include policies, standards 
and procedures to protect employees, 
third parties and our environment

•  Assurance over our HSE processes and 
controls provided by our in-house HSE 
teams supported by external subject 
matter experts, where needed

•  Key senior HSE leaders to drive and 

embed HSE culture and competency, and 
continuous improvement in key metrics

•  Our approach to customer visits is 
continually reviewed to ensure that 
employees are operating in line with 
Government guidelines and that the  
health and safety of employees and 
customers is maintained

Management are enhancing existing HSE 
frameworks to respond to changing risks 
as the Group strategy evolves to include the 
following activities: 
•  The reopening of Rough as a storage 

facility

•  The expansion of the services businesses 
•  The construction of two new gas-powered 

peaking plants

•  Construction of a battery storage project 

at Brigg

•  The injection of hydrogen into a gas 

peaking plant at Brigg

Mitigations

Developments

•  Quarterly Performance Conversations in 
place as part of the Terms & Conditions 
governance framework

•  Monitoring of key metrics including the 

Quarterly Employee Engagement index, 
absence and attrition rates. Proactive 
implementation of actions to support 
colleagues

•  Extensive focus on retention, building 

capabilities and providing targeted learning 
and development opportunities

•  Design and implementation of appropriate 

retention enhancement strategies
•  Continuous focus on our Values and 

culture aligned to our Purpose

•  Greater focus on diversity and inclusion 
at all levels of the organisation, and 
open access to colleague-led employee 
networks

•  New organisation structures have 

largely embedded with some discrete 
reorganisations in some business units 
and a major reorganisation is in progress in 
Spirit Energy as they prepare to repurpose 
the business for energy transition

•  FlexFirst successfully launched to combine 

working from home with time on site
•  Working groups established to help 

understand how the cost of living crisis 
is affecting colleagues. Resources and 
discounts made available to all colleagues 
are being actively promoted

•  Externally, the union environment remains 
challenging with trade unions focusing 
their effort on pay increases and protecting 
terms and conditions to support their 
members with increased pressure from 
the rising cost of living. Internally, we have 
successfully negotiated the April 2023 pay 
deal, which is now being implemented
•  Shadow Board established and acting 
as a forum to engage with the Centrica 
Leadership Team (CLT) to influence 
decisions, positively disrupt assumptions, 
and challenge executives’ thinking  
to support colleague-centred  
decision-making

Risk of failure to prevent impacts from the 
denial of service, cyber espionage and 
the related theft/disclosure of confidential/
customer data leading to reputational, 
regulatory and financial impacts
A cyber-attack presents a risk to Centrica 
operations in the following ways:
•  Confidentiality: leakage of customer or 

company confidential data by threat actor, 
third party, staff or system error, either 
maliciously or by accident

•  Integrity: accuracy of Centrica’s data due 
to malicious or accidental alteration by 
internal or external parties, or malicious 
actor

•  Availability: loss of assets, including data, 

due to cyber compromise

Due to the diversity of Centrica’s technology, 
the Company could suffer any or all of the 
above which could lead to:
•  Regulatory compliance impact or fines, 

including but not limited to, General Data 
Protection Regulations (GDPR), Payment 
Card Industry Data Security Standard 
(PCI), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 
Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and 
Smart Metering obligations (Ofgem)
•  Financial impact of investigating and 

recovering from a cyber-attack

•  Impact of negative media coverage on 

reputation and share price

•  Ongoing threat intelligence gathering, 
collaboration and information sharing  
with industry peers and National Cyber 
Security Centre 

•  The Cyber Security Change Programme 

builds security capabilities and 
improvements in controls that increase 
the difficulty of targeting Centrica and 
being able to exploit weaknesses without 
detection

•  The Ransomware Minimal Viable 

Company Programme which aims to 
improve Centrica’s ability to recover  
from a ransomware attack

•  Training and awareness campaigns and 

simulated phishing attacks in 2022 to raise 
awareness and highlight responsibilities  
in protecting data

•  Cyber-attack simulations to identify control 
gaps and undertake remediation activity

•  The Ukraine conflict has heightened the 

external cyber threat landscape. Increased 
cyber activity towards the oil and utilities 
sectors has been reported

•  The geopolitical situation and increased 
connectivity of Operational Technology 
(control systems used to manage 
domestic, commercial and national 
infrastructure) increases their vulnerability 
to cyber-attack

•  The volume, sophistication and velocity 

of ransomware attacks has evolved, with 
the most catastrophic bringing down IT 
systems within very short timeframes, 
and in some circumstances leading to 
publication of the exfiltrated data

•  The pursuit of our strategy into markets 

such as EV charging and localised battery 
storage will increase regulatory obligations 
to maintain a secure cyber posture. The 
anticipated increase in the scope of 
regulations will have a broader impact 
on Centrica requiring greater levels of 
reporting and significant consequences  
for non-compliance 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 
 
 
33

Operational Asset Integrity

Climate Change

Risk Category: Operational/Compliance

Risk Category: Strategic

FY21: Asset Production
Process Loss of Containment
Group Priority

Risk Climate 

Group Priority

Risk Climate 

CFG

S

Stable

M

S

Deteriorated

Risk that impaired structural or asset integrity, 
resulting from any of a failure in design, failure in 
appropriate maintenance & inspection, operating 
outside of design conditions and/or human 
error, leads to a major accident (such as loss of 
containment of flammable/hazardous materials 
or structural collapse) that could result in multiple 
fatalities and/or major damage to the environment
•  Failure to invest in the inspection, maintenance 
and development of our assets could result in 
significant safety issues, such as personal or 
environmental harm, or asset underperformance 
through unplanned outages 

•  Failure to capture adequate return on our 20% 
nuclear investment due to operational issues or 
early station closures suppressing earnings and 
cash flows 

•  The Group Annual Plan includes contingencies  
to cover events such as unexpected outages  
from assets

•  Group-wide minimum operational and safety 
standards are applied to all assets, whether 
operated or non-operated, and adherence against 
them is monitored and reported

•  Maintenance activity and improvement 

programmes are conducted across the asset  
base to optimise effectiveness and maximise 
production levels

•  We use our presence on the Board of EDF Energy 
Nuclear Generation Group Limited to monitor the 
performance of the nuclear fleet

•  Continued investment in training to ensure 
maintenance of safe operating practices
•  HSE Management Systems are established 

to include policies, standards and procedures 
to protect employees, third parties and our 
environment

•  Continuous engagement with regulatory agencies 
such as the Environment Agency, Oil and Gas 
Authority and UK Health and Safety Executive
•  Assurance over our HSE processes and controls 
provided by our in-house HSE teams supported 
by external subject matter experts, where needed

•  As the Whitegate plant ages and we move to 
more flexible generation, plant reliability and 
safety risks will need to be carefully managed 
through proactive management, maintenance and 
investment

•  We announced the reopening of the Rough gas 
storage facility, having completed significant 
engineering upgrades over the summer, and 
increasing the level of ongoing maintenance.  
The Group Insurance team continues to discuss 
the cost and benefits of business interruption 
cover with relevant business units

•  The HSE Function works with the business to 

ensure effective HSE resources and competency 
operate consistently and effectively across the 
business

•  Completion of the sale of Spirit Energy Norwegian 
assets, the majority of which were non-operated, 
completed in May 2022. As the majority of the 
assets were non-operated, there has been little 
impact on this risk. Spirit Energy continues to 
focus on maximising delivery of its gas production 
for the UK, repurposing assets for the energy 
transition and decommissioning activities

•  Spirit Energy successfully decommissioned and 
removed the Hummingbird Floating Production 
System and Offloading vessel from the Chestnut 
Field (the last oil producing asset), thereby 
reducing the level of risk, particularly the risk  
of an oil spill

Risk of market, regulatory and policy changes driven 
by climate change affecting the ability of the Group to 
execute its strategy
•  Increased pressure from Government, investors 
and customers to commit to meaningful carbon 
reduction targets

•  Execution of Centrica Business Solutions strategy 
to realise opportunities from the energy transition

•  Timing and execution of British Gas pivot to 
decarbonised heating, power and transport 
products and services

•  Increased focus on ‘greenwashing and greater 
rigour’ on Renewables Guarantee of Origin, 
impacting renewable products and propositions 

•  Monitoring of progress against People and Planet 
targets including net zero targets for our business 
and our customers

•  Centrica’s Climate Transition Plan, which outlines 

our approach to move to a low carbon future, was 
subject to a shareholder advisory non-binding vote 
at the 2022 AGM 

•  The SESC, which is chaired by an independent 
non-executive director, typically reviews climate 
change information and the Climate Transition 
Dashboard three times a year. The SESC 
additionally maintains oversight over material 
climate-related matters

•  Our Climate Transition Plan has been incorporated 

into executive remuneration

•  We have achieved full compliance in our 

2022 Task Force on Climate-related Financial 
Disclosures (TCFD) reporting, reflected in pages 
46 to 54

•  British Gas Services & Solutions has established 
Net Zero Ventures to develop innovative and 
competitive products and propositions to gain 
a significant footprint in the growing low carbon 
market 

•  Continued geopolitical focus on COP27 and on 
how corporations respond to climate change 
•  Completion of the sale of Spirit Energy Norway 
assets in line with our decarbonisation strategy
•  A court case ruling against the UK Government 

applied pressure on them to develop and publish 
coherent plans on how to achieve the Sixth 
Carbon budget

•  In the context of the cost of living and energy 

security crisis, the Government is undertaking a 
net zero review. The review will consider how to 
deliver against targets. Centrica is actively engaged 
and committed to influencing the shaping of the 
approach to the green transition in the UK and 
responds to Government consultations on related 
policy

The Group will reallocate capital investment to realise 
opportunities from moving to a low carbon future. 
Examples of diversified projects to build low carbon 
energy capability include:
•  Solar farm at Codford
•  Hydrogen initiatives including partnership with 

HiiROC, testing injection at Brigg, and hydrogen 
village trials in Whitby

•  Battery storage development at Brigg
•  Restarting gas storage at Rough, to meet short-

term needs for the security of gas supply. Further 
investment could support potential repurposing  
of the asset for hydrogen storage

•  Transitional use of peaking plants to aid the use  

of renewables in Ireland

•  Launch of the inaugural Net Zero Index to 

understand public sentiment on climate change 
and any barriers to implementing changes that 
will help British Gas Services & Solutions develop 
relevant products and solutions. The availability  
of the Index will further help Government and  
other parties

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 
 
34

Assessment of Viability 
Disclosure

Requirement
In accordance with provision 31 of the 2018 UK Corporate 
Governance Code the Directors have assessed the prospects 
and viability of the Group taking into account the business  
model (as set out in the Strategic report on pages 8 to 9),  
current position in the context of liquidity and credit metrics  
of the Group, and principal risks.

Assessment of prospects
The assessment considers the current position of the Group, the 
Group’s strategy, longer-term market trends and customer needs, 
and the Group’s principal risks as well as forecast cash generation 
against long-term obligations to repay debt and fund the defined 
benefit pension schemes.

Our business model is designed to allow us to focus on meeting 
the changing energy supply, services and solutions needs of our 
customers, helping them transition to a lower carbon future while 
positioning ourselves to deliver returns for shareholders and meet 
our broader obligations to society over the long-term.

Key factors in assessing the long-term prospects of the Group 
include the following:

1.  The Group’s competitive position today
Centrica has strong brands with large customer bases as the 
number one supplier in many of the markets in which it operates. 
In its core markets: British Gas Energy and British Gas Services are 
the largest residential energy supplier and home services provider 
in the UK; Bord Gáis is the second largest residential energy 
supplier in Ireland; and the Energy Marketing & Trading business is 
a leading route to market services provider across Europe. Centrica 
also has the largest heating engineer workforce in the country, who 
are highly trusted by our customers, and are well positioned to 
continue to support new fuels and technologies. 

In assessing our prospects beyond the strategic planning period, 
the Board considers how these strengths position the company 
to grow long term shareholder value.

2.  Market trends affecting future prospects
•  commodity price volatility and its impact on the UK energy 

supply market;

•  cost of living crisis and its impact on our customers;
•  increasing progress and Government support for net zero, 

corporates committing to clear net zero targets;

•  despite recent competitor supplier failures, competition may 
remain intense with margins under pressure within our retail 
business, and we expect that to remain the case as the market 
emerges from the current crisis;

 • falling costs for battery, solar and wind, electric vehicle (EV) 
deployment accelerates, growing need for flexibility; and
•  role of data analytics, artificial intelligence and automation 

increasingly important.

3.  Customer needs
•  hassle-free, empathetic, personalised and safe service. Offering 

solutions, not just products;

•  responsible options (including green tariffs) and expert guidance 

to help them achieve their net zero goals;

•  trusted and credible counterparty; and 
•  lower costs and greater efficiency.

We put customers’ needs at the centre of everything we do and 
this is the core part of our strategy, as set out in the People and 
Planet and Strategic Report sections of this Annual Report on 
pages 39 and 8 respectively.

4.  The Group’s strategic objectives

The Group’s strategic Purpose is to help our customers live 
sustainably, simply and affordably, as set out on page 7 of 
this Annual Report. This supports the assessment of the 
Group’s prospects.

5.  Principal risks facing the Group, as set out on  

pages 28 to 33

The risks we consider to be of greatest significance in assessing 
our prospects include:

•  further political or regulatory intervention, including increased 
focus on Environment, Social and Governance interventions 
and responding to climate change;

•  external risks associated with weather, commodity price 

movements and the cost of living crisis;

•  access to sufficient financial facilities to support margin 

cash demands;

•  credit risk;
•  compromised asset production and health & safety impacts 

of process loss of containment; and 

•  risks associated with the effectiveness of our internal control 
environment in relation to cyber risk, data protection and 
customer conduct.

Climate change is the most important driver guiding Centrica’s 
prospects today and is a core part of our Purpose as reflected 
by the actions we’ve taken, which include:

•  we’ve outlined our plans for how we intend to decarbonise 

power, heat and transport through our Climate Transition Plan 
published in October 2021; 

•  we will continue to build out our green supply and solutions 

offerings for customers;

•  we’re training the next generation of apprentices to deliver low 
carbon technologies like heat pumps and EV chargers while 
exploring the future of hydrogen; and

•  we’re committed to creating additional green generation with 
up to £500 million to deploy through Centrica Energy Assets 
in low carbon and transition assets by 2025.

Good progress has been made on managing the prospects 
of the Group during 2022, including the completion of the 
sale of Spirit Norway on 31 May 2022 and the reopening of 
the Rough gas storage facility in September. We continue to 
simplify our management structure, reducing management 
layers and increasing the proportion of our colleagues who 
interact directly with customers, enabling us to put customers 
at the heart of everything we do. In addition, our balance sheet 
is now much stronger, with an adjusted net cash position as of 
31 December 2022. 

The Board has confidence in the long term prospects of the 
business. The Board believe that the strategic steps taken in 2022, 
and the Group’s strategy and Purpose will set the Group up to be 
successful in the long term as market trends continue to evolve 
and key risks are managed.

Assessment of viability
The assessment is based upon the Group Annual Plan for 2023 
and the longer-term strategic forecast for 2024 and 2025 which 
are approved annually by the Board. The Board continues to 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022believe that a three-year time horizon is the appropriate timeframe 
to assess viability, and is also consistent with the Group’s planning 
cycle and the period of reasonable visibility in the energy markets. 
The Group’s focus on the energy supply and services businesses 
means the most significant risks continue to be shorter-term in 
nature including asset performance, commodity prices, weather 
and margin cash requirements. 

Important context to the viability assessment is the management 
of the Group’s financing profile through accessing a diverse source 
of term funding and maintaining access to carefully assessed 
levels of standby liquidity which support the Group’s planned 
financial commitments. As at 31 December 2022, the Group had 
total committed credit facilities of £6.5 billion, of which £1.1 billion 
are temporary facility extensions that expire in mid-2023, £0.2 
billion expire in 2024 and the remaining £5.2 billion expire in 2025. 
The undrawn committed facilities as at 31 December 2022 were 
£4.0 billion in addition to unrestricted cash and cash equivalents 
of £3.7 billion.

In the continuing environment of high and volatile commodity 
prices, the Group’s portfolio provides increased opportunity for 
value capture and outperformance, but with significantly wider 
risk outcomes. The high price environment makes access to 
sufficient financial facilities a key focus for trading entities due to 
the requirement to hold sufficient collateral for mark to market 
positions, significantly increasing pressure on liquidity. 

In addition, the cost of living crisis continues. Inflation rose above 
10% in H2 2022 and could be slow to fall due to underlying 
pressures. As a result, the group is exposed to elevated levels 
of bad debt as customers struggle to pay their bills. 

To reflect the current volatility of risk factors, Centrica has used 
judgement to determine severe but plausible scenarios and have 
modelled three versions of the viability assessment to give a high, 
base and low curve scenario. These scenarios reflect a range of 
reasonably possible increases or decreases in commodity prices 
due to market conditions. The price curves used for the high and 
low scenario are summarised in the following tables:

35

High curve

2023

2024

2025

NBP (p/th)
Baseload Power (£/Mwh)

577
504

454
339

404
254

Low curve

2023

2024

2025

NBP (p/th)
Baseload Power (£/Mwh)

95
146

100
148

107
127

Viability was initially assessed based on September prices. 
However prices between September and December have fallen. 
We have continued to monitor these price changes to ensure that 
our base, high and low curves remain appropriate and specifically 
whether our base assumptions remain within the high to low range. 
As a result of this exercise, the high and base price scenarios were 
not adjusted (as the base scenario remained within the high to 
low range), but we adjusted our low curve for baseload power to 
align to December prices, with a separate assessment performed 
on whether the Group would remain viable in the event that both 
NBP and baseload power fell further. 

Note that the judgements within the financial statements, in 
particular impairment, have been based on actual forecast prices 
at the balance sheet date. Please see note 3 to the financial 
statements for further information.

The three scenarios share the same risks but, where relevant, the 
risks were flexed to reflect the Group’s exposure in each scenario. 
We have modelled groups of risks within ‘clusters’. It is not 
plausible that all risks would occur at the same time, and therefore 
each of the clusters is considered as a plausible combination 
of risks. The table below details the risk clustering and linkage 
to principal risks. Each of the clusters includes common risks 
throughout in addition to the risks associated with the cluster. 
The risks relating to commodity price, margin cash, bad debt, 
credit risk and letters of credit were selected as constant events 
in all three clusters.

Risk Cluster

Risk description

Links to Principal Risks

Risk >5% 
of opening 
headroom?*

Commodity price impacts on earnings of asset-
based businesses 
Increased margin cash requirements arising from 
adverse market conditions***

Common risks

Higher bad debt due to cost of living crisis

Credit Risk: risk of financial loss due  
to counterparty default
Removal of 25% of drawn uncommitted Letters  
of Credit
Regulatory risks in relation to loss of sensitive data

Cluster 1

Cluster 2

Operational impact of sustained employee 
industrial action

Significant disruption to the asset-based 
businesses leading to loss of production  
and earnings

•  Financial Markets – Market Risk

•  Financial Markets – Credit & Liquidity Risk

•  Financial Markets – Market Risk
•  Financial Markets – Market Risk

•  Financial Markets – Credit & Liquidity Risk 
•  Financial Markets – Credit & Liquidity Risk 

•  Financial Markets – Credit & Liquidity Risk

•  Political, Legal, Regulatory or Ethical Intervention/

Compliance

•  Cyber
•  People

•  Customer
•  Operational Asset Integrity

•  Safety 

Cluster 3

Significant adverse weather event 

•  Financial Markets – Weather Risk 

See note below**

Increased collateral requirements arising  
from a single-notch credit rating downgrade

•  Financial Markets – Credit & Liquidity Risk

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

 * Headroom is calculated as undrawn committed facilities plus total liquid resources.
* * A credit rating downgrade risk has only been applied to scenarios where the stressed credit metrics indicate Centrica would be at significant risk of downgrade by the 

agencies.

** * The largest margin outflow modelled in the scenarios is materially in excess of the £1.9bn margin cash position seen at the end of August 2022, and significantly higher 

than that in 2021 and 2022.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202236

Group-wide assumptions include:

•  No material acquisitions or disposals of Group business areas; 

and

•  Centrica has a long standing relationship bank group and 
has recently received strong support from a number of the 
relationship banks for a temporary increase in committed credit 
facilities for the current winter period. As such, the Directors are 
confident in the ability of Centrica to refinance appropriate credit 
facilities and margin waiver facilities.

Liquidity requirements
Centrica has established enhanced processes in the trading 
businesses and in respect of Upstream to plan for and manage 
possible increased cash margin requirements. These processes 
include:

•  monitoring reasonably possible scenarios for increased liquidity 
requirements as a result of changes in commodity prices and 
market conditions; and

•  ensuring Centrica has sufficient headroom to meet reasonably 
possible liquidity requirements over the going concern period.

Centrica has also enhanced governance measures including 
establishing a Liquidity Working Group to monitor market 
conditions, trading activity, and the ability of counterparties to pay 
margin calls to Centrica, and to take action where appropriate.

Centrica uses sophisticated modelling and analysis of the volatile 
market conditions over the last two years and market forward 
data to determine severe but plausible scenarios of the liquidity 
requirements for the trading business and Upstream. These include 
high and low price scenarios which are reflected in the viability 
assessment. While these scenarios include assessing statistically 
to a 95% confidence level the market conditions that may arise in 
the future, they will not necessarily predict future conditions given 
markets are volatile. Therefore, Centrica maintains and monitors 
the liquidity requirements across the business to ensure sufficient 
headroom is retained.

Regular assessments are performed of the credit worthiness and 
liquidity of counterparties that Centrica trades with and pays and 
receives cash margin calls from. These include assessing the level 
of exposure to counterparties who are investment grade and non-
investment grade, monitoring and dynamically managing credit 
limits and arranging credit enhancements such as requiring letters 
of credit from financial institutions.

Outcome of viability assessment
The viability scenarios have been assessed to confirm whether 
the Group would have sufficient liquidity available to meet its 
future planned financial commitments, and that the credit metrics 
calculated would not imply a sustained fall to below investment 
grade credit ratings (S&P BB+ and Moody’s Ba1).

In order to reach a conclusion as to the Group’s viability, 
the Directors have considered the following:

•  Whether any of the scenarios and clusters of risks noted above 
breached the available headroom in the three-year period and 
concluded that sufficient headroom was available in all scenarios.

•  Whether any of the scenarios and risks noted above indicated 

a deterioration in the credit rating metrics which would lead to a 
two notch downgrade to sub-investment grade. They concluded 
that the Group has a reasonable expectation that its net debt 
ratios would continue to sustainably support investment grade 
ratings (at least BBB- for S&P, and at least Baa3 for Moody’s) 
for all scenarios. 

While mitigations were not required in any of the above scenarios 
to ensure the Group was viable, additional mitigations could be 
deployed to increase headroom and reduce the risk of a credit 
downgrade, including reductions in operational and capital 
expenditure.

Reverse Stress Testing identified that there are some extreme 
risks that could theoretically result in Centrica entering a position 
whereby its financial resources were insufficient to meet its liabilities 
as they fall due. However, given the current financial strength of 
the company, the combination of events required to achieve this 
scenario is extremely unlikely to occur. We therefore believe that 
these risks do not represent a ‘severe but plausible’ threat to the 
viability of the company.

Conclusion 
The Directors have considered all the above factors in their 
assessment of viability, including the availability of mitigating actions 
within their control in the event that one of the scenarios above 
materialises. We have performed sensitivity analysis that enables 
the Directors to confirm that they have a reasonable expectation 
of the Group’s ability to continue to operate and meet its liabilities, 
as they fall due, over a period of at least three years. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Group Chief People 
Officer’s Report

Jill Shedden
Group Chief 
People Officer

2022 has been an extraordinary year for 
Centrica. I am really proud of what all our 
colleagues have achieved together to 
support our customers, each other and 
our Company throughout the year.

Amongst our many successes we’ve donated £4.5 million to 
make a big difference to causes our colleagues are passionate 
about in our local communities and we are helping colleagues and 
customers as much as possible with ongoing energy and cost 
of living issues. We restarted returns to shareholders which will 
also benefit the majority of our colleagues who are or will become 
shareholders due to our Global profit share award.

Our HR function has made a huge contribution to Centrica as we 
have adapted to significant change in the business, supported  
our businesses during the most challenging of times and flexed 
with pace to meet unprecedented recruitment needs to ensure  
we have sufficient colleagues to support our customers. 

Health, safety and wellbeing
Health and wellbeing is part of everything we do and we are 
building a supportive environment with an open and honest culture.

Our healthcare plan has been enhanced with additional wellbeing 
benefits and continues to be available to all UK-based colleagues 
and their dependants, giving peace of mind to colleagues and their 
families. Our data-driven approach provides real insight into our 
colleagues’ key health risks and drives our strategy: to improve  
the health and wellbeing of all colleagues.

37

We utilise and leverage technology, have a 100-strong network 
of mental health first aiders across the UK business and provide 
a 24/7 emotional support line. Mental health training programmes 
are in place to support leaders and colleagues. 

Through our wellbeing programme we are able to raise awareness 
of difficult and taboo subjects, such as the menopause, fertility, 
cancer and mental health. Our regular events with external and 
internal participants allow our colleagues to learn more and to 
share their experiences.

Looking after our colleagues through the rising 
cost of living
This year has presented many challenges and Centrica is 
committed to supporting colleagues especially through the cost 
of living crisis. We have set up a dedicated team to focus on 
cost of living support. A number of financial and non-financial 
initiatives have been implemented to support colleagues ranging 
from £1 lunches at all of our sites to providing additional mental 
health and wellbeing assistance for customer-facing colleagues. 
The team continues to monitor the external situation closely and 
to recommend additional intervention and assistance where 
necessary. In 2022 we made two separate cost of living payments 
to the majority of our colleagues and in the UK we continue to 
provide an allowance through payroll for all colleagues that are 
British Gas customers, to help with managing rising energy bills.

Colleague engagement 
I am delighted that colleague engagement has continued to 
improve quarter on quarter throughout the year. In Q3 we exceeded 
our internal target of 63% and the Q4 result was 10% higher 
than our target at 73%. An engaged workforce ensures we are all 
focused on our Purpose, helping our customers to live sustainably, 
simply and affordably.

Colleague engagement

Q1

Q2

Q3

XX.X

Q4

63%

58%

69%

73%

Global profit share award
In 2022 we also granted our first global profit share award to all 
colleagues, relating to our profits in 2021. The award was made 
in shares as we want our colleagues to share in our success as 
we continue to grow our business in the future. We will be making 
a similar award in shares in 2023, relating to our 2022 profits and 
this time, our improved absence performance across the business 
has also boosted the profit share pool which will be shared with 
all colleagues. 

Supporting our colleagues’ journey to net zero
Centrica is helping colleagues on the journey to cleaner and 
greener transportation, by leveraging Centrica products and 
services including a salary sacrifice scheme for electric vehicle (EV) 
leasing. This offers savings for both Centrica and our colleagues 
and it’s a great opportunity for UK colleagues to access ‘green’ 
electric cars to support our commitment to net zero, reducing 
the carbon footprint of our fleet over time.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202238

Listening to our people 
We have put in place a Shadow Board which is a unique 
partnership with the Centrica Leadership Team to provide impartial 
insight, review and assurance on strategic topics relating to 
colleagues, customers and cash.

The role of the Shadow Board is to be a forum that the Group 
Chief Executive and Centrica Leadership Team will engage with 
to bring diverse perspectives from across the organisation into 
key discussions to ensure our values and standards are upheld. 
Through the Shadow Board, colleagues will be able to influence 
decisions, positively disrupt assumptions, and challenge the 
thinking of our leaders to support colleague-centred decision-
making. The Shadow Board consists of nine colleagues from 
across Centrica. 

Developing our people
I am delighted that this year we recruited a further 367 apprentices, 
continuing to create new, highly skilled and well-paid British jobs.  
In addition to this we recruited 258 new employees via other 
training opportunities, including newly qualified and trainee 
pathways. 20% of our new colleagues were female via the 
combined engineering entry routes. In addition, our Ex-Forces 
programme got off to a strong start in 2022, hiring 143 former 
service personnel, spouses or family members.

•  3,010 internal moves & promotions happened in 2022
•  3,700 new colleagues joined us across the Group including 

51 graduates, 57 summer placements and 15 Year in Industry 
colleagues 

Centrica stories

Jacqui’s reflections on the Shadow Board
Having left school with a few GCSEs many years 
ago, I’ve had the opportunity to develop a wealth of 
experience and skills at Centrica. So when I heard 
they were creating a Shadow Board, I jumped at the 
chance to become its Chair, because I wanted to give 
something back.

The Shadow Board meets leaders regularly to share 
diverse perspectives from across the business and 
deliver colleague-centric decisions. And I’m incredibly 
proud of how we’ve worked together during our first 
year – from raising awareness and developing and 
supporting solutions for the challenges our engineers 
face, to strengthening our colleague engagement 
survey and providing feedback on how to bring our 
Purpose, Values and Strategy to life for colleagues.

In 2023, we’ll build on this with priorities that include 
how to develop closer relationships with colleagues 
overseas and better support managers to ensure 
success. Following feedback, we will also run quarterly 
diversity network sessions to ensure our engineers are 
aware of, and have the same level of access to our 
support groups as our office-based colleagues.

9 
Diverse colleagues on the Shadow Board,  
each serving an 18-month term

Colleague headcount full-time equivalent (FTE)

2022

2021

2020

19,743

19,783

XX.X

21,239

Colleague networks
I am incredibly proud that we have a number of active colleague-led 
networks that operate across Centrica. Our networks cover areas 
such as gender/sexual orientation, family, disability and ethnicity. 
I have highlighted some examples below.

Centrica Forces Network is a group of colleagues across all areas 
of Centrica who have either served in, or are serving reservists in 
the Armed Forces, or have an interest in being part of a community 
that supports these groups of colleagues. The objective is to 
create a diverse community that supports veterans and reservists 
within Centrica ensuring that we become an employer of choice  
for these groups.

Our Carers Network is a supportive group where colleagues are 
able to connect with others (who may or may not be carers) who 
can share ideas and information about any aspect of caring. 
This year the network and Carers UK collected two trophies at 
the Corporate Engagement Awards. Following the success of 
our three-year strategic charity partnership with Carers UK, we 
won bronze for Best Collaborative Approach and were highly 
commended in the Best Charity, NGO or NFP category. The 
partnership was recognised for its work to bring about a step 
change in the way that society recognises, values and supports 
carers. Whilst our strategic charity partnership has now ended, 
we continue to work closely together.

Jill Shedden, Group Chief People Officer 
15 February 2023

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022People and Planet

39

Creating a more inclusive and 
sustainable future that supports 
communities, our planet and each other.

Over the next decade, we’ll continue to harness the expertise 
of colleagues and collaborate with key stakeholders such as 
government and local communities, to drive the necessary action 
to deliver our People & Planet Plan and ensure we do business 
responsibly across our wider activities. 

Our People & Planet Plan has five Group-wide goals that accelerate 
action on issues that matter deeply to our business and society, 
and where we’re well-placed to make a world of difference – from 
achieving net zero(1) and creating the diverse and inclusive team 
we need to get there, to contributing to the communities we’re all 
part of. 

Whilst we’ve made really positive progress towards the majority of 
our goals, we’re behind on some of our shorter-term milestones 
but are confident we’ll get back on track in the years ahead. 
Unprecedented events including COVID-19, the collapse of failed 
energy suppliers and the rising cost of energy during the energy 
crisis, meant that we needed to shift our focus beyond the People 
& Planet Plan, to provide the urgent help our customers and 
communities need right now – including stepping up to give 10% of 
our British Gas Energy and Bord Gáis Energy profits to help people 
pay for the rising cost of energy. 

Ultimately, this will enable us to deliver on our Purpose of 
helping our customers live sustainably, simply and affordably 
whilst contributing positively to the United Nations Sustainable 
Development Goals (SDGs).

“2022 has been a year like no other and I’m really 
proud of the way we’ve worked together and 
with others, to provide the UK’s largest voluntary 
support package for customers to help them with 
their energy bills, whilst making strong progress on 
our People & Planet Plan. We’ve a long way to go 
to achieve the inclusive and sustainable world we 
need, but I’m fully committed to making sure we 
get there.” 

Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive

(1) Net zero is the point at which there is a balance between human-related carbon 

dioxide (CO2) being emitted into the atmosphere and the CO2 taken out.

+  Read more about our People & Planet Plan, Climate Transition Plan, SDGs 
and SASB disclosure amongst others at centrica.com/peopleandplanet

+  Read more about our non-financial KPIs on pages 258 to 260

Our People & Planet Plan
Supporting communities, our planet and each other

People
Supporting every colleague to be themselves 
to better serve our customers and 
communities

Planet
Supporting every customer to live more 
sustainably

We want to:

We want to:

•  Create a more engaged and inclusive team that reflects the 

•  Help our customers be net zero by 2050 

full diversity of the communities we serve by 2030*

(28% carbon intensity reduction by the end of 2030)

•  Recruit 3,500 apprentices and provide career development 

•  Be a net zero business by 2045 

opportunities for under-represented groups by 2030 
(1,000 apprentices by the end of 2022)

(40% carbon reduction by the end of 2034)

•  Inspire colleagues to give 100,000 days to build inclusive communities by 2030 (20,000 days by the end of 2022)

Doing business responsibly
Underpinned by strong foundations to ensure we act fairly and ethically – from customer service to human rights 

* All company and senior leaders to reflect 2011 Census data for working populations. This means 47% women, 14% ethnically diverse, 15% disability, 3% LGBTQ+ 
and 3% ex-service by 2030 (30% women, 13% ethnically diverse, 4% disability, 3% LGBTQ+ and 3% ex-service by the end of 2022). See page 40 for more.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202240

Providing urgent help during the energy crisis 

In 2022, the war in Ukraine led to global energy supplies 
constricting further and the cost of energy rising. Amidst the 
wider cost of living challenges, more and more people found it 
challenging to pay for their energy. With the duration of the energy 
crisis unknown, we urgently shifted our focus to do what we could 
to help. In the UK for example, we invested £25 million in customer 
service to handle a 50% increase in calls by hiring 700 additional 
UK-based customer service agents. We also committed £50 million 
to help homes and businesses with their energy bills, either 
through British Gas or via the British Gas Energy Trust which is an 
independent charity funded solely by British Gas, and helps anyone 
in need of assistance. As a result, we created the largest voluntary 
energy support fund for customers and our support will grow with 
our promise to voluntarily donate 10% of British Gas Energy’s 
profit for the duration of the energy crisis. This is in addition to 
our mandated funding of the Warm Home Discount and Energy 
Company Obligation (ECO). 

People

Supporting every colleague to be 
themselves to better serve our customers 
and communities

Goal 1 

By 2030, we want to:

Create an engaged team that reflects the full diversity of 
the communities we serve – this means all company and 
senior leaders to be 47% women, 14% ethnically diverse, 
15% disability, 3% LGBTQ+ and 3% ex-service(1)

2022 Progress:

Women 

– Excluding field engineers

Ethnically 
diverse

Disability

LGBTQ+

Ex-service 

All company

Senior leaders(2)

30% 

41% 

14% 

3% 

3% 

2% 

33% 

32% 

9% 

3% 

0% 

3% 

Progress against goals:   

  On track   

  Behind

(1) Towards this, our milestone goal was to be 30% women, 13% ethnically diverse, 
4% disability, 3% LGBTQ+ and 3% ex-service by the end of 2022. Our 2030 
goal was based on 2011 Census data for working populations and beyond 
gender, 2022 progress was based on 70% of colleagues disclosing their diversity. 
For 2023 annual reporting onwards, our 2030 goal will be re-aligned to the 
recently released 2021 Census data for working populations with 48% women, 
18% ethnically diverse, 20% disability, 3% LGBTQ+ and 4% ex-service.

(2) Senior leaders include colleagues above general management and spans 

senior leaders, the Centrica Leadership Team and the Board.

In Ireland during 2022, we similarly committed to donate 10% 
of Bord Gáis Energy’s profit for the duration of the energy crisis. 
This equated to €3.6 million to support vulnerable customers with 
their energy bills. We also continued to work closely with charity 
partner, Focus Ireland, to support those at risk of or experiencing 
homelessness.

In total during 2022, we spent nearly £290 million helping 
vulnerable people with their energy(1) through expert advice,  
grants and energy efficiency measures. 

(1) Comprises of £243.8 million in mandatory and £45.1 million in voluntary 

contributions, mainly through the Warm Home Discount, ECO and British Gas 
Energy Trust.

+  Read more about our support during the energy crisis on pages 12 and 68

To build a more sustainable future, we need the best team – a 
diverse mix of people and skills, where different ideas can grow, 
and where everyone can succeed. 

Our goal to reflect the full diversity of our communities is therefore 
essential but ambitious. Boosting the representation of women will 
be particularly challenging given our large engineering team reflects 
the male-dominated market, so it’ll take time to tackle this sector-
wide issue and build a more diverse talent pipeline through our 
apprenticeship programme (see Goal 2). In 2022 we did, however, 
make good progress by attracting, promoting and retaining more 
diverse talent. For example, the proportion of women across the 
company and among our senior leaders improved for the first 
time in a long time and we’re now on track. And if we remove 
our engineering team from the data, our overall gender balance 
improves even further. Although we achieved gains across our 
ethnicity, disability, LGBTQ+ and ex-service representation in 2022, 
opportunities remain for improvement including through building on 
the success of our #ThisIsMe campaign to drive self-declaration 
in 2023, which will help us better understand who’s working for 
us and where we need to focus action.

With our leadership team sharing an open letter to colleagues that 
set out our diversity and inclusion (D&I) action plan in 2021, we 
took important steps to deliver progress in 2022. This included: 

•  embedding tailored D&I dashboards alongside business unit 
action plans that are reviewed quarterly by leaders, and will 
help drive continuous improvement;

•  confirming that FlexFirst was here to stay which enables 

colleagues to choose when they want to work from home, come 
into the office, or flex their hours. Around 90% of colleagues 
said it’s helped provide the right work-life balance and has given 
parents, carers and those living in different regions, the chance to 
pursue development opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have 
been possible; and

•  rolling out allyship training to leaders and mandating anti-racism 

training for all colleagues, to help continuously upskill and 
educate.

Through these activities and more, we’ve received external 
recognition for our efforts including earning a place in The Times 
Top 50 Employers for Women. In 2023, we’ll refresh our goals in 
line with 2021 Census data for working populations and advance 
progress by continuing to embed our action plan whilst acting on 
colleague feedback. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Our wider diversity headcount

Gender(1)

Ethnically diverse(1)(2)

2022

2021

2022

2021

41

Board

Senior executives and direct reports

Senior leaders

All employees

Women

4 (44%)

24 (33%)

Men

5 (56%)

49 (67%)

Women

4 (50%)

29 (32%)

4 (50%)

61 (68%)

117 (33%)

243 (67%)

99 (28%)

254 (72%)

Men

Ethnically diverse

Ethnically diverse

1 (11%)

6 (8%)

32 (9%)

1 (13%)

6 (7%)

31 (9%)

5,938 (30%)

14,190 (70%)

5,421 (28%)

13,832 (72%)

2,761 (14%)

2,251 (12%)

(1) Headcount as at 31 December and based on overall headcount rather than headcount based on their full-time equivalent, to more accurately reflect the full diversity of our 

workforce. Read more about Board diversity on page 61.

(2) Based on 65% of colleagues in 2021 and 70% of colleagues in 2022, who voluntarily disclosed that they were from a Black, Asian, Mixed/Multiple or other ethnic group 

across the UK, Ireland and North America.

Goal 2 

By 2030, we want to:

Recruit 3,500 apprentices and provide career 
development opportunities for under-represented groups 
(1,000 apprentices by the end of 2022)(3)

Centrica stories 

2022 Progress:

Apprentices 

1,033 

Progress against goals:   

  On track   

  Behind

(3) Base year 2021. 

To get to net zero and satisfy the wider needs of our customers, we 
need to create thousands of high-quality jobs – from Smart Energy 
Apprentices to customer service agents. To fill these roles, there’s a 
huge opportunity to tap into the talent of under-represented groups 
to deliver a greener and more inclusive future. Towards this, we’re 
recruiting 3,500 apprenticeships which is the equivalent of hiring 
one apprentice every day over the next decade. And by the end 
of 2022, we were on track with the goal having recruited 1,033 
apprentices, whilst helping over 700 trainees professionally qualify 
in areas like gas and whitegoods. 

In particular, our Ex-Forces programme got off to a great start in 
2022, hiring 143 former service personnel and we’re aiming to 
recruit 500 veterans, reservists, spouses and partners by the end  
of 2023. Meanwhile, following a targeted campaign aimed at 
women looking for a career change during COVID-19, progress 
against our ambition for 50% of our Smart Energy Apprentices 
to be women declined from 30% in 2021, to 20% in 2022. 
Whilst this remains higher than the gas engineer average of 0.2% 
women, the drop is disappointing so we’re strengthening branding 
and marketing campaigns to continue to break down gender 
stereotypes and inspire more women into engineering.

Alongside this, we’re working to encourage more young people 
to choose a career in energy by supporting Tech She Can’s 
educational programme, Tech We Can, which has directly  
reached over 18,000 students. 

Chelsea’s apprenticeship 
As my son grew older, the time felt right to increase my 
work hours and find a new career. When I came across 
the Smart Energy Apprenticeship, it appealed to my 
love of science and learning but I wasn’t sure if I’d fit in. 
Then I saw that British Gas were specifically targeting 
women, so I decided to give it a go.

I’m so glad I did! The team are really supportive, and 
I get treated just the same as everyone else. No two 
days are the same which I enjoy and it’s really rewarding 
to leave customers with a smile on their face. I also 
flex my hours for the school run in the morning which 
makes life that little bit easier.

Having got a distinction in my apprenticeship, I’m 
really proud of all I’ve learnt and that I’ve now got a 
solid trade. And in the future, I’m sure there will be 
opportunities to cross-skill into electric vehicle (EV) 
charging or management. If more young girls see 
engineers like me, I hope they’ll think it’s a career  
they could do too.

3,500
Apprentices to be recruited with the ambition  
for 50% of recruits to be women by 2030

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202242

Goal 3 

By 2030, we want to:

Give 100,000 days to build inclusive communities 
(20,000 days by the end of 2022)(1)

Despite this improvement, we missed our 2022 milestone due to 
COVID-19 limiting volunteering opportunities in previous years and 
our need to focus on providing the urgent support our customers 
have needed over the last two years with the collapse of failed 
energy suppliers and the energy crisis. But we’ll get back on track 
as we work towards 4,000 volunteering days with 1 in 6 colleagues 
volunteering in 2023, and build to 1 in 3 colleagues by 2030.

2022 Progress:

Days 

12,987 

Progress against goals:   

  On track   

  Behind

(1) Base year 2019. 

We’re harnessing the passion of our people to build inclusive 
communities because strong communities are central to a more 
sustainable future. It’s also a great way to help colleagues develop 
skills and improve engagement. 

In 2022, we significantly ramped up volunteering and fundraising 
efforts with 2,098 days donated to help our local communities. This 
is a massive 600% increase from 2021 and brings our cumulative 
total to 12,987 days since 2019. Gains were made possible with 
the launch of ‘The Big Difference’ initiative which nearly 5,000 
colleagues voted on and marks the move from a national to local 
approach that’s mobilising everyone to get involved in local causes 
they care passionately about.

Making a big difference in 2022:

400
Local and national charities supported – from Little 
Village in London and LOROS Hospice in Leicester, 
to the Trussell Trust, Age UK and Focus Ireland 
7
New community organisations were awarded funding 
to progress their journey to net zero via our Energy 
for Tomorrow social impact fund, which has an 
annual budget of up to £600,000
£4.5m
Donated and fundraised for local communities, with 
over £1 million also supporting the crisis in Ukraine 
through the Disaster Emergency Committee

Planet

Supporting every customer to 
live more sustainably

Goal 4 

By 2050, we want to:

Help our customers be net zero  
(28% reduction by the end of 2030)(2)

Around 90% of our total GHG emissions (scope 1, 2 and 3), 
come from the sale of gas and electricity to customers (scope 3). 
So the biggest thing we can do to fight climate change, is to help 
our customers use energy more sustainably. 

Towards this in 2022, we provided energy, services and solutions 
that enabled the GHG intensity of our customers’ energy use 
to reduce by 6% against our 2019 base year, which was mainly 
driven by renewable and low carbon energy tariffs alongside energy 
efficiency and optimisation solutions. This was down from 17%(3) 
in 2021 following the reintroduction of fossil fuels into our electricity 
mix due to the escalating cost of green energy certification and the 
need to keep costs down for customers during the energy crisis. 
The zero-carbon content of our reported electricity fuel mix did, 
however, remain high at 75% versus the 55% UK average and 
is only slightly behind the glidepath for our long-term goal. We’re 
exploring all options to decarbonise our electricity supply in an 
affordable way, which is key to delivering on our goal and ensuring 
a fair transition to net zero for our customers. 

2022 Progress:

(3) Restated due to availability of improved data. 

Reduction

6% 

630,000 homes

Progress against goals:   

  On track   

  Behind

(2) Net zero goal measures the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of our customers’ 

energy use including electricity and gas with a 2019 base year of 183gCO2e/kWh, 
normalised to reflect acquisitions and divestments in line with changes in Group 
customer base. Target aligned to the Paris Agreement and based on science to 
limit global warming, corresponding to a well below 2°C pathway initially and 
1.5°C by mid-century. 

The equivalent annual emissions we’ve saved 
through our energy, services and solutions

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022In 2022, we helped our customers advance towards net zero by 
supporting them with measures to decarbonise power, heat and 
transport by:

•  launching British Gas Net Zero Ventures, a new business whose 
sole mission is to support customers with their journey to net 
zero by helping them adopt key technologies – from heat pumps 
to EV charging; 

•  installing over 2,300 heat pumps to date which is more than any 
other UK company, and we expect to ramp this up significantly 
with our market-leading price guarantee launched at the start of 
2023;

•  supporting growth in the take-up of EVs having installed nearly 

28,000 charging points so far; and

•  completing the Energy Company Obligation Phase 3 2019-22, 

providing energy efficiency measures to 150,000 homes, which is 
estimated to save around £2 billion on energy bills and 2mtCO2e 
across the measures’ lifetime – that’s equivalent to avoiding 
seven billion miles being driven in a combustion engine car. 

Goal 5

By 2045, we want to:

Be a net zero business 
(40% reduction by the end of 2034)(1)

2022 Progress:

Reduction 

6%†

Progress against goals:   

  On track   

  Behind

(1) Net zero goal measures scope 1 (direct) and 2 (indirect) GHG emissions based on 
operator boundary, which now includes all emissions from our shipping activities 
relating to Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) alongside the retained Spirit Energy assets 
in the UK and Netherlands. Non-operated nuclear emissions are excluded. Target 
is normalised to reflect acquisitions and divestments in line with changes in 
Group structure against a 2019 base year of 2,132,680mtCO2e. It’s also aligned to 
the Paris Agreement and based on science to limit global warming, corresponding 
to a well below 2°C pathway initially and 1.5°C by mid-century.

 † Included in DNV Business Assurance Services UK Limited (DNV)’s independent 
limited assurance engagement using the International Standard on Assurance 
Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): ‘Assurance Engagements Other 
Than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information’. See page 258  
or centrica.com/assurance for more.

In 2022, we continued to make progress against our net zero target 
with our total GHG emissions decreasing by 6%† against the 2019 
base year. With our Whitegate power station resuming normal 
operations to play an important role in boosting energy security 
and providing a stable baseload power for intermittent renewables 
following an outage in 2021, savings were down from the 53%(2) 
temporary reduction achieved that year. Overall, we remain on track 
with our long-term goal. 

The main driver of reductions in 2022 from the 2019 base year, 
arose from our oil and gas operations, which included closing 
our Hummingbird oil production offshore facility in the UK North 
Sea which is our last remaining oil production facility. Sustainable 
savings were also secured via our low carbon fleet initiatives such 
as rolling out EVs, delivering property efficiencies across lighting, 
heating and cooling systems, alongside property rationalisation and 
lowering occupancy as a result of FlexFirst which lets colleagues 
choose when they want to come into the office to connect and 
collaborate or work from home (see page 40). 

43

As set out in our Climate Transition Plan, we’ll continue to 
cut emissions by focusing on delivering energy efficiency and 
optimisation services, alongside low carbon technologies and 
cleaner energy (see page 51).

11.6GW
Route-to-market for renewables under our 
management, which can power around 
10 million homes 

70%
Our GHG emission reduction over the last decade 
following our strategic transformation away from 
most of our carbon intensive operations, to provide 
low carbon services and solutions for customers 
11.5m
Electric miles driven by our British Gas fleet in 2022 – 
equivalent to driving around the world more than  
460 times

To get to net zero, we remain committed to driving emissions 
out of our own activities and identifying opportunities wherever 
possible to support the adoption of lower carbon energy for our 
customers. This involves securing up to 800MW of low carbon and 
transition assets by 2025 that drive the transition forward including 
solar, flexible generation and battery storage, whilst exploring the 
conversion of our Rough gas storage facility to store hydrogen 
in the long term (see page 51). 

It is, however, becoming increasingly clear that the path to 
achieving net zero by 2050 is unlikely to be linear in the context of 
a challenging geopolitical environment, where security of supply is 
a real risk for consumers in the markets in which we operate. We 
know that some investment decisions specifically geared towards 
enabling the energy transition and supporting energy consumers, 
may make our own path to net zero by 2045 more challenging in 
the short term, such as the development of two new flexible gas-
fired generation plants in Ireland alongside our LNG activities (see 
pages 23 to 24). However, we see these investments as being in 
line with the view of policymakers that gas will be a key transition 
fuel(3) and as such, critical to support energy security until the 
issue of intermittency in renewable energy is addressed during the 
transition. Equally, national infrastructure that we depend upon to 
deliver our targets remains very much in its infancy – for example, 
plans to fully electrify our own fleet of vehicles by 2025, has 
been materially hampered by the UK’s failure to develop a public 
charging network at scale over the past two years. We’ll therefore 
continue to play our full part in the policy debate to secure a 
framework that facilitates the adoption of greener forms of energy.

(2) Restated due to LNG shipping and Spirit Energy’s remaining assets moving into 

scope in 2022. 

(3) British Energy Security Strategy, April 2022. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 
44

Our Foundations 

Our People & Planet Plan is underpinned 
by strong foundations that ensure we act 
fairly and ethically.

Customers 
We’ve been making big investments to deliver a better service 
for customers. Towards this in the UK, we recruited around 800 
engineers to rebuild capacity and hired 700 additional UK-based 
call service agents. As a result in 2022, British Gas Services & 
Solutions Engineer Net Promoter Score (NPS) improved by four 
points to +64, whilst our British Gas Energy Touchpoint NPS 
rose by two points to +13 despite the challenging operating 
environment. In both the UK and Ireland, we’ve seen complaints 
increase which broadly reflects the significant rise in global 
wholesale and commodity prices impacting customer bills 
(see pages 22 to 24).

Colleagues
We want our people to feel safe, engaged and rewarded. Tragically, 
we experienced our first work-related fatality in six years when 
a British Gas engineer lost their life after being involved in a 
road traffic collision. And whilst our Tier 1 and 2 process safety 
incident frequency rate improved to zero with no events occurring 
compared to three Tier 2 events in 2021, our total recordable injury 
frequency rate rose by 5% to 1.12 per 200,000 hours (see page 27). 
Safety remains front-of-mind, with the need to continually reinforce 
a strong safety culture and advance controls and monitoring. In 
particular, with the majority of incidents occurring in British Gas 
Services & Solutions due to the size of the business and nature  
of work delivered, we’ll enhance new starter safety training and 
aim to further embed procedures in 2023. Alongside physical 
health, we’re mindful of the impact that the cost of living crisis may 
have on colleague wellbeing. So we provided two cost of living 
payments to colleagues and ran campaigns that talked about the 
importance of being open about mental health whilst encouraging 
use of our suite of support which includes a company-funded 
benefit healthcare plan for all, a wellbeing app, and our 100-strong 
network of mental health first aiders (see page 37). 

Support like this as well as an improvement in trust in senior 
leaders amongst other things, has helped improve our engagement 
score by 18% to 73% favourable in 2022. This surpasses our goal 
of 70% by the end of 2023. With engagement being key to having 
a happy and productive team, we’ll build on this with our continued 
focus on providing a more inclusive and supportive place to work. 

As a responsible employer, we also reward our people fairly. 
This includes paying at least the Real Living Wage in the UK and 
upholding equal pay. In 2022, our gender pay gap reduced by 7% 
to 23% median and is driven by more men working in higher paid 
roles like engineering, with more women in valued but lower paid 
jobs like customer service. We’re one of few companies to have 
voluntarily published our ethnicity pay gap which is driven by similar 
factors as gender, and likewise improved by 3% to 10% median. 
Tackling the pay gap won’t be quick or easy, but we hope to 
continue to help transform our business, sector and society as our 
People & Planet Plan gets fully underway (see pages 40 to 41).

Communities and ethics 
Our Code and Our Values help us operate in a way that’s beneficial 
to communities by setting out the high standards we expect. 
For example, Our Code includes our commitment to uphold 
and protect human rights. We therefore take action to ensure 
colleagues and workers in our supply chain are safeguarded from 
abuses through activities such as risk-based training, reviewing 
social and environmental standards via ongoing due diligence, and 
monitoring of supplier selection and renewal. If suppliers receive 
a high-risk rating relating to the country where they operate or 
the products and/or services provided, we consider appropriate 
action which may involve conducting a third-party audit to better 
understand the level of risk or ending our relationship and reporting 
the abuse. In 2022, we rolled out on-the-ground audits to nine 
sites and issued 7,245 remote worker surveys spanning garment 
manufacturing and electrical products across Bangladesh, 
Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Pakistan and the UK. Whilst we 
identified no serious non-conformance, we agreed 61 improvement 
opportunities with suppliers to continuously help make a positive 
contribution in raising standards on labour as well as health and 
safety. The majority of actions have now been completed subject 
to sign off by the auditor, with the rest due to be completed in 
2023. To date, we’ve found no instances of modern slavery but 
we remain vigilant. 

Our Code also provides clear guidance on bribery and corruption. 
We prohibit any improper payments, including facilitation payments 
regardless of value or jurisdiction, and exchange gifts and 
hospitality responsibly, declaring them on a register. Anti-bribery 
training is also provided for higher risk roles and our Financial Crime 
team run third-party risk management screening. Due diligence  
and monitoring is additionally undertaken across supplier selection 
and contract renewals including compliance with sanctions  
on Russia. A register is used to record and manage potential  
or actual conflicts of interest.

During 2022, 98% of colleagues completed refresher training on 
Our Code and confirmed they’d uphold its principles. If anyone 
has concerns about Our Code being contravened, they can raise 
them via our confidential Speak Up helpline. We had 1.5 reports 
of concern per 100 employees in 2022 which largely aligns with 
the external benchmark of 1.3, and illustrates that colleagues 
feel safe to speak up. Reports are investigated by the Ethics 
and Compliance team, with quarterly monitoring via the Safety, 
Environment and Sustainability Committee as well as the Audit 
and Risk Committee, with matters brought to the attention  
of the Board as appropriate.

+  Read more in our Modern Slavery Statement at 

centrica.com/modernslavery

Environment 
Monitoring and managing our wider environmental impact is really 
important. During 2022, our water consumption increased by 30% 
to 317,760m3 whilst waste also rose by 3% to 18,686 tonnes. This 
was largely due to Whitegate resuming normal operations following 
an outage in 2021 and more colleagues choosing to work from the 
office compared to the previous year. 

Top 3
Our leadership position in the CCLA Mental Health 
Benchmark for the UK 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Non-Financial Information Statement 
In line with the Non-Financial Reporting Directive, we have set 
out where the relevant information we need to report against 
can be found.

This includes an explanation of the relevant Group policies 
which relate to the below matters and an overall summary 
of their effectiveness, including specific examples of how these 
policies are implemented, any due diligence processes conducted 
and outcomes.

45

Reporting requirement

Business model

Reporting requirement
and policy position
Our Code sets out our position on key issues by providing a 
high-level summary of key policies that form the foundation 
for how we do business. 

+  Read more at centrica.com/ourcode

Section

Our Strategy & Business Model – pages 8 to 9 

Due diligence and outcome

Colleagues
Our policy states that we work collaboratively to create a 
workplace that has a respectful and inclusive culture whilst 
offering fair reward and recognition. We’re also committed 
to working safely and provide proactive support to ensure 
colleagues’ health and wellbeing.

•  Stakeholder Engagement – page 13
•  Principal Risks and Uncertainties: People, Safety and Operational Asset Integrity  

– pages 32 to 33

•  Group Chief People Officer’s Report – pages 37 to 38
•  People and Planet – pages 40 to 42 and 44
•  Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – pages 27, 40 to 42, 44 and 258 to 259

Environmental matters
This policy sets out that we endeavour to understand, manage 
and reduce our environmental impact. Towards this, we will play 
our part in the transition to net zero. 

•  Chairman’s Statement – page 3
•  Group Chief Executive’s Statement – page 5
•  Macro Trends – page 10
•  Stakeholder Engagement – pages 12 to 13 
•  Business Review – pages 23 to 25 
•  Principal Risks and Uncertainties: Energy market, Government and regulatory 
intervention, Political, Legal, Regulatory or Ethical Intervention/Compliance,  
Operational Asset Integrity and Climate Change – pages 29, 31 and 33

•  People and Planet – pages 42 to 54
•  KPIs – pages 27, 42 to 44, 52 to 53, 258 and 260

Social matters
Our policy states that we will treat all of our customers fairly. 
As part of this, we strive to provide services and solutions that 
meet their needs as well as care for customers who need extra 
support. We also want to make a difference and help create 
more inclusive communities. We partner with community and 
charity organisations on key issues and inspire colleagues to 
volunteer and fundraise. 

•  Chairman’s Statement – page 2
•  Group Chief Executive's Statement – pages 4 and 6
•  Market Changes – page 11
•  Stakeholder Engagement – pages 12 to 13
•  Business Review – pages 22 to 24
•  Principal Risks and Uncertainties: Inflation and cost of living, Supply chain, Customer, 
Political, Legal, Regulatory or Ethical Intervention/Compliance and Safety – pages 29  
and 31 to 32

Human rights
This policy commits that wherever we work in the world, we 
respect and uphold the fundamental human rights and freedoms 
of everyone who works for us or with us.

Anti-bribery and corruption 
Our policy commits us to working with integrity, within the 
laws and regulations of all the countries in which we operate 
and in accordance with recognised international standards. 
This includes not offering or accepting bribes or other corrupt 
practices. We will not tolerate any form of bribery or corruption 
from suppliers.

•  People and Planet – pages 40, 42 and 51
•  KPIs – pages 27, 22 to 24, 40, 42 and 258 to 260 

•  Stakeholder Engagement – page 13
•  Principal Risks and Uncertainties: Political, Legal, Regulatory or Ethical Intervention/

Compliance – page 31

•  People and Planet – page 44
•  KPIs – pages 44 and 260

•  Principal Risks and Uncertainties: Political, Legal, Regulatory or Ethical Intervention/

Compliance – page 31

•  People and Planet – page 44
•  Based on materiality, KPIs specific to anti-bribery and corruption are not  

reported externally.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202246

Task Force on Climate-related 
Financial Disclosures

Climate change is one of the greatest 
challenges facing society. As an energy 
company, we play a pivotal role in 
helping our customers, communities 
and our business reach net zero. 

We believe it’s therefore important to share our action and plans on 
climate-related matters in a transparent and robust way. That’s why 
across our business (see pages 8 to 9), we were early adopters of 
the TCFD and why we’ve achieved full compliance for the second 
year running in our 2022 reporting. 

Governance 
Climate change is an increasingly important issue for the Board, so 
its governance is embedded throughout the business – from our 
Board, to colleagues in our business (see diagram on next page).

The Board, and in particular our Group Chief Executive, has regular 
engagement with investors, government and regulators on climate 
change – whether that’s on the technologies and incentives needed 
for the UK to reach net zero, or understanding more about our 
Climate Transition Plan (see page 51). It’s vital therefore that the 
Board continuously strengthens capabilities on climate change 
to ensure they’ve the wide range of skills needed across energy, 
regulation, geopolitics and technology to reduce risk and maximise 
opportunities. 

With this in mind, management’s role in assessing and managing 
climate-related matters was strengthened during 2022-23. 
This included:

•  ‘climate change and sustainability’ added as one of 11 criteria 
used in the Skills Matrix to assess Board capability, spanning 
a deep understanding of climate science, climate risk and 
mitigation, alongside evolving stakeholder expectations. 50% 
of our Board were identified as having these competencies  
when assessed in 2022, which we believe provides the 
necessary capability to effectively govern climate matters;

•  a deep-dive session on greenwashing of climate and 
sustainability-related matters was run for the Board  
by internal and external experts;

•  climate risk and opportunities were further embedded into 

strategic planning processes through updating and enhancing 
our climate scenario analysis with the business unit strategy 
teams, alongside the implementation of a new Group investment 
framework containing a number of specific net zero tests; and 
•  progress against our Climate Transition Plan was incorporated 
into the remuneration scheme for Executives. The ‘Restricted 
Share Plan’ will vest every three years and is subject to an 
underpin of the Remuneration Committee assessing performance 
across a range of financial and non-financial KPIs which includes 
our Climate Transition Dashboard, as well as any material risk  
of regulatory failures (see page 95). 

Our governance and disclosure is strongly influenced by the 
materiality of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) matters, 
including those that are climate-related. We identify issues and 
assess materiality through a number of methods including direct 
engagement with stakeholders such as investors and government, 
customer surveys and our TCFD financial materiality thresholds. 
Through identification of these issues together with associated 
laws and regulations, management teams are able to focus on 
what we need to measure and report. We know what’s important 
will shift over time as stakeholder needs change and the regulatory 
landscape evolves, so we’ll continue to assess and align our 
approach in future years. 

Listing Rule 
Compliance 
We’ve complied with the 
requirements of LR 9.8.6R, by 
including climate-related financial 
disclosures that are consistent  
with the four TCFD pillars and the 
11 recommended disclosures that 
are set out on page 54. 

Signatories of the TCFD 
since 2020

‘A’ grade leadership 
rating for action and 
disclosure on climate 
change by CDP

DISCLOSURE INSIGHT ACTION

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202247

A diagram of our climate governance

The Board 
Has ultimate responsibility for climate change and delegates authority to its Committees 

•  Oversees People and Planet-related matters including climate  
change, whilst prioritising material issues and setting strategy

•  Challenges management on progress against climate targets and 

ambitions as well as ensuring the Company maintains a robust risk 
management framework, encompassing climate risks and opportunities

•   Provides final sign-off on People and Planet annual reporting 

•  Reviews strategic and financial planning to ensure the full integration  
of climate considerations, and that opportunities to transition to net  
zero are maximised

•   Chaired by Scott Wheway with attendance including the Group Chief 

Executive, who has overall accountability for climate change and regularly 
attends Committee meetings as well as chairing the CLT

Challenge

Report

+  Read more about our pages 56 to 67

Our Committees
 Receive regular updates from senior leaders to ensure robust challenge and review, whilst outputs are shared with the Board 

Safety, Environment and Sustainability Committee (SESC)

Audit and Risk Committee (ARC)

Remuneration Committee

•  Primarily responsible for supporting the Board in overseeing 
climate change, which is a standing item at each of the three 
annual meetings 

•  Assesses and approves proposals relating to net zero targets  
and the Climate Transition Plan, whilst monitoring progress,  
risks and opportunities 

•  Reviews annual reporting and associated requirements like TCFD
•  Monitors stakeholder views including on climate change 
•  Oversees climate-related issues at the CLT
•  Chaired by Heidi Mottram, Independent Non-Executive Director
+  Read more on pages 82 to 83

•  Meets quarterly
•  Reviews mitigations related to Principal 

Risks and opportunities for climate change 

•  Oversees and informs Group audits, 

financial statements and non-financial 
disclosures 

•  Manages effectiveness of whistleblowing 
•  Oversees audit and risk at the CLT 
•  Chaired by Kevin O’Byrne, Independent 

Non-Executive Director
+  Read more on pages 72 to 79

•  Meets at least four times a year
•  Ensures that Executive Directors 
are appropriately rewarded, with 
climate change considered as part 
of remuneration arrangements
•  Chaired by Carol Arrowsmith, 

Independent Non-Executive Director
+  Read more on pages 84 to 103

Challenge

Report
Report

Centrica Leadership Team (CLT)
Provide ongoing oversight and challenge on climate strategy 

 CLT – As frequently as needed at the eight meetings held each year and 
chaired by the Group Chief Executive, the CLT monitors, assesses and 
informs progress and plans relating to our net zero targets and 

Climate Transition Dashboard alongside Principal Risks and opportunities, 
whilst reviewing Group-wide investment opportunities which considers the 
potential impact on delivering net zero as part of the investment framework

Challenge

Report

Sub-groups and sub-Committees
Support leadership on integrating climate change into strategy 

TCFD working group – Ongoing engagement led by Group Environment 
with Strategy, Risk, Finance and Reward, to fulfil mandated requirements 
and embed climate strategy Group-wide(1) 

Group Risk & Controls Committee – Chaired by the Chief Risk and Audit 
Officer with business unit Managing Directors and Chief Financial Officers in 
attendance; risks and opportunities alongside controls to manage Principal 
Risks are evaluated quarterly (see page 28)

Challenge

Report

Business units 
Follow and feedback on climate strategy 

Managers and teams – Operationalises climate change considerations in 
line with Group strategy 

Risk owners – Identifies, assesses and mitigates climate risks  
and opportunities 

(1) Group Head of Environment develops and socialises climate change strategy and progress, whilst co-ordinating and influencing related activities. Director of Group 
Strategy embeds climate change into our strategic planning and investment frameworks. Group Head of Enterprise Risk and Controls integrates climate risk and 
opportunities into the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Framework. Head of Accounting Reporting and Tax supports the business to understand the financial  
impacts of net zero. Group Head of Reward integrates ESG targets into remuneration frameworks.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202248

Strategy 
In 2022, we assessed our strategic resilience to climate change 
using 10 independent climate scenarios that are most relevant to 
our business and national climate targets, within our key markets  
of the UK and Ireland. These were the same scenarios used in 
2021 but updated to the most recent versions. This allows us 
to robustly test the implications on each Centrica business of 
various plausible pathways relating to global warming ranging 
between 1.5°C to 4°C(1). We did this using our in-house scenario 
analysis model, which assesses the potential positive and negative 
implications of each climate scenario on our gross margin (GM) 
for key services and solutions alongside asset valuations over the 
short, medium and long term, corresponding to 2025, 2035 and 
2050. We consider this time horizon appropriate as it aligns with 
our net zero targets as well as our Climate Transition Plan, and 
encompasses the expected lifetime of the vast majority of our 
assets as well as the materialisation of key potential transitional 
risks and opportunities across the Group. We also recognise 
that scenarios extending this far out into the future are subject to 
significant uncertainties and carry material dependencies which 
should be considered when seeking insights.

Our scenario analysis showed that based on our strategic plans 
and capabilities, we remain well positioned to mitigate the risks 
and seize the opportunities related to climate change. Whilst 
some areas of our business will inevitably face greater disruption 
than others as the world increasingly decarbonises, our modelling 
suggests an overall net financial benefit for the Group across 
all scenarios as we continue to evolve in line with the needs of 
the energy transition and progress our Climate Transition Plan 
ambitions (see page 51), to ensure that we deliver on our Purpose 
of helping our customers live sustainably, simply and affordably.

As set out in the table on the next page, parts of our business are 
exposed to potential transitional risks and opportunities such as 
those relating to policy and regulatory changes which range from 
‘low’ to ‘high’ in significance over the longer term. We recognise 
that the potential for risks to manifest in any given scenario is 
subject to uncertainty, as are the adjacent opportunities and 
our ability to pivot effectively and secure the value they offer. 
We therefore fully consider this uncertainty when assessing our 
strategic resilience to decarbonisation. For example, the key risk for 
businesses like British Gas and Bord Gáis Energy primarily relate 
to the gradual phase-out of natural gas in heating, which although 
an essential transition fuel in the mid-term, could require a shift 
in the range of services and solutions offered to our customers 
in the future. We believe we’re well positioned to pursue the 
opportunities created by this shift, given our trusted brands have 
all the necessary systems and capabilities in place to adjust from 
the trading and sale of gas and electricity to a system more heavily 
dependent on electricity and hydrogen. Similarly our market-leading 
engineering teams primarily install gas heating solutions today, 
but can be upskilled via our world-class training facilities. And 
we’re already enhancing our strategic resilience by establishing 
positions in low carbon solutions like heat pumps, EV charging and 
hydrogen, which will become an increasingly important focus now 

that we’ve launched British Gas Net Zero Ventures. Meanwhile, 
whilst Centrica Business Solutions provide some fossil fuel-based 
solutions to customers, the business was created to help drive the 
energy transition forward and over the last couple of years, we’ve 
increasingly ramped up investment in renewable and low carbon 
asset development such as solar and battery storage, and are 
helping more and more companies with bespoke action plans to 
get to net zero. All growth plans relevant to these key opportunities, 
are incorporated into budgets and business plans, with appropriate 
metrics and targets to monitor progress (see pages 52 to 53). They 
are also considered and factored into accounting assumptions, 
where relevant and in accordance with the specific accounting 
requirements (see note 3 to the financial statements).

(1) Climate scenario global warming measured out to 2100.

Net financial benefit
Our modelling suggests an overall net financial 
benefit for the Group across all climate scenarios 
and time periods assessed

Scenarios we’ve used:

•  Transitional impacts are assessed using the National 

Grid Future Energy Scenarios comprising of four different 
pathways for the future of energy out to 2050, where 
assumptions on energy demand, production and use 
cases are adjusted. This allows detailed modelling of the 
potential impacts of the energy transition in the UK and 
Ireland at the individual product and commodity level, 
such as the demand for natural gas, electricity, hydrogen 
and the adoption of technologies like heat pumps, EVs 
and insulation. Where necessary, we adapt the scenarios 
to better reflect the Irish context including the higher 
proportion of off-grid consumers. 

•  Physical impacts are assessed using three different 
scenarios based on the Intergovernmental Panel on 
Climate Change Representative Concentration Pathways. 
The scenarios allow physical climate attributes to be 
modelled such as temperature and sea level rise as well 
as flooding and extreme weather, across differing average 
temperature rises resulting from varying radiative forces. 

•  To assess asset impairment, we use the International 

Energy Agency Net Zero Emissions scenario and Aurora 
Net Zero Mixed & High RES scenarios, which model 
1.5˚C pathways to net zero for the energy sector. This 
allows us to model the potential impact on global and 
regional demand for different energy sources responding 
to drivers such as carbon pricing. This in turn affects 
commodity prices and the potential implications for the 
valuation of gas and power assets. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Summary of our most material risks and opportunities(1) 

49

Impact on gross margin (GM)

0-5% GM

5-10% GM

>10% GM

TFCD 
category

Climate 
related trend

Potential financial 
impact

Potential materiality

Strategic response 
and resilience

2025 
(short 
term)

2035 
(medium 
term)

2050 
(long 
term)

Transition: Policy, 
Markets and 
Technology

Transition away 
from fossil 
fuelled heating

Risk: Reduced GM from the 
sale and servicing of natural 
gas residential boilers and 
commercial Combined Heat 
and Power (CHP) 

Transition: Policy, 
Markets and 
Technology

Growth in low 
carbon heating 
market

Opportunity: Increased sales 
and servicing of electric and 
hydrogen fuelled heating 
systems

Transition: Policy, 
Markets and 
Technology

Transition away 
from natural gas

Risk: Reduced GM from the 
sale of natural gas and energy 
efficiency

Transition: Policy, 
Markets and 
Technology

Growth in low 
carbon heating 
market

Opportunity: Increased sales of 
electricity and green/low carbon 
hydrogen

Transition: 
Markets

Growth of EV 
transport market

Transition: 
Energy Source

Growth in 
demand for 
renewable 
energy

Opportunity: Access to new 
and growing value pools 
related to EV charging installs, 
operation and maintenance 
(O&M), and energy supply

Opportunity: Strong growth 
in the market for low carbon 
and transition assets driven by 
decarbonisation

Physical: Chronic Rising mean 
temperatures

Risk: Reduced sales of natural 
gas and electricity for heat

Net Impact for 
Group 

>2°C

1.5°C

>2°C

1.5°C

>2°C

1.5°C

>2°C

1.5°C

>2°C

1.5°C

>2°C

1.5°C

4.3°C

1.6°C

>2°C

1.5°C

+

+

+

+

+

+

•  Strategic aim to remain the market 

leader in heating solutions in the UK 
and Ireland (UK&I), whilst growing 
market share in heating installs

•  Installation of hydrogen-ready boilers 

and CHP

•  Heat pump business launched with 
material growth plans, aiming for 
20,000 installs a year by 2025 and build 
from there

•  Partnering in UK hydrogen use trials 
and research and development into 
low carbon CHP to grow adoption and 
capability

•  Strategic aim to grow customer 
numbers in UK&I energy supply

•  Systems and capabilities in place 

to pivot towards trading and selling 
hydrogen

•  Partnering in hydrogen production 

and use trials to grow capability and 
adoption

•  British Gas Net Zero Ventures launched 

with aim to become a leader in EV 
charging infrastructure installs and O&M

•  Ambition to install up to 100,000 EV 
charging points per annum by 2025

•  Strategy to invest up to £100 million 

each year by 2025 to build a low carbon 
and transition asset portfolio of more 
than 800MW

•  Value derived from install, O&M and 

asset ownership

•  Strategic aim to grow customer 
numbers in UK&I energy supply
•  Heat pump business launched with 

material growth plans – can also provide 
cooling

•  Analysis suggests an overall net 

financial benefit for the Group across all 
scenarios, based on our strategic plans, 
portfolios and capabilities

(1) Materiality is based on Group GM for Centrica plc 2021. A well-below and well-above 2°C scenario for global warming has been used to best demonstrate the spectrum of 
proactive and inactive progress on climate change in our key markets, and the impact this may have on our business. In the analysis which spans over 95% of the Group, 
this table includes our most material risks and opportunities together with the inclusion of our most material physical risk because whilst its less material than all other key 
risks in the long term, it’s important to transparently show the net impact of physical risk on GM. The table concludes by showing an overall net financial benefit for the 
Group across all climate scenarios and time periods assessed.

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 
 
50

Moreover, not only do most modelled opportunities exist within 
markets that we’re already well established in, but they’re also 
associated with relatively mature technologies such as EVs, electric 
heat pumps, battery storage and solar. The only high-impact 
opportunity identified that’s reliant on more nascent technology 
is the use of clean hydrogen for heating. We’ve therefore been 
proactive in getting involved in research and development 
opportunities within the UK, as demonstrated by our role in the 
hydrogen village trials in Whitby and our investment in early-stage 
hydrogen production technology with HiiROC.

In terms of our physical risks, such as those associated with 
extreme weather in the UK and Ireland where we have material 
operations, we enhanced our assessment in 2022. This included 
testing existing analysis with additional modelling sources and 
assessing the risk of increased wave height to our offshore assets. 
Similar to 2021, our analysis confirmed that our asset businesses 
which consists of Centrica Storage Limited and Spirit Energy, are 
exposed to risks that are ‘low’ in significance over the near and 
longer term. This is because the remaining lifespan of these assets 
meant that modelled extremes had limited impact. However, having 
enhanced our assessment of the potential impact from a rise in 
mean temperature, we identified a potential ‘medium’ risk by 2050 
in an extreme >4°C warming future, due to a reduction in energy 
demand for heating. This risk will be partially offset by an increase 
in cooling demand and is countervailing to many of the transition 
risks, providing a natural hedge for the Group.

We also assessed the risk of asset impairment based on price 
forecasts aligned with a 1.5°C scenario, whereby our most 
exposed assets were our gas production fields alongside our 
investment in nuclear. We found that the impact on the value of 
our gas assets was relatively ‘low’ due to existing impairment 
headroom, whilst our investment in nuclear would be impaired 
by around £100 million, as baseload power price scenarios are 
lower under net zero price forecasts (see note 7 to the financial 
statements). Further details on how the Directors’ have considered 
the impact of climate risk and opportunities on the wider financial 
reporting judgements and estimates are provided in note 3 to the 
financial statements.

In 2022, we deepened our assessment of the potential impact 
climate change could have on our supply chain. Through our 
Responsible Procurement framework, we identified all strategic 
suppliers who provide vital products that we need to run and grow 
our business, as well as our ‘bottleneck’ suppliers who provide 
us with products that are only available through a small number 
of companies, and assessed the potential of their operations 
relevant to our business being exposed to climate change risks. 
We identified one boiler assembly site located in an area of the UK 
with a potential risk of flooding, however, the risk was assessed as 
‘low’ even in the most extreme warming scenario. We additionally 
looked at our energy supply chain and concluded the risk is ‘low’ 
in significance over the near and longer term, with risk effectively 
managed through defined hedging strategies and collaboration 
with counterparties. As with all risks identified, we’ll continue to 
monitor these risks so that we can act if the level of anticipated 
impact rises.

All modelled scenarios contain significant disruption to our markets 
as the energy strategy evolves and we’ll need to adapt accordingly. 
Our assessment of the capital expenditure required to manage 
potential risks and opportunities required by decarbonisation, 
remains in line with current plans and balance sheet. Moreover, 
we’ve identified numerous opportunities for capital investment 
into new and existing assets and technologies required by 
decarbonisation. For example, we’re investing up to £100 million in 
low carbon and transition assets annually from 2020 to 2025(1), and 
we’re exploring investing up to £3 billion in the mid-term to convert 
assets that’ll play an important role in the transition to net zero, 
including carbon capture and storage as well as hydrogen storage 
(see page 51). 

Our assessment of how climate-related issues might affect our 
business were integrated into our annual strategic and financial 
planning process. In 2022, we again addressed net zero and 
the energy transition in all business unit strategic plans, which 
underpins how we are pivoting our organisation towards a lower 
carbon future and shapes our decisions on assets, supply, services 
and solutions as summarised in our Climate Transition Plan. This 
process includes growth plans for key opportunities identified, with 
metrics and targets to determine whether performance is on track 
(see pages 52 to 53). 

(1) A mixed portfolio of solar, battery and gas-fired peaking assets, all enabling the 

grid to decarbonise. 

Some investments we’re making for a greener future: 

18MW solar farm 
Construction fully completed at our very first 
Centrica-owned solar farm at Codford, which can 
power 5,000 homes 
50MW battery 
Transforming our old gas-fired power station at Brigg 
to store energy from 40 wind farms, capable of 
supplying 11,000 homes
Hydrogen 
Trial announced with the Net Zero Technology Centre 
to inject hydrogen using HiiROC technology into our 
gas-fired peaking plant at Brigg 

+  Read more about our financial planning process in our CDP 2022  

disclosure at centrica.com/CDP22

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202251

Centrica stories 

Our Climate Transition Plan
In 2021, we set out our plan for how we intend to deliver our 
net zero targets whilst ensuring a fair and affordable transition 
for all. 

To help our customers be net zero by 2050, we’ve set 
ambitions to: 

•  double the number of Hive customers to 2.5 million by 

2025;

•  achieve annual installs of up to 100,000 EV charging points 

and 20,000 heat pumps by 2025; and

•  invest up to £100 million in low carbon and transition assets 

each year from 2020 to 2025(1). 

And to be a net zero business by 2045, our ambitions  
are to:

•  build a zero-emission road fleet in the UK by 2025; 
•  cut our UK property emissions by a further 50% by 2030;
•  progress our strategic transformation to exit remaining 
activities in oil and gas exploration and production 
with our intention to run-off remaining fields and meet 
decommissioning obligations substantively by the early 
2030s, whilst stopping any further investment in exploring 
new oil and gas fields; and

•  redirect investment into assets that drive the transition 

forward – from securing up to 800MW of low carbon and 
transition assets including solar, peaking generation and 
battery storage by 2025, to exploring the conversion of 
our Rough gas storage facility to store hydrogen in time 
to help deliver a net zero electricity system by 2035, and 
decarbonise the Humber industrial cluster by 2040.

Although these ambitions are aspirational, they are baked 
into our business unit growth plans and will ensure that we 
aim high to deliver the necessary momentum to drive the 
transition forward. Whilst they provide great opportunities 
for our customers and our business, we know they’ll be 
challenging with many factors beyond our control. It’ll also 
require customers, government and others, to play their  
part as we play ours. Key to this is continuing to maintain  
an open dialogue with stakeholders, and specifically working 
to achieve the positive policy and regulatory support to make 
it possible. 

And for the transition to be a success, we must ensure that 
we don’t leave anyone behind. We’ll therefore endeavour  
to champion the needs of our customers and support those 
who struggle with their energy bills, create thousands of high-
quality inclusive green jobs, back sustainable initiatives in 
communities and collaborate for a low carbon supply chain.

At the AGM in 2022, our Climate Transition Plan went for a 
shareholder advisory vote that achieved 79.96% approval 
(see page 70). 

(1) A mixed portfolio of solar, battery and gas-fired peaking assets, all 

enabling the grid to decarbonise. 

+  Read more about how our ambitions are progressing on page 53

+  Read more at centrica.com/climatetransition

+  Read more about climate engagement with trade associations at 

centrica.com/tradeassociations

Risk management 
In 2022, transitional and physical climate risks were predominantly 
managed via our ERM Framework alongside other risks. This 
enables us to effectively identify, assess and manage risks in 
a consistent way across the Group. Our ERM Framework uses 
a time horizon of 0–3 years to assess Principal Risks, alongside a 
longer timeframe of 3–20 years to assess Emerging Risks. Through 
this process, climate change was made a Principal Risk in 2021 
and 2022. 

the ARC. This rigour is complemented by a more detailed report 
on climate change strategy, progress, risk and opportunities, 
presented to the SESC by the Group Head of Environment. 
The Board Annual Planning Conference subsequently examines 
the external landscape and strategic plans, which includes risk 
relating to market, competition, technology and policy that are all 
influenced by climate change, and with this context, they are  
able to review robustness of the business’s strategic proposals  
and transition plans.

As part of our wider strategic planning process, Group Strategy 
and Environment run the climate scenario analysis to identify and 
assess risks and opportunities across a range of plausible future 
scenarios. They then work closely with the Group Enterprise Risk 
and Control team, to ensure full consideration of potential financial 
impacts across time horizons, alongside integration within the 
ERM Framework, the Group Principal Risks table, and business 
unit risk registers. 

As set out on page 47, to ensure appropriate Board oversight, 
climate change risks are considered along with other business 
unit risks at the Group Risk and Control Committee, with the 
most material Principal Risks reported to the CLT and then to 

+  Read more about risk on pages 28 to 33

Metrics and targets 
We were early adopters of best practice reporting of GHG 
emissions and have a strong track record in setting and achieving 
climate-related targets. We therefore have targets, ambitions and 
metrics in place to help us manage our impact on climate change, 
respond to its risks and opportunities, and ultimately achieve net 
zero. Having fully considered the TCFD recommendations for all-
sector and sector-specific metrics and targets, we report those that 
are most relevant and material to our business operations, and are 
most decision-useful for stakeholders. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202252

For example, we monitor and report: 

•  our energy consumption and global scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions 
(see emissions table below). The majority of these metrics have 
undergone limited external assurance† every year since 2012. In 
2021-22, our emissions roughly doubled and was largely due to 
Whitegate power station coming back online to play its important 
role in boosting energy security and providing a stable baseload 
power to back up intermittent renewables, following an outage 
the previous year; 

 • our People & Planet Plan targets include being a net zero 

business by 2045 and helping our customers be net zero by 
2050 at the latest (see Dashboard on the next page). These 
targets are aligned to the Paris Agreement and based on 
science, corresponding to a well below 2°C pathway initially 
and 1.5°C by mid-century. We are, however, currently unable 
to progress our validation by the Science Based Target initiative 
(SBTi) due to the delayed Oil and Gas guidance which they 
believe will apply to us. In line with best practice, the vast majority 
of our targets will be delivered through carbon abatement rather 
than offsetting. We anticipate having hard to remove residual 
emissions during the 2040s, and consequently intend to use 
our in-house carbon trading team to engage high-quality carbon 
removal projects like tree planting, to capture carbon and achieve 
net zero in a credible way. Our targets receive limited external 
assurance† on a rotational basis every three years. Key drivers of 
performance are outlined on pages 42 to 43; and

•  our Climate Transition ambitions (see Dashboard on the next 
page) were introduced as part of our Climate Transition Plan. 
The ambitions support our net zero targets and are incorporated 
into budgets, business plans and accounting assumptions. They 
enable us to track progress on our strategic response to climate-
related risks and opportunities, by ramping-up key capabilities, 
services and solutions that’ll help us achieve our net zero targets 
and secure a more sustainable future for all. We’re on track 
with most of our ambitions but some areas are challenging with 
significant dependencies beyond our control. For example, our 
EV fleet roll-out has been impacted by van availability and viable 
charging solutions for some of our engineers who don’t have 
driveways, but we’re expecting the final delivery from our order of 
3,000 vans made in 2021-22, to now be delivered during 2023 
and we’re trialling new charging solutions. Moreover, whilst EV 
charging point installation and heat pumps have received lower 
demand than expected, we’re now seeing a more positive take-
up of EV charging, whilst our British Gas Net Zero Ventures has 
secured a strong sales pipeline for heat pumps which has been 
partly aided by our market-leading price guarantee in 2023. See 
more about our performance on pages 42 to 43.

The Dashboard, which includes our net zero targets and Climate 
Transition ambitions, has been incorporated within arrangements 
for Executive remuneration (see page 95).

We expect this set of metrics, targets and ambitions to evolve as 
we keep pace with best practice and respond to the changing 
world around us. 

Our energy use and GHG emissions

GHG emissions (scope 1 and 2)(1)
Scope 1 GHG emissions
Scope 2 GHG emissions
Scope 3 GHG emissions(9)
Total GHG intensity by revenue(11)
Total energy use

2022

2,007,655tCO2e†(2)
1,994,153tCO2e†(5)
13,502tCO2e†(7)

24,330,208tCO2e

85tCO2e/£m(12)
9,047,097,047kWh†(14)

2021

1,032,807tCO2e(3)(4)
1,018,888tCO2e(4)(6)
13,919tCO2e(4)(8)
22,812,989tCO2e(10)

70tCO2e/£m(4)(13)
3,561,052,815kWh(4)(15)

Our energy and GHG emissions set out above and on pages 42 to 43, constitute our most material areas of environmental impact. Further metrics on energy and carbon 
as well as our wider environmental metrics, can be found on pages 44 and 260. Reporting practices are drawn from the WRI/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol and 
Defra’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines. Reporting is additionally based on operator boundary which is the more commonly used approach set out by the WRI/WBCSD 
Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and now includes all emissions from our shipping activities relating to LNG alongside the retained Spirit Energy assets in the UK and Netherlands. 
Non-operated nuclear emissions are excluded. 
† Included in DNV’s independent limited assurance report. See page 258 or centrica.com/assurance for more. 
(1)  Comprises scope 1 and scope 2 emissions as defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
(2)  Comprises UK 737,725tCO2e and non-UK 1,269,930tCO2e. 
(3)  Comprises UK 757,518tCO2e and non-UK 275,289tCO2e. 
(4)  Restated due to LNG shipping and the retained Spirit Energy assets in the UK and Netherlands moving into scope following the transition to become a fully operated 

joint venture in 2022.

(5)  Comprises UK 725,422tCO2e and non-UK 1,268,731tCO2e.
(6)  Comprises UK 746,243tCO2e and non-UK 272,645tCO2e.
(7)  Market-based. Location-based is 16,261tCO2e. Comprises UK 12,302tCO2e and non-UK 1,200tCO2e.
(8)  Market-based. Location-based is 19,592tCO2e. Comprises UK 11,276tCO2e and non-UK 2,643tCO2e.
(9) 

Includes emissions from the following scope 3 categories defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol: purchased goods and services, capital goods, fuel and  
energy-related activities, waste generated in operations, business travel, employee commuting, upstream and downstream transportation and distribution, use of  
sold product and investments. All emissions are calculated in line with the methodologies set out by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s technical guidance, apart from 
working from home emissions which are based on methodology set out in EcoAct’s homeworking emissions whitepaper. Other categories spanning upstream leased 
assets, processing of sold products, end-of-life treatment of sold product, downstream leased assets and franchises, are not included because they are not relevant  
to our business. 

(10)  Restated due to availability of improved data.
(11)  Carbon intensity of revenue is employed as our intensity measure because it is the most meaningful intensity measure for our diverse business and is the most widely 

used and understood measure for climate-related stakeholders such as CDP. Based on statutory revenue. 

(12)  Comprises UK 42tCO2e/£m and non-UK 203tCO2e/£m. 
(13)  Comprises UK 70tCO2e/£m and non-UK 71tCO2e/£m. 
(14)  Comprises UK & Offshore 2,394,832,533kWh and non-UK energy use 6,652,264,514kWh. 
(15)  Comprises UK & Offshore 2,263,144,251kWh and non-UK energy use 1,297,908,564kWh. 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Our Climate Transition Dashboard(1)
Includes our net zero targets, supported by our Climate Transition ambitions

Customer GHG emissions – 28% intensity reduction(2) 
(net zero by 2050)

2030

6% reduction  

17% reduction(3)  

Target date

2022

2021

53

Hive Active Heating – 2.5 million customers 
(units sold to date)

Smart meters – 6 million additional installed 
(from 2020)

EV charging points – 100,000 in year 
(annual units installed) 

Heat pumps – 20,000 in year 
(annual units installed)

Centrica GHG emissions – 40% reduction(2) 
(net zero by 2045)

Low carbon and transition assets – 800MW installed(5) 
(from 2020) 

Fleet – 100% EV roll-out – Vans (total EVs)

 – 100% EV roll-out – Cars (total EVs)

Property – 50% reduction in UK emissions(6) 
(from 2019)

Progress against goals:   

  On track   

  Behind

2025

2025

2025

2025

2.0m  

2.3m  

7.4k  

200  

1.6m  

1.5m  

2.4k  

500  

2034

6% reduction†  

53% reduction(4)  

2025

2025

2030

101MW  

101MW  

23%  

43%  

63%  

12%  

9%  

33%  

† Included in DNV’s independent limited assurance report. See page 258 or centrica.com/assurance for more. 
(1) Glidepath trajectory for Climate Transition ambitions is not linear. Demand is expected to gradually grow, resulting in increased delivery against the target as we approach 

the target date.

(2) Base year 2019. See pages 42 to 43 for key drivers of performance. 
(3) Restated due to availability of improved data. 
(4) Restated due to LNG shipping and Spirit Energy’s remaining assets moving into scope in 2022. 
(5) A mixed portfolio of solar, battery and gas-fired peaking assets, all enabling the grid to decarbonise. 
(6) Spans scope 1 and 2 emissions. 

+  Read more about our data trends in our Data centre at centrica.com/datacentre 

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202254

Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures 
The table below sets out the 11 TCFD recommendations and where the related information can be found.

Recommendation

Governance 

Strategy 

Risk management 

Metrics and targets

Recommended disclosure

Pages

a)  Describe the Board’s oversight of climate-related 

•  Pages 46 to 47 and 56 to 67

risks and opportunities

b)  Describe management’s role in assessing and 

•  Pages 46 to 47, 51, 72 to 79 and 

managing climate-related risks and opportunities 

82 to 103

a)  Describe the climate-related risks and 

•  Pages 48 to 51, 133 to 136 and  

opportunities the organisation has identified over 
the short, medium, and long term 

146 to 150

b)  Describe the impact of climate-related risks and 
opportunities on the organisation’s businesses, 
strategy, and financial planning

c)  Describe the resilience of the organisation’s 
strategy, taking into consideration different 
climate-related scenarios, including a 2°C  
or lower scenario

a)  Describe the organisation’s processes for 

identifying and assessing climate-related risks

b)  Describe the organisation’s processes  

for managing climate-related risks

c)  Describe how processes for identifying, assessing, 
and managing climate-related risks are integrated 
into the organisation’s overall risk management
a)  Disclose the metrics used by the organisation  

to assess climate-related risks and opportunities 
in line with its strategy and risk management 
process

b)  Disclose Scope 1, Scope 2, and, if appropriate, 
Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,  
and the related risks

c)  Describe the targets used by the organisation to 
manage climate-related risks and opportunities 
and performance against targets

•  Pages 48 to 51, 133 to 136 and 146 

to 150

•  CDP 2022 submission  
centrica.com/CDP22

•  Pages 48 to 51

•  Pages 28 to 29, 47 and 51

•  Pages 28 to 29, 31, 33, 47 and 51

•  Pages 28 to 29, 47 and 51

•  Pages 51 to 53
•  Data centre at centrica.com/datacentre

•  Page 52

•  Pages 42 to 43 and 51 to 53
•  Climate Transition Plan at  

centrica.com/climatetransition

The Strategic Report, which has been prepared in accordance 
with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006, has been 
approved by the Board and signed on its behalf by:

Raj Roy
Group General Counsel 
& Company Secretary
15 February 2023

Strategic report | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

55

Governance

56  Directors’ and Corporate Governance Report
58  Corporate Governance Statement

– Board of Directors
72  Committee Reports:

– Audit and Risk Committee
– Nominations Committee
– Safety, Environment and Sustainability Committee
– Remuneration Committee
104  Other Statutory Information

 
 
 
 
 
56

Directors’ and Corporate Governance Report

Dear Shareholder
I am pleased to introduce the Directors’ and Corporate 
Governance Report for 2022. 

This report describes: the activities of the Board during the 
year; Centrica’s governance arrangements; the composition 
and operation of the Board and its Committees; and how  
the Board discharged its responsibilities, including the 
application of the relevant provisions of the UK Corporate 
Governance Code 2018 (UK Code) (details of our application 
of the UK Code can be found on page 58).

The Board closely observes, and supports, the Centrica Leadership 
Team’s various initiatives to further enhance and develop the 
Company’s values and culture (details can be found on page 7 of the 
Strategic Report). The Group Chief Executive reports to the Board  
on employee engagement-related matters at each scheduled Board 
meeting. Additionally, the findings of the quarterly “Our Voice” 
employee engagement survey provide the Board with valuable insight 
into the culture’s tone. Page 37 includes further information regarding 
the survey and the increase in colleague engagement. To ensure 
Centrica is prepared for the future, the Board will continue to focus  
on the growth of the Company’s culture, which includes people 
development and digital enablement.

The year in review
2022 was an incredibly testing year for the energy sector and our 
customers in light of the extremely volatile global commodity markets, 
which drove significant increases in the cost of energy. 

As the UK and Ireland’s largest energy services and solutions 
company, supporting our customers through the energy crisis whilst 
playing an important role in the UK and Ireland’s energy security 
became core priorities for the Board. The Board held several 
discussions in relation to the business response to the unprecedented 
increase in energy prices and geopolitical events surrounding the 
Russian invasion of Ukraine.

We were particularly pleased to announce on 28 October 2022 the 
reopening of the Rough gas storage facility, which will strengthen the 
UK’s energy security of supply at a time when gas will play a critical 
role as a transition fuel on the path to a net zero energy sector. The 
Board ensured that the Company continued to focus on the energy 
transition so as to generate value for stakeholders and deliver net zero 
for our customers and stakeholders by 2050, at the latest, through  
our Climate Transition Plan. Our Climate Transition Plan, available at 
centrica.com/climatetransition, describes the progress made so far.

Creating value for shareholders and wider stakeholders in a 
sustainable way is a top priority of the Board. Following significant 
progress made in the implementation of the Group’s strategy, the 
Board decided in July 2022 to reinstate a progressive dividend with  
a 2022 interim dividend of 1.0 pence per share, enabling us to  
return capital to our shareholders. The Company announced on 
15 November 2022 the commencement of a share repurchase 
programme which would be conducted over up to 6.5 months to  
buy back ordinary shares of 614/81 pence each up to an aggregate  
of up to £250,000,000 (exclusive of associated fees, expenses and 
stamp duty), representing an amount equal to the aggregate value of 
approximately 5% of the Company’s issued share capital at the date  
of the announcement. 

Culture
Centrica’s Values are Care, Delivery, Agility, Collaboration and Courage, 
which are central to the Group’s organisational culture. That culture  
is underpinned by Our Code, which establishes our basic standards 
for all individuals with whom we engage or collaborate. It serves as  
a guide for making excellent decisions and symbolises our dedication 
to doing the right thing and acting with integrity. Information about  
Our Code can be found on our website centrica.com/ourcode  
or on page 44 of our People and Planet section.

Board meetings
At Board meetings, the Board is dedicated to enabling strong 
corporate governance and compliance standards. These practices  
are critical to the Company’s long-term performance and the creation 
of value for our stakeholders. Our Board meetings were mainly held  
in person. Hybrid or virtual meetings were held where restrictions  
on freedom of movement in response to an increase in COVID-19 
infection rates remained in place in the early part of 2022. The Board 
continues to operate effectively in this way. Our commitment to 
supporting high standards of corporate governance and our strong 
governance framework enabled the Board to adjust its focus and 
priorities and take some important decisions to strengthen our balance 
sheet and protect the Company from the difficult market environment 
arising from the energy crisis. Examples of principal decisions taken  
by the Board can be found in the Section 172 statement on pages 68 
to 69.

Board composition
During the year, we welcomed three new Non-Executive Directors  
to the Board. On 10 January 2022, the Company appointed Amber 
Rudd as a Non-Executive Director. Following that, Nathan Bostock 
was appointed to the Board on 9 May 2022 and then Chanderpreet 
(CP) Duggal was appointed to the Board on 16 December 2022.  
Each of these Directors brings diversity of background, experience  
and insight to steer the Company with the development and 
implementation of the Group strategy. Biographies for Amber,  
Nathan and CP, including the Board Committees on which they  
serve, are given on pages 63 and 64. These appointments stem  
from the detailed assessments made by the Nominations Committee 
of the Board’s needs and the Group’s strategy.

Stephen Hester and Pam Kaur both stepped down from the Board at 
the conclusion of the 2022 AGM on 7 June 2022 having served for six 
years and just over three years respectively on the Company’s Board.  
The Board would like to take this opportunity to express its gratitude  
to Stephen and Pam and wish them all the best for their future 
endeavours. In addition, I want to particularly thank Stephen for  
all the support he has provided as Senior Independent Director.  
Kevin O’Byrne succeeded Stephen as the Senior Independent 
Director from 1 June 2022. 

On 12 January 2023, we announced that Russell O’Brien will be 
appointed Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and an Executive 
Director on 1 March 2023. Kate Ringrose will step down as CFO and 
an Executive Director on 28 February 2023 and is expected to leave 
Centrica towards the end of 2023 after an orderly transition. On behalf 
of the Board, I want to pay tribute to Kate’s achievements during 

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202257

almost 20 years at Centrica and to thank her for her significant 
contribution to the Company, including steering it through a 
challenging external landscape. 

Further information about the Board composition is provided  
on pages 62 to 65.

Diversity and inclusion
Diversity and inclusion continues to be a top priority of the Board given 
it is inherent to the success of the Group. We continue to take steps  
to ensure that the diversity of the communities in which we operate  
is reflected in the Company and senior leaders. 

We endeavour to establish a culture where everyone can be 
themselves and realise their full potential irrespective of age, gender, 
culture, race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or background. We 
also keep striving for greater representation targeted across gender, 
ethnicity, disability, and sexuality that is more in line with Census data 
for working populations. 

The Company operates a diversity and inclusion policy at Board  
level and a Group Diversity, Respect & Inclusion Policy which applies 
to the Remuneration, Audit and Risk, Nominations and Safety, 
Environment and Sustainability Committees as well as the Company’s 
administrative, management and supervisory bodies. Further 
information, including how each policy is implemented, can be  
found at centrica.com/policies. 

We have made improvements in the business recruitment, 
advancement and development of diverse personnel, and we continue 
to do so. We are still dedicated to letting you know how we’re doing, 
especially on pay discrepancies based on gender and race. Along  
with maintaining our current focus on any gender and ethnicity pay 
discrepancies, we will continue to report on the diversity of all of our 
employees. For more details regarding our diversity programmes  
and how we are doing with our objectives, see page 40.

Board and Committee evaluation and 
effectiveness
The Board recognises that it continually needs to monitor and improve 
its performance, including through the annual evaluation process.  
In accordance with the UK Code, Centrica’s annual evaluation  
of Board effectiveness is facilitated by an independent third party  
at least once every three years.

During 2022, the opportunities for improvement identified from the 
2021 evaluation were progressed through various actions including: 
expanding the Board through the recruitment of three new Non-
Executive Directors; development of an agreed set of Board priorities 
subject to two annual reviews; improvements to the Non-Executive 
Director induction process and associated enhancements; teach-in 
sessions being held with the Board on strategically important topics; 
invitations to any induction site-visits being undertaken by new 
Non-Executive Directors being extended to all Non-Executive 
Directors; and an expanded set of opportunities for contact between 
the Board and members of the wider management team.

For the 2022 Board evaluation, a self-evaluation of the effectiveness  
of the Company’s Board and Committees was facilitated by an 
external provider, Lintstock Limited. Lintstock generated a tailored 
report, drawing on the input of all Board members, which was 
reviewed in a meeting of all Members of the Board in November 2022. 
The Directors concluded that the Board and Committees continue to 
operate effectively, whilst agreeing on actions relating to succession 
planning; enhanced oversight of the Company’s key suppliers and 
Board training.

I held performance meetings with each Director to discuss their 
individual contribution and performance over the year and their training 
and development needs. Following these meetings, I confirmed that 
each Director continued to make an effective contribution to the Board 
and the Company.

The Senior Independent Director, Kevin O’Byrne, conducted the 
evaluation of my performance through discussions with Directors and 
Senior Executives and concluded that I continue to make an effective 
contribution to the Board and the Company.

Engagement with our stakeholders
Stakeholder views are gathered through an extensive network of 
strategic engagement to help grow the business and deliver 
improvements for our customers, colleagues and society over the long 
term. During 2022, representatives from the Board also met with major 
shareholders from time to time in order to obtain their perspectives on 
a range of matters including the Company’s performance and strategy 
and Environmental, Social and Governance matters.

The Board’s approach to colleague engagement is one of shared 
responsibility amongst Board members, given the benefits that arise 
from all Board members gaining insight from meeting with a wide 
range of colleagues on a regular basis. This approach to colleague 
engagement will be subject to regular review to ensure that it is 
effective. 

During the year, Non-Executive Directors travelled across our offices  
to understand the operational environment and speak with employees 
on the experience of their working environment and any other matters 
of importance to them. Engagement sessions included a Board site 
visit to the British Gas Energy contact centre in Leicester in June, 
where the Board met with customer-facing colleagues to gain an 
understanding of their perspectives, and a Board site visit to Bord Gáis 
Energy in Dublin in October, where the Board met with the local 
management team and various representatives from across the  
Irish business. Board Members undertook different engagement 
opportunities with customers including accompanying British Gas 
Services and Solutions engineers on customer visits.

Further details of our methods of engagement with our colleagues, 
including how the Shadow Board helps to bring the views of 
colleagues into the Boardroom are provided on page 38. Details of 
how the Board has sought to discharge its duties under Section 172 
of the Companies Act 2006 during the year can be found in our 
Section 172 statement and Stakeholder Engagement section  
on pages 12 and 68 to 69.

Conclusion
The Board’s priorities remain consistent, with a continuous emphasis 
on the Group’s strategy, culture, succession planning and oversight  
of the Company’s management of principal risks. The Board is well 
positioned to carry out its stewardship responsibility in order to 
guarantee that the Company continues to achieve long-term 
sustainable prosperity. The Board will continue to refine its approach  
in order to promote and protect the interests of the Company,  
its shareholders and other stakeholders.

The Directors’ and Corporate Governance Report which follows  
has been prepared to provide stakeholders with a comprehensive 
explanation of the Company’s governance framework consistent  
with the UK Code, the Companies Act 2006, the UK Listing Rules  
and the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules. 

Scott Wheway, Chairman 
15 February 2023

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202258

Corporate Governance Statement

The Board is committed to high standards of corporate governance 
and is pleased to confirm that throughout the year ended 
31 December 2022, the Company complied with all relevant 
provisions of the UK Corporate Governance Code (UK Code) apart 
from Provisions 40 and 41. An explanation of the non-compliance can 
be found in the Remuneration Committee Report on page 102. 
Our application of the UK Code is set out below. 

The UK Code and associated guidance are available on the Financial 
Reporting Council’s website at frc.org.uk. The index on page 104 sets 
out where to find each of the required disclosures in respect of Listing 
Rule 9.8.4 and Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules 4.1.5 R 
and 7.2.1.

Section 1. Board Leadership and Company Purpose

Principles A, B, C, 
D, E

The Corporate Governance statement (CG Statement) on pages 56 to 103 gives information on the Group’s 
compliance with the principles relating to the Board’s Leadership and Company Purpose. More detailed 
information on:

•  the Group’s statement of purpose can be found on page 7;
•  the Group’s strategy, resources and the indicators it uses to measure performance can be found on pages 8  

to 9 and 26 to 27 respectively;

•  the Group’s engagement with stakeholders and the Group’s Section 172(1) Statement is contained in the 
Section 172(1) Statement and Stakeholder Engagement section on pages 12 to 13 and 68 to 69; and
•  the Group’s approach to workforce matters can be found in the Group Chief People Officer’s report and  
in ‘Our people’ within our People and Planet section on pages 37 to 44. Last year, we reported that the  
Board had established a Shadow Board in collaboration with the Centrica Leadership Team (CLT), with  
the aim of providing impartial and diverse feedback, review, and assurance on crucial topics concerning 
colleagues, customers, and cash. The Shadow Board gives colleagues the power to impact decisions,  
disrupt assumptions, and strengthen customer-focused and colleague-centred choices in the Boardroom. 
Information on the Shadow Board’s activity during the year in review is contained in the Group Chief People 
Officer’s report on page 38.

Details of the Group’s framework of controls is contained in the Audit and Risk Committee report on pages 73 to 74  
of the CG Statement and in the Principal Risk and Viability Disclosure section on pages 28 to 36.

Section 2. Division of Responsibilities

Principles F, G, H, I

The CG Statement describes the structure and operation of the Board. In the CG statement, we describe on page 57 
the process the Company conducts to evaluate the Board, to ensure that it continues to operate effectively, that 
individual Directors’ contributions are appropriate and that the oversight of the Chairman promotes a culture of 
openness and constructive yet challenging debate. The policies and processes which support the Board to function 
effectively and efficiently can be found on our website centrica.com/board.

Section 3. Composition, Succession and Evaluation

Principles J, K, L

Details of the skills, experience and knowledge of the existing Board members can be found in the Board biographies 
contained on pages 62 to 65. Information on the Board’s appointment process and approach to succession planning 
is contained in the Nomination Committee report on page 80. Information on the Board evaluation process can be 
found on page 57.

Section 4. Audit, Risk and Internal Control

Principles M, N, O

Information on the policies and procedures the Group has in place to monitor the effectiveness of the Group’s Internal 
and External Audit functions, and the integrity of the Group’s financial statements is contained in the Audit and Risk 
Committee report on pages 72 to 79 of the CG Statement, along with an overview of the procedures in place to 
manage risk and oversee the internal control framework. Further information on the Group’s approach to risk 
management is contained in the Principal Risk and Viability Disclosure section of the Strategic Review on pages 28  
to 36. The Board believes the 2022 Annual Report to be a fair, balanced and understandable assessment of the 
Company’s position and prospects. A description of the Audit and Risk Committee’s work in enabling the Board  
to reach this conclusion is contained in the Audit and Risk Committee report on page 73.

Section 5. Remuneration

Principles P, Q, R

The Directors’ Remuneration Report section of the CG Statement describes the Group’s approach to Directors’ 
remuneration, including the procedure for developing policy and the Remuneration Committee’s discretion for 
authorising remuneration outcomes. Details of linkage of the Directors’ Remuneration Policy with long-term strategy  
is contained on pages 96 and 103.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202259

Governance framework
The Board is responsible for leading the Group in an efficient manner, 
establishing the Group’s Purpose, Values and Strategy and satisfying 
itself that these and the Group’s culture are aligned. It focuses primarily 
on strategic and policy issues and is responsible for developing the 
long-term sustainable value for stakeholders. It is responsible for 
ensuring there are effective risk assessment and management 
processes, setting the Group’s strategy, overseeing the allocation  
of resources and monitoring the performance of the Group. The 
framework to enable this is set out in a schedule of matters reserved 
for the Board. In order to allow the Board to focus on its priorities,  
a number of its oversight responsibilities have been delegated to four 
principal Committees. These responsibilities are set out in the terms  
of reference for each Committee. The Board regularly reviews  
the remit, authority, composition and terms of reference of each 
Committee. In performance of these duties, the Board has regard  
to the interests of the Group’s key stakeholders and the potential 
impact of the decisions it makes on wider society. 

Matters reserved exclusively for the Board 
There are certain key responsibilities that the Board does not  
delegate, and which are reserved for its consideration. The Board’s 
responsibilities include: the development of strategy; acquisition  
and divestment policy; the approval of major capital expenditure;  
the Group’s capital structure; the consideration of significant financing 
matters; and oversight and independent assurance of policies and 
procedures. The full schedule of matters reserved is available on the 
governance page of our website centrica.com.

Our Board
The Board comprises the Non-Executive Chairman (independent  
on appointment), two Executive Directors (Group Chief Executive  
and Group Chief Financial Officer), and six independent Non-Executive 
Directors. There is a clear division of responsibilities between the 
Chairman and Group Chief Executive, reflected in the schedule  
of matters reserved for the Board.

Board Committees
In keeping with best practice, our Board oversees the Group’s 
operations through a unitary Board and four separate principal 
Committees – Audit and Risk Committee, Nominations Committee, 
Remuneration Committee, and Safety, Environment and Sustainability 
Committee (SESC).

The terms of reference of these Committees can be found on our 
website centrica.com/TOR. The Committee reports can be found  
on pages 72 to 103. Attendance at Committee meetings in 2022  
can be found on page 66.

Board appointments
The report of the Nominations Committee on pages 80 to 81 
describes the work of the Committee in relation to Board 
appointments. All Directors are subject to election or re-election  
at each AGM. The Board sets out in the Notice of Annual General 
Meeting the specific reasons why each Director’s contribution is,  
and continues to be, valuable to the Company’s long-term 
sustainable success.

The Board 

The Centrica Board is collectively responsible for corporate governance, developing strategy and major policies, reviewing management 
performance, approving financials and providing entrepreneurial leadership to the Company within a framework of prudent and effective 
controls which enable risk to be assessed and managed. It is also responsible for setting the Company’s culture, values and the 
behaviours it wishes to promote in conducting its business. The Board’s role and responsibilities are reviewed against the UK Code  
to ensure that it is meeting all of its responsibilities.

The Chairman

The Group Chief Executive 

The Chairman is responsible for the leadership and management 
of the Board. In doing so, he is responsible for promoting high 
ethical standards, ensuring the effective contribution of all Directors 
and, with support from the Group General Counsel & Company 
Secretary, ensuring best practice in corporate governance and the 
timely distribution of accurate and clear information to Directors.

The Group Chief Executive is responsible for the executive 
leadership and day-to-day management of the Company,  
to ensure the delivery of the strategy agreed by the Board.

Independent  
Non-Executive Directors

Senior Independent Director

Group Chief 
Financial Officer

Group General Counsel 
& Company Secretary 

The Senior Independent 
Director acts as a sounding 
board for the Chairman  
and serves as a trusted 
intermediary for the other 
Directors, as well as 
shareholders, as required.

The Group Chief Financial 
Officer is responsible for 
providing strategic financial 
leadership to the Company 
and for the day-to-day 
management of the finance 
function.

Independent Non-Executive 
Directors are responsible for 
contributing sound judgement 
and objectivity to the Board’s 
deliberations and overall 
decision-making process, 
providing constructive 
challenge, and monitoring the 
Executive Directors’ delivery 
of the strategy within the 
Board’s risk and governance 
structure.

The Group General Counsel & 
Company Secretary advises 
the Chairman on governance, 
together with updates on 
regulatory and compliance 
matters; supports the Board 
agenda with clear information 
flow; and acts as a link 
between the Board and its 
Committees, and between 
Non-Executive Directors  
and senior management.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202260

Evaluation and effectiveness of the Board, 
Committees and the Directors
To ensure that the Board and its Committees continue to operate 
effectively, a performance evaluation of the Board and its principal 
committees is undertaken annually. We have used the services of 
external advisors, Lintstock Limited, to support the internal evaluation 
process (most recently in 2020 and 2022), which year on year has built 
on the priorities identified in the previous years. The outcome of this 
year’s evaluation demonstrated that the Board continued to operate 
effectively. Details of this year’s evaluation can be found on page 57.

Training and development for Directors 
It is important to ensure that Directors’ skills and knowledge are 
refreshed and updated regularly, given the dynamic business and 
regulatory environment in which the Company operates. The 
Chairman, supported by the Group General Counsel & Company 
Secretary and the Secretariat team, is responsible for the ongoing 
development of all Directors and discusses with each Director any 
individual training and development needs, such as formal and 
informal briefings, meetings with management and visits to the 
Group’s operations. During 2022, the Directors received deep dives 
and training on various matters including trading & downstream 
commodity risk management and growth options, LNG strategy, cyber 
security risk management, and energy infrastructure. In addition, the 
Directors have full access to the advice and services of the Group 
General Counsel & Company Secretary, who is responsible for 
advising the Board, through the Chairman, on corporate governance 
matters. Directors are also able to seek independent professional 
advice at the Company’s expense in respect of their duties.

Directors’ independence and conflicts
All our Non-Executive Directors are considered to be independent 
against the criteria in the UK Code, and free from any business interest 
which could materially interfere with the exercise of their independent 
judgement. In addition, the Board is satisfied that each Non-Executive 
Director is able to dedicate the necessary amount of time to the 
Company’s affairs. 

The Non-Executive Directors’ Letters of Appointment state that they 
must inform the Group General Counsel & Company Secretary of any 
other businesses, directorships, appointments, advisory roles, or other 
relevant connections (including any relevant changes, and a broad 
indication of the time involved). Directors also confirm that they will 
inform the Board of any subsequent changes to their circumstances 
which may affect the time they can commit to their duties. The 
agreement of the Chairman must be obtained before accepting 
additional commitments that might affect the time Non-Executive 
Directors are able to devote to their appointment.

Areas covered during induction
Centrica’s purpose, strategic priorities and business unit operations

Financial position, performance, investment and funding, including 
credit ratings
External assurance
Energy sector and trends, energy markets

Net zero, sustainability
Stakeholder communication and engagement

Corporate governance and Board operations

Shareholder and investment perspectives
Legal and regulatory landscape

Centrica’s risk profile
Safety, Health and Environment, people and culture

In accordance with the Companies Act 2006 and the Company’s 
Articles of Association, Directors are required to report actual or 
potential conflicts of interest to the Board for consideration and,  
if required, authorisation. If such conflicts exist, Directors recuse 
themselves from consideration of the relevant subject matter.  
The Company maintains a schedule of authorised conflicts  
of interest which is regularly reviewed by the Board.

The Company’s Articles of Association provide how Directors are 
appointed, retired and replaced. These can be found on our website.

Directors’ induction
The Board has in place processes for the Directors’ induction and 
ongoing training. The Directors’ induction programme is led by the 
Chairman and supported by the Group General Counsel & Company 
Secretary and the Secretariat team. It is tailored to meet the individual’s 
needs, providing all the information and support required in a 
structured way to allow them to be effective in their role. Directors  
are asked to provide input on how their induction should be tailored,  
in relation to both content and delivery, with the opportunity for 
periodic subsequent review with the Chairman.

Director induction – Amber Rudd, Nathan Bostock, 
CP Duggal and Russell O’Brien
Following appointment, all Directors receive a comprehensive  
and tailored induction programme. This is designed through 
discussion with the Chairman and the Group General Counsel 
and Company Secretary and considers existing expertise and  
any prospective Board or Board Committee roles. 

The induction plans for Amber Rudd and Nathan Bostock 
comprised a combination of in-person and virtual sessions with 
both internal functions and external advisors over an initial period 
of six months. This was structured to ensure that information 
material to the Non-Executive Director role was delivered in the 
early stages of the programme.

These briefings provided an initial opportunity to meet senior 
leaders and were supported by site visits to provide on-the-
ground understanding of business units and working 
environments. 

The induction for CP Duggal, who joined the Board on 
16 December 2022 has begun. Russell O’Brien’s induction  
will commence when he joins the Board on 1 March 2023.  
An update on their respective inductions will be provided  
in the 2023 Annual Report.

Sessions covered by
Group Chief Executive and Managing Directors of each 
Business Unit 
Group Chief Financial Officer, Group Financial Controller  
and the Company’s brokers
External auditors
Group Strategy Director, Group Regulatory Affairs Director,  
Group Head of M&A, Group Head of Investor Relations
Group Strategy Director, Group Head of Environment
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary  
and Group Corporate Affairs Director
Chairman of the Board, Group General Counsel & Company 
Secretary and Head of Secretariat 
Group Head of Investor Relations and the Company’s brokers
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary,  
Director of Regulatory Affairs and Policy
Chief Risk and Audit Officer
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary,  
Group Chief People Officer

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202261

Board Diversity

Sex/gender representation

Men

Women

Other/not specified

Prefer not to say

Number of 
Board members 

5

4

—

—

Percentage 
of the Board
55.6%

44.4%

—

—

Number of senior 
positions on the 
Board*

Number in 
executive 
management

Percentage of 
executive 
management

3

1

—

—

6

4

—

—

60%

40%

—

—

*(Group Chief Executive, Group Chief Financial Officer, Chairman and Senior Independent Director)

Ethnicity representation

White British or other White

Mixed/Multiple Ethnic Groups

Asian/Asian British

Black/African/Caribbean/Black British

Other ethnic group, including Arab

Not specified/prefer not to say

Number of 
Board members 

8

—

1

—

—

—

Percentage 
of the Board
88.9%

—

11.1%

—

—

—

Number of senior 
positions on the 
Board*

4

—

—

—

—

—

Number in 
executive 
management
7

—

2

—

—

1

Percentage of 
executive 
 management

70%

—

20%

—

—

10%

*(Group Chief Executive, Group Chief Financial Officer, Chairman and Senior Independent Director)

By nationality

British

Irish

South African

American

Board tenure

0-3 years

4-6 years 

Number of 
Board members 
6

1

1

1

Percentage 
of the Board

67%

13%

13%

11%

Number of 
Board members 
7

2

Percentage 
of the Board

78%

22%

As at the reference date of 31 December 2022, the Company met or exceeded all the Board diversity targets set out in Listing Rule 9.8.6(9): 
(i) at least 40% female representation on the Board (44%); (ii) at least one senior position held by a woman (Group Chief Financial Officer)(1)
and (iii) at least one Director being from a minority ethnic background(2).

Whilst this recently introduced Listing Rule only applies to companies that have a financial year beginning on or after 1 April 2022 and therefore 
the Company is not obliged to report this year as its financial year began prior to this date, the Board has chosen to report voluntarily in respect 
of 2022 as it recognises the importance of such disclosures and fully supports the drive to increase gender and ethnic diversity amongst the 
boards and executive management of premium and standard listed companies. 

Our diversity data is collated through our HR management system. We encourage all to self-report information such as gender, gender identity, 
ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability and military background, and include the option to ‘prefer not to say’. In 2022, the Group proactively 
launched the #ThisIsMe campaign to encourage colleagues to self-report their diversity information, which enables us to better understand the 
demographic of the Group to ensure we have a workforce that reflects the full diversity of our communities.

(1) As announced on 12 January 2023, Kate Ringrose will step down as Group Chief Financial Officer on 28 February 2023 and Russell O’Brien will become 

Group Chief Financial Officer from 1 March 2023.

(2) The Company temporarily did not meet the target between 7 June 2022 and 16 December 2022. 

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202262

Board of Directors*

Scott Wheway
Chairman

Chris O’Shea
Group Chief 
Executive

Kate Ringrose
Group Chief 
Financial 
Officer

C

NC

SC

DC

DC

Scott joined the Board on 1 May 2016 
and became Chairman of the Board on 
17 March 2020. 

Relevant skills and experience 
Scott has a wealth of experience as a senior 
customer-facing business leader with a mix of 
deep retail and consumer expertise. He has 
considerable knowledge gained in both the 
retail and insurance sectors, together with  
a strong understanding of operating within 
highly regulated businesses. 

Previous experience 
Scott worked in retail for 27 years both in the 
UK and internationally. His prior roles include 
chair of AXA UK plc from December 2017 
until June 2022, seven years on the board of 
Santander UK plc, where he was the senior 
independent director, and non-executive 
director of Aviva plc between 2007 and 2016. 
He is the former chief executive officer of Best 
Buy Europe (retail services), director of The 
Boots Company plc, managing director and 
retail director of Boots the Chemist at Alliance 
Boots plc and a director of the British Retail 
Consortium. He formerly held a number  
of senior executive positions at Tesco plc  
(retail services), including chief executive  
of Tesco in Japan. 

External appointments 
Non-executive director of Lloyds Banking 
Group plc and Chair of Scottish 
Widows Group.

Chris joined Centrica in 2018 as Group 
Chief Financial Officer and was appointed 
as Group Chief Executive in 2020. Chris is 
also Chair of the Disclosure Committee and 
Chair of Spirit Energy. 

Relevant skills and experience
Chris has wide-ranging experience across  
the entire energy value chain together with 
recognised experience in transforming 
business and financial performance. He has 
considerable knowledge of working in highly 
regulated industries and in complex, 
multi-national organisations, not only in the 
energy sector but also in technology-led 
engineering and services industries.

Previous experience
Chris was appointed Group Chief Executive in 
early 2020 having previously been Group 
Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining 
Centrica, Chris was group chief financial 
officer of UK listed Smiths Group plc and 
Vesuvius plc, and a non-executive director of 
Indian listed Foseco India Ltd. From 2006 to 
2012 Chris held various senior finance roles 
with BG Group plc, including chief financial 
officer of Africa Middle East & Asia and 
Europe & Central Asia, prior to which he held 
a number of senior roles with Shell, living and 
working in the UK, the US and Nigeria, and 
with Ernst & Young. Chris studied Accounting 
and Finance at the University of Glasgow,  
is a Chartered Accountant, and holds an 
MBA from the Fuqua School of Business  
at Duke University.

External appointments
None.

Kate joined Centrica in 2005 and was 
appointed as Group Chief Financial Officer 
on 18 January 2021.

Relevant skills and experience 
Kate’s most recent role was Group Financial 
Controller, and she has also held a wide 
variety of positions across the Group, 
including in Centrica’s energy supply, services, 
solutions and trading businesses, and in 
finance operations. 

Previous experience 
Prior to joining Centrica, Kate qualified as  
a chartered accountant with KPMG South 
Africa, before moving to the UK, and rejoining 
the KPMG London office. Kate was also 
non-executive director of EDF Energy  
Nuclear Generation Group Limited 
(representing Centrica).

External appointments 
None.

Kate will step down as CFO and an 
Executive Director on 28 February 2023 
and is expected to leave Centrica towards 
the end of 2023 after an orderly transition.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202263

Carol 
Arrowsmith
Non-Executive 
Director

Nathan 
Bostock
Non-Executive 
Director

Chanderpreet 
(CP) Duggal 
Non-Executive 
Director

RC

AC NC

AC NC SC

AC NC RC

Carol joined the Board on 11 June 
2020 and is Chair of the Remuneration 
Committee.

Nathan joined the Board on 9 May 2022.

CP joined the Board on  
16 December 2022.

Relevant skills and experience 
Carol brings extensive advisory experience, 
especially of advising boards on executive 
remuneration across a range of sectors,  
and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute  
of Personnel and Development. 

Relevant skills and experience 
Nathan has worked in financial services since 
the mid-1980s and brings a wealth of 
financial, commercial, risk and compliance 
expertise, particularly in large-scale 
customer-facing businesses.

Previous experience 
Carol is a former deputy chair and senior 
partner of Deloitte LLP. She was a member  
of the Advisory Group for Spencer Stuart, 
global partner of Arthur Andersen, managing 
director of New Bridge Street Consultants 
and non-executive director of Vivo Energy Plc.

External appointments 
Non-executive director of Compass Group plc 
and director and trustee of Northern 
Ballet Limited.

Previous experience 
Nathan was chief executive officer of 
Santander UK from 2014 until 2022. He 
joined Santander from The Royal Bank  
of Scotland plc (RBS), where he was an 
Executive Director and Group Finance 
Director. He previously held the post of Group 
chief risk officer, having joined RBS in 2009. 
Nathan served on the Board of Abbey 
National plc (now Santander UK) as an 
executive director, from 2005 until 2009.  
He joined Abbey National plc in 2001, holding 
a number of senior positions including chief 
financial officer and executive director of 
Finance, Markets and Human Resources. 
Nathan is a chartered accountant and holds  
a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics.

External appointments 
Head of Investment Platforms, 
Banco Santander.

Relevant skills and experience
CP brings valuable expertise of digital 
technology and the use of data and analytics 
in large customer-facing businesses.

Previous experience
CP worked for 20 years at American Express 
in various senior roles, including leading  
the company-wide digital and analytics 
organisation. His digital experience includes 
managing demand generation (paid media, 
referral marketing, etc.), customer onboarding, 
membership and servicing journeys with 
best-in-class mobile app and web and email 
experiences, as well as customer marketing, 
loyalty, accounts receivables, etc. platforms. 
His data and analytics experience includes 
managing insights and modelling for a  
range of marketing channels, accelerating 
personalisation, leading AI labs, etc. CP started 
the data office organisation for American 
Express, managed the first line of defence 
operational excellence teams for global 
consumer business and led the global  
fraud risk management department.

In his most recent role, CP was the chief 
digital and analytics officer for Burberry plc 
and a member of its executive committee. 
He was responsible for transforming 
e-commerce and omni-channel strategy 
globally, accelerating customer relationship 
management focus, defining metaverse 
strategy and leveraging analytics across 
the company.

External appointments
Advisor, Burberry plc.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202264

Heidi Mottram
Non-Executive 
Director

Kevin O’Byrne
Senior 
Independent 
Director

Rt Hon. Amber 
Rudd 
Non-Executive 
Director

SC

NC RC

AC NC

NC

RC SC

Heidi joined the Board on 1 January 2020 
and is Chair of the Safety, Environment and 
Sustainability Committee. 

Kevin joined the Board on 13 May 2019 
and became Senior Independent Director 
from 1 June 2022. He is Chair of the Audit 
Committee.

Amber joined the Board on 10 January 
2022.

Relevant skills and experience 
Heidi brings considerable relevant strategic 
and operational experience acquired in her 
current and previous roles. Her deep 
understanding of the importance of customer 
service, delivered in complex, multi-
stakeholder environments with a high public 
profile, is particularly pertinent to the 
Company at this time, as it focuses on the 
delivery of its customer-centric strategy.

Previous experience 
Heidi began her career with British Rail in  
the mid-1980s. She held a number of roles  
in GNER, before joining Midland Mainline  
in 1999 as operations director. She was 
commercial director for Arriva Trains Northern 
from January 2004, becoming managing 
director of Northern Rail Limited, the UK’s 
largest rail franchise.

External appointments 
CEO of Northumbrian Water Limited and 
Northumbrian Water Group Limited,  
vice-chair of the North East Local Enterprise 
Partnership, member of the board of The 
Great British Railways Transition Team and 
vice-chair of Newcastle University Council.

Relevant skills and experience 
Kevin brings extensive retail and finance 
experience to the Board, having occupied 
senior roles in a number of leading UK and 
international retailers. The Board considers 
that Kevin has recent and relevant 
financial experience.

Previous experience 
Kevin was previously chief executive officer  
of Poundland Group plc, and held executive 
roles at Kingfisher plc, including divisional 
director UK, China and Turkey, chief executive 
officer of B&Q UK & Ireland and group finance 
director. Prior to that he was finance director 
of Dixons Retail plc. From 2008 to 2017 
he was a non-executive director and 
chairman of the audit committee of Land 
Securities Group plc where he was also 
senior independent director from 2012 
to 2016.

External appointments 
Group chief financial officer of J Sainsbury 
plc until March 2023 when he retires from  
the role. 

Relevant skills and experience 
Amber brings a wealth of real-world 
experience in energy, policy and business.

Previous experience 
After around 20 years working in business, 
Amber served as a Member of Parliament 
between 2010 and 2019. In addition to 
holding the roles of Home Secretary, 
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and 
Minister for Women and Equalities, Amber 
served as Secretary of State for Energy and 
Climate Change from 2015 to 2016 after 
having been Parliamentary Under Secretary  
of State at the Department of Energy and 
Climate Change from July 2014 until May 
2015. Amber led the UK team to the 
successful completion of the Paris Climate 
Change Agreement. This UN sponsored 2015 
Conference of the Parties (COP21) achieved 
a landmark global commitment to reduce 
national carbon emissions.

External appointments 
Amber is a non-executive director of 
Pinwheel. Amber also acts as an advisor to 
businesses including Energy 1, Equinor, 
Darktrace, Finsbury Glover Hering, 
Centreview Partners and Phoenix Group. 
Amber is a trustee of The Climate Group, 
RUSI and Action Against Gambling Harms.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202265

The Board considers that each 
of the Directors continues to 
contribute effectively to the work and 
deliberations of the Board.
Reasons for the (re-)election of each of our 
Directors at the forthcoming AGM can be 
found within the Centrica plc Notice of Annual 
General Meeting 2023 which will be made 
available on our website centrica.com/agm23.

Full biographies can be found at centrica.com/board

Russell O’Brien
Appointed 
Group Chief 
Financial Officer 
with effect from 
1 March 2023

Relevant skills and experience
Russell brings broad experience  
from across the energy value chain. 
He spent 25 years with Shell plc in  
a variety of roles and geographies.  
His roles included global Chief 
Financial Officer for both Shell’s 
Integrated Gas and Retail businesses 
and most recently Group Treasurer.

Previous experience
Russell was Group Treasurer at Shell plc. 
Prior to this he has held a number of 
senior Chief Financial Officer roles  
at Shell plc. He is a Management 
Accountant who graduated from  
St. Andrews University in 1995.

External appointments
None.

Committee membership key

Denotes Committee Chair

C

Chairman of the Board

AC

Audit and Risk Committee

DC

Disclosure Committee

NC

Nominations Committee

RC

Remuneration Committee

SC

Safety, Environment and 
Sustainability Committee

Skills and experience key

Consumer Services

Energy Sector

Engineering/Safety

Finance/M&A

Financial Services

Government/Regulatory

Technology

*as at 15 February 2023

Raj Roy
Group General 
Counsel & 
Company 
Secretary

DC

Raj was appointed Group General Counsel 
& Company Secretary on 3 March 2021, 
having been appointed Interim Group 
General Counsel & Company Secretary  
with effect from 1 October 2020.

Relevant skills and experience 
Raj has overall responsibility for legal, 
regulatory, compliance and secretariat 
activities across the Group, the effective 
operating of Centrica plc’s Board and advising 
on key issues of corporate governance and 
compliance. Raj joined Centrica in 2014 as 
the Legal Director for Residential Energy, 
before becoming General Counsel for the UK 
and Ireland region in 2017. He has led legal, 
regulatory and compliance teams at Centrica 
in various formations across the UK and 
Ireland region and the Consumer division.

Previous experience 
Prior to joining Centrica, Raj spent nine years 
at Vodafone, holding a number of senior 
in-house legal roles in the Group and UK legal 
functions. Raj started his career in private 
practice, qualifying as a solicitor at Slaughter 
and May in London and subsequently 
working for Freshfields in Brussels.

External appointments 
Member of the Board of Energy UK 
(representing Centrica).

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202266

Board meetings 
The Board held eight formal meetings in 2022. In addition, 
supplementary meetings were called for specific approvals. The table 
showing the attendance of Directors at Board meetings in 2022 can 
be found below. If Directors are unable to attend a meeting, they have 
the opportunity beforehand to discuss any agenda items with the 
Chairman. The agendas for Board meetings are agreed in advance by  
the Chairman, Group Chief Executive and Group General Counsel & 
Company Secretary. The agenda typically consists of regular standing 
items, such as reports on financial performance, and in-depth 
examination or analysis of a topic, facilitating exchanges of views  
and robust debate. 

During the year, the Non-Executive Directors, including the Chairman, 
met frequently without management present. 

Site visits
The Directors recognise the importance of, and benefits gained by, 
visiting the Group’s operations and endeavour to make a couple of 
visits to Centrica sites each year. The Board undertook site visits  
to the British Gas sites at Spinneyside in Leicester, to meet with our 
Leicester-based call handlers, who are focused on ‘Changing the way 
Customer Services serve our Customers’. The Board also visited 
Dublin and met with the Bord Gáis Energy management team  
and various colleagues from across the Irish business. 

Number of Board and Committee meeting attended during 2022(1):
Joined the 
Board

Name

Role

Tenure(2)

Board

Scott Wheway

Chris O’Shea

Chairman

Group Chief Executive

Kate Ringrose(6)

Group Chief Financial Officer

01/05/2016

6 years, 7 months

01/11/2018

4 years, 1 month

18/01/2021

1 year, 11 months

Carol Arrowsmith

Independent Non-Executive Director

11/06/2020

2 years, 6 months

Nathan Bostock

Stephen Hester(3)

CP Duggal

Pam Kaur(4)

Heidi Mottram

Kevin O’Byrne

Amber Rudd(5)

Independent Non-Executive Director

09/05/2022

0 years, 7 months

Senior Independent Non-Executive Director

01/06/2016

6 years, 5 months

Independent Non-Executive Director

16/12/2022

0 years, 1 month

Independent Non-Executive Director

01/02/2019

3 years, 9 months

Independent Non-Executive Director

01/01/2020

2 years, 11 months

Senior Independent Non-Executive Director

13/05/2019

3 years, 7 months

Independent Non-Executive Director

10/01/2022

0 years, 11 months

8/8

8/8

8/8

8/8

5/8

3/8

—

3/8

8/8

8/8

8/8

AC

N/A

N/A

N/A

4/4

3/4

1/4

—

1/4

N/A

4/4

N/A

NC

4/4

N/A

N/A

4/4

3/4

1/4

—

1/4

4/4

4/4

3/4(5)

RC

N/A

N/A

N/A

5/5

N/A

3/5

—

N/A

5/5

N/A

5/5

SC

3/3

N/A

N/A

N/A

3/3

N/A

N/A

1/3

3/3

N/A

3/3

(1) Any Director who is unable to attend a Board meeting provides feedback to the Chairman on the matters to be discussed in advance of the meeting.
(2) Data as at 31 December 2022. 
(3) Stephen Hester stood down from the Centrica plc Board at the conclusion of Centrica’s 2022 Annual General Meeting. Kevin O’Byrne succeeded him 

as Senior Independent Director, with effect from 1 June 2022.

(4) Pam Kaur stood down from the Centrica plc Board at the conclusion of Centrica’s 2022 Annual General Meeting.
(5) Amber Rudd joined the Nominations Committee with effect from 9 March 2022.
(6) On 12 January 2023, we announced that Kate Ringrose will step down as Group Chief Financial Officer and an Executive Director on 28 February 2023 and is expected to 

leave Centrica towards the end of 2023 after an orderly transition. Russell O’Brien will be appointed Group Chief Financial Officer and an Executive Director 
on 1 March 2023.

Board activity including Section 172(1) considerations
As stewards of the Company, the Board recognises that being aware 
of the needs and expectations of stakeholders is crucial, as it ensures 
that the Company is well-positioned to achieve long-term sustainable 
success and deliver value for all our different but interrelated 
stakeholder groups and society as a whole.

in-depth reviews of specific topics. The Directors confirm that the 
deliberations of the Board, which underpin its decisions, incorporated 
appropriate consideration with due regard to the matters detailed  
in Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006.

The outcome from the key engagements, stated above, are fed back 
to the Board through the appropriate forum.

During the year, the Board considers a comprehensive programme  
of regular matters covering operational and financial performance 
reporting, strategic reviews and updates, and various governance 
reports and approvals. In addition, Board meetings regularly feature 

Woven throughout this report and on our website are further examples 
and evidence of how the Directors have performed their fiduciary duty 
under Section 172.

Section 172
The likely consequences of any decision in the long term
The interests of our colleagues
The need to foster relationships with suppliers, customers and others
The impact of the Company’s operations on the community 
and the environment
The desirability of the Company maintaining a reputation 
for high standards of business conduct
The need to act fairly between members of the Company

Evidence
Please see page 7 to 9, 12 to 13, 39 to 54 and 66 to 69
Please see page 12 to 13, 37 to 38, 39 to 42, 66 to 69 and 71
Please see page 12 to 13 and 82 to 83
Please see pages 39 to 45 and 82 to 83

Please see pages 44, 71 and 82 to 83, and visit our 
website centrica.com
Please see pages 67 to 69

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Board discussions held during the year included:

Strategy and business plan
The Board considered and oversaw the delivery of the strategic 
initiatives for the benefit of our stakeholders, including customers.

The Board also considered the following matters:
•  Strategic reviews, updates, and stress testing under a range  

of scenarios

•  2021 final dividend
•  2022 interim dividend
•  Group Annual Plan 2022
•  The Group’s strategic plan
•  The Energy Supply Market
•  The Climate Transition Plan
•  Return of surplus capital to shareholders
•  Energy transition investment opportunities
•  LNG growth opportunities
•  Responsible Sourcing strategy

Stakeholders considered:

Governance
The Board receives regular reports from the Group General Counsel & 
Company Secretary on governance and regulatory matters, as well  
as regular updates and insights on market trends from the Investor 
Relations function. During the year, the Board took time to consider  
or oversee the following key governance activities/matters:
•  2021 Annual Report and Accounts
•  General Meetings
•  Sale of Spirit Energy Norway and Statfjord UK
•  Non-Executive Director search
•  Board evaluation
•  Succession planning for the Board
•  Committee composition
•  Reports from Committee Chairs
•  Conflicts of interest reviews
•  Terms of reference reviews
•  Director skillset and Director training requirements
•  Director independence
•  Workforce engagement
•  All-Employee Share Plan
•  Dividend policy
•  AvantiGas acquisition

Stakeholders considered:

Political and regulatory environment
During the year, the Board considered the following matters:
•  Macro/geopolitical developments
•  Reform of energy markets
•  Sanctions
•  Modern Slavery Act
•  TCFD disclosure
•  Government intervention initiatives
•  UK and Ireland energy security

Stakeholders considered: 

67

Performance and risk
Financial performance and Risks, as well as risk controls and processes 
are regularly reported to the Board and to the Audit and Risk 
Committee. Risks are also brought to the attention of the Board through 
reports from the Group Chief Executive, Group Chief Financial Officer, 
heads of business and functional subject matter experts.
•  Health and safety performance and Process Safety risk
•  Group Performance Reports
•  2021 Preliminary results statement
•  Group credit exposure and liquidity
•  Business reviews, including operational performance
•  Periodic results
•  Cyber security risk management
•  Commodity price movements
•  Climate Transition Plan performance
•  People & Planet Plan performance
•  Going concern and viability statements
•  Audit fees
•  Internal Audit review
•  Annual tax update
•  Treasury risk management annual update
•  Insurance update

Stakeholders considered:

Culture and stakeholders
The Board recognises that understanding the views and interests  
of the Company’s diverse community of stakeholders, including 
customers, is important.

The views and interests of stakeholders are considered in the 
development, delivery and oversight of the Group’s business model, 
strategy and culture. During the year, the Board considered the 
following matters:
•  Cost of living crisis and the impact on customers
•  Colleague engagement
•  Pensions
•  Company culture
•  Investor updates and feedback
•  Voice of the Customer
•  Diversity & Inclusion Strategy

Stakeholders considered: 

Stakeholders key

Customers

Colleagues

Investors

Government 
and Regulators

Suppliers

Communities 
and NGOs

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202268

Stated below are some examples of the decision-making of the Board during the year demonstrating key stakeholders and their interests, and 
how our Section 172 duties influenced the matters considered by, and the decision-making of, the Board during the year.

Consideration of stakeholders and outcomes:

Supporting customers and colleagues in relation to the cost of living crisis

Consideration of stakeholders

Customers: 
•  recognising the difficult environment many 
customers faced due to rising energy bills 
and wider inflationary impacts 

•  supporting customers impacted by the 
energy suppliers that ceased to trade

Communities and NGOs:
•  using our resources and reach to make  

a big difference in our local communities, 
from helping people with their energy bills,  
to supporting local charities

Colleagues:
•  recognising the impact of the cost of living 

crisis on colleagues

•  providing resources and wellbeing support 
for customer-facing colleagues assisting 
customers

Investors:
•  identifying and managing the commercial 
and financial considerations arising from  
the energy crisis, including ensuring the 
strength and resilience of the Company’s 
balance sheet

Suppliers:
•  ensuring we pay suppliers fairly

Outcomes
Recognising and balancing the interests and perspectives of the different stakeholders,  
a wide range of measures were implemented in the Company’s core markets of the UK 
and Ireland, including: 

UK:
•  providing £50 million of funding to help UK customers struggling with their energy 

bills, establishing the UK’s largest voluntary customer support package. The Company 
announced on 26 January 2023 that it was committing £10 million of this funding to 
helping British Gas prepayment and vulnerable customers;

•  investing over £25 million in 2022 in customer service, support and pricing in the UK, 
including the recruitment of an additional 700 UK-based customer service roles in 
British Gas Energy to handle a 50% increase in call volumes and help ensure we can be 
there when our customers need us; and

•  partnering with the Post Office and British Gas Energy Trust funded organisations to 

deliver over 100 Post Office ‘Pop-ups’ in over 50 locations, ensuring people can access 
the help they need with their energy bills.

In 2022, we worked more closely with our local communities having moved from a national 
to local charity approach which included volunteering 2,098 days, a 600% increase 
compared to last year. 

Ireland:
•  investing €3.8 million to help vulnerable customers with our commitment to contribute 
10% of Bord Gáis Energy’s operating profits for the duration of the energy crisis; and 

•  we agreed a new pay deal in 2022 which takes current inflationary pressures in 

the UK into account.

In early 2022, Bord Gáis Energy announced an extension of its partnership with homeless 
charity Focus Ireland for a further five years. Since the partnership was established  
in 2015, Bord Gáis Energy has committed over €4.4 million to help those experiencing 
homelessness and in 2022 alone, Bord Gáis Energy supported services assisted 1,869 
Focus Ireland customers.
For colleagues, we provided a one-off cost of living payment in December 2022 to more 
than 19,000 employees to help them manage rising household prices. We also introduced 
a number of other financial and non-financial initiatives for our employees including an 
energy allowance for all employees who are British Gas customers and reduced price 
lunches at all our sites, and we have launched a number of new programmes aimed at 
supporting the mental health of our employees, particularly those that work in our call 
centres helping our customers who are struggling with rising household bills.

Supporting energy security in our core markets in response to the global energy crisis 

Consideration of stakeholders

Government and Regulators:
•  acting as a Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR)
•  supporting and implementing Government 
initiatives, including the UK Energy Price 
Guarantee and UK Energy Bills Support 
Scheme

•  supporting and enabling Government 

management of energy security

Customers:
•  improving UK security of supply to ensure 
energy remains reliable and affordable  
for customers 

Investors:
•  realising commercial strengths available 

from the Company’s assets and enabling the 
transition to net zero, including through a 
potential future pathway to hydrogen storage 
and associated market opportunities

Suppliers:
•  targeting high standards of business conduct, 
which in turn brings benefits to communities 
and the environment

Outcomes
The Company played an active role in furthering energy security in its core markets of the 
UK and Ireland, including through:

•  recruitment of over 1,000 new apprentices across 2021 and 2022, creating skilled,  
well-paid British jobs to play an important role in the drive for net zero in the UK; 

•  taking on another 176,000 customers in 2022 (taking the total over 2021 and 2022  
to 700,000 customers) through Ofgem’s SoLR processes, ensuring they received  
an uninterrupted supply of gas and electricity;

•  securing increased volumes of gas and renewable energy to improve the UK and 

Europe’s security of supply, including an agreement with Equinor to bring an additional 
1 billion cubic metres of gas to the UK for each of the next three winters;

•  re-opening Rough as a gas storage facility contributing to strengthening the UK and 
Ireland’s security of supply with the potential transition to hydrogen storage in future;
•  announcing plans to convert a decommissioned gas-fired power station at Brigg into 
a 50MW/100MWh battery storage facility capable of supplying the equivalent of a full 
day’s energy consumption for 11,000 households;

•  recognising the role of natural gas as a transition fuel, whilst assessing any impact  

on climate transition objectives; and

•  collaboration with suppliers to embed high standards from our Responsible  

Sourcing Policy and undertaking audits with suppliers to verify that they uphold  
our commitments.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202269

Outcomes
Following the actions taken by the Company in 2020, 2021 and 2022 to 
strengthen the Company’s balance sheet, the Company was well placed  
to reintroduce the dividend to shareholders. 

On 28 July 2022 the Company announced the reinstatement of an ordinary 
dividend via declaration of a 2022 interim dividend per share of 1.0 pence, the 
first dividend to be paid since 2019, paid on 17 November 2022 to shareholders 
on the register on 7 October 2022.

The Directors’ propose a 2022 final dividend per share of 2.0 pence for the year 
ended 31 December 2022, consistent with our historic policy of paying roughly  
a third of the full year dividend as an interim.

We expect the dividend to be progressive and dividend cover from earnings to 
move to around two times over time, recognising the ratio is likely to vary each 
year dependent on the business cycle.

Reintroduction of the dividend

Consideration of stakeholders

Investors:
•  recognising the importance of the dividend 

to shareholders and of the impact on 
shareholders by the decision taken by the 
Board to cancel the 2019 final dividend 
payment amidst the COVID-19 pandemic 
and that no dividend was declared by the 
Company in respect of 2020 or 2021 due  
to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

•  strengthening the Group’s balance sheet
•  ensuring the delivery of strong free cash  

flow generation

Customers and colleagues: 
•  providing support for customers 

and colleagues in the context of the 
macroeconomic environment 
Government and Regulators:
•  taking steps to repay COVID-19 furlough 

monies received from the UK Government 
prior to the declaration of a dividend

Pensions:
•  ensuring the interests of the Company’s 

pension schemes were properly reviewed  
to ensure that they were protected prior  
to declaring a dividend

Outcomes
Given the Company’s financial performance, balance sheet strength and liquidity 
position, the Company announced, on 10 November 2022, plans to commence 
a share repurchase programme of up to 5% of its issued share capital. On 15 
November 2022, the Company announced the commencement of the share 
buyback programme to be conducted over a period of up to 6.5 months to buy 
back shares up to an aggregate price of up to £250,000,000, representing an 
amount equal to the aggregate value of approximately 5% of the Company’s 
issued share capital at the share price on that date.

Launching the share repurchase programme

Consideration of stakeholders

Investors:
•  ensuring the Company considers the potential 

return of any surplus structural capital to 
shareholders

Customers:
•  ensuring the provision, in parallel, of additional 
funding to support customers facing difficulties 
with bills during the ongoing energy and cost 
of living crisis 

Colleagues:
•  ensuring steps could be taken in parallel to 
deliver an appropriate pay settlement for 
colleagues amidst the cost of living crisis

Pensions:
•  ensuring that the funding required to be 

provided by the Company to the schemes  
was costed and built into the Company’s 
future financial plans 

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Transition Plan resolution proposals. Feedback was received from 
major shareholders and governance agencies and dialogue entered 
into with a number of shareholders regarding the proposals. 

The 2022 AGM was held as a hybrid meeting, giving shareholders  
the opportunity to participate (including voting) in person or virtually via 
an online platform (Lumi). Shareholders are encouraged to participate 
in these meetings and to ask questions at, or in advance of, these 
meetings. All shareholders were encouraged to exercise their votes by 
submitting their proxy forms either electronically or by post. We also 
invited shareholders to submit their questions in advance of the AGM 
via a dedicated question facility on our website and where appropriate 
the answers were published on our website. Shareholders were also 
able to ask questions at the AGM in person or virtually via Lumi.

Our 2022 AGM was well supported with voting in favour of the 
resolutions ranging from 79% to 99% and with 63% of issued share 
capital voted. Resolution 17, on approving our Climate Transition Plan, 
was supported by the overwhelming majority of shareholders 
(79.96%). However, we recognise that some shareholders (20.04%) 
chose not to support this resolution. In accordance with the UK Code, 
we made a note when we published the AGM result on 7 June 2022 
and we published a follow up update on this engagement on  
2 December 2022. As a final update on this matter, the feedback 
received from those shareholders who chose not to support will be 
considered in future actions as set out in the SESC report on pages 82 
to 83 and the Company confirms it still intends to hold the next 
advisory non-binding vote in 2025 (as set out in the 2022 AGM notice). 

Information about the 2023 AGM will be provided in the Notice of 
Meeting. Further information pertaining to the 2023 AGM will in due 
course be available at centrica.com/agm23. Voting on the resolutions 
will generally be conducted by a poll and the voting results will be 
announced through the Regulatory News Service of the London Stock 
Exchange and also made available on the Company’s website.

Centrica.com
Our website centrica.com, contains up-to-date information for 
shareholders and other interested parties including Annual Reports, 
shareholder circulars, share price information, news releases, 
presentations to the investment community and information on 
shareholder services.

70

Relations with our stakeholders
Shareholder engagement 
The Board is committed to maintaining open channels of 
communication with all of the Company’s stakeholders. An important 
part of this is providing a clear explanation of the Company’s strategy 
and objectives, and ensuring feedback is acknowledged, considered 
and, where appropriate, acted upon. 

Meetings, roadshows and conferences 
The Company reports its financial results to shareholders twice a year, 
with the publication of its annual and half-year results. The Group Chief 
Executive and Group Chief Financial Officer typically meet with our 
major institutional shareholders twice a year, following the Company’s 
Preliminary and Interim results, which provides an opportunity for a 
review of the Company’s strategy and performance. In addition, 
management and/or Investor Relations attend a number of investor 
conferences throughout the year, giving shareholders further 
opportunity to meet and receive updates directly from Company 
representatives, while senior management are also available to meet 
on an ad-hoc basis with major shareholders if requested.

Engagement themes with our institutional shareholders 
During the year, engagement themes included: 

•  Centrica’s strategic refresh;
•  Full year and interim results;
•  the Rough storage facility;
•  UK energy security; 
•  dividends and shareholder returns;
•  the regulatory and political environment for UK energy;
•  impact of rising commodity prices;
•  energy transition investment opportunities;
•  Board succession;
•  liquidity and result of stress tests; and
•  Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) matters.

General Meetings
The Board is committed to communicating with shareholders and 
other stakeholders in a clear and open manner and seeks to ensure 
effective engagement through the Company’s regular communications, 
the AGM and other investor relations activities. During 2022, the 
Company undertook an ongoing programme of meetings with 
investors (in person and virtually). The majority of these meetings were 
led by the Group Chief Executive and Group Chief Financial Officer. 

The Company holds an Annual General Meeting (AGM) each year and, 
as required, holds General Meetings. At the AGM, the Chairman gives 
his thoughts on governance aspects of the preceding year and the 
Group Chief Executive reviews the performance of the Group over the 
last year. In advance of each AGM, we write to our largest 
shareholders inviting discussion on any questions they might like to 
raise and making the Chairs of the Board, the Audit Committee and 
the Remuneration Committee available to meet shareholders should 
they so wish. In addition, the Company engaged with its largest 
shareholders and key governance agencies in early 2022, on the 
Directors’ Remuneration Policy and the Centrica plc’s Climate 

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202271

We have created channels for colleagues to voice concerns 
confidentially, through a Speak Up support service, a confidential  
and anonymous helpline operated by an independent company.

All decisions relating to employment practices will be objective, free 
from bias and based solely upon work criteria and individual merit.

Employees with disabilities
It is our policy that current and prospective colleagues with a disability 
have the same right to access and develop their careers as anyone 
else. For example, colleagues with a disability receive full and fair 
consideration when applying for all vacancies and we interview 
those who meet the minimum criteria required. We also provide 
training, career development and promotion from which all of our 
colleagues can benefit and are continuously working to develop 
initiatives to support everyone to reach their full potential. We also 
endeavour to retain colleagues in the workforce if they become 
disabled during employment.

To support this approach, in 2017 we launched Diverse-Ability, a 
network that celebrates physiological and neurological diversity and 
abilities amongst our colleagues and helps them access the support 
they need to thrive at work. Diverse-Ability was re-launched earlier 
in 2021, with an increased emphasis on neurodiversity. Additionally, 
we are proud to support The Valuable 500 initiative and champion 
disability inclusion throughout Centrica. Launched at the World 
Economic Forum’s Annual Summit in 2020, The Valuable 500 seeks 
500 global businesses to place disability inclusion on their board 
agendas as the first step to full inclusion for disabled people in 
business. We are members of the Business Disability Forum, which 
offers support, toolkits and advice to businesses around disability 
matters. We also partner with Scope and in 2022 we renewed our 
level 2 Disability Confident status.

Human rights
We are fully committed to upholding the fundamental human rights 
and freedoms of everyone who works for us, with us, or lives in the 
communities where we operate. We uphold the UN Guiding Principles 
on Business and Human Rights and are signatories of the United 
Nations Global Compact. As set out in Our Code, we therefore take 
steps to ensure that we never knowingly cause or contribute to human 
rights abuses through activities like employment checks and supplier 
due diligence. We also aim to contribute positively to global efforts  
to ensure human rights are understood and observed. Further 
information about our efforts can be found in our People and Planet 
section on page 44, as well as in our Modern Slavery Statement and 
Our Code available on our website centrica.com. 

+ Read more in our Modern Slavery Statement at centrica.com/modernslavery

Workforce
Workforce engagement
Responsibility for workforce engagement is shared amongst Board 
members. As well as this approach of shared responsibility being one 
of the recognised approaches to colleague engagement that boards 
may pursue, the Board considered that there is benefit from all of the 
Board being involved in colleague engagement activities.

During the year, the Chairman and Non-Executive Directors engaged 
with members of the workforce in various ways, including meeting with 
call handlers, engineers and business unit leaders during the site visits 
and regular Board engagement sessions with business colleagues 
held in person immediately prior to selected Board meetings in 2022. 
These engagements undertaken by the Board during the year 
contributed to some of the decision-making of the Board. Further 
information on the decision-making of the Board can be found on 
pages 68 to 69. 

The Executive Directors and senior leadership team dedicated 
significant time and focus on meeting with and listening to the views of 
colleagues, which included regular meetings with the Shadow Board. 
The work undertaken is set out in the Group Chief People Officer’s 
Report on pages 37 to 38. 

Further information, including why the Board believe that these 
methods of engagement are effective, can also be found on pages  
12 to 13, 27, 32, 37 to 38, 44 and 56 to 57.

Employee involvement
Employee involvement is one of our core commitments. By 
understanding what our colleagues think and feel, we can take 
account of their views in decision-making. This will help ensure that 
Centrica is a place where everyone feels supported and able to deliver 
for our customers. Colleagues are therefore invited to ask questions 
and provide feedback throughout the year on a range of matters 
including our financial performance and business strategy at dedicated 
town halls, meetings and written communications like emails and 
articles from the Group Chief Executive, Group Chief Finance Officer 
and members of the Centrica Leadership team. This provides 
employees systematically with information on matters of concern to 
them as employees and achieves awareness among employees of 
factors affecting the performance of the Company. We also seek 
colleague feedback on a broader range of topics through methods like 
leader-led listening sessions and engagement surveys, as well as our 
employee-led Networks and our Shadow Board (see page 38). 

Equal opportunities
The Group is committed to and has an active equal opportunities 
policy which includes, but is not limited to, recruitment and selection, 
training, career development, performance reviews and promotion to 
retirement. Our culture is to create an environment free from 
discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Our policies are in place 
to ensure everyone receives equal treatment regardless of gender, 
identity, race, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, marital status, 
sexual orientation or religion or any other characteristic protected by 
applicable laws.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202272

Audit and Risk Committee

Membership, meeting 
attendance and key focus

Committee members
Kevin O’Byrne (Chair) 
Carol Arrowsmith(1) 
Nathan Bostock (with effect from 9 May 2022) 
CP Duggal (with effect from 16 December 2022)

Pam Kaur and Stephen Hester retired as members of 
the Committee on 7 June 2022.

Biographical details of the Committee Chair and 
members can be found on pages 62 to 65. Meeting 
attendance of the Committee members can be found 
on page 66.

Meeting attendees by invitation
Chair of the Board 
Amber Rudd 
Heidi Mottram 
Group Chief Executive 
Group Chief Financial Officer 
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary 
Group Financial Controller 
Group Head of Accounting, Reporting and Tax 
Group Chief Risk & Audit Officer 
External auditors

Focus areas in 2022
•  The Group’s published financial information;
•  the effectiveness of the Group’s risk management 

and internal controls framework;

•  the Enterprise Risk and Control Framework 
including risks managed by the other Board 
committees;

•  the management of cyber risks; and
•  ethical, legal and regulatory matters.

(1) Carol Arrowsmith is connected to Deloitte LLP (‘the Firm’) as, 
historically, she was a partner there but she had left the Firm 
prior to their appointment as the Group’s external auditors. In 
addition to this, the Firm provides her with services in a personal 
capacity. The Committee deems that this does not affect the 
independence and judgement of the Firm nor the Committee’s 
oversight of the Firm’s performance.

Dear Shareholder
I am pleased to present the Audit and Risk Committee’s 
report for the year ended 31 December 2022, which provides 
an overview of the work carried out by the Committee to 
ensure the integrity of the Group’s published financial 
information and the effectiveness of the Group’s risk 
management and internal controls framework in a year of 
exceptional market volatility.

This report should be read in conjunction with our UK 
Corporate Governance Code application section on page 58, 
Our Principal Risks and Uncertainties on pages 28 to 33  
and our Viability Statement on pages 34 to 36.

Committee overview
The Committee has a yearly agenda which is linked to the Company’s 
financial calendar. The agenda is flexible, enabling in-depth reviews of 
topics of particular importance to the Committee.

The core responsibilities of the Committee are to:

•  monitor and review the adequacy and effectiveness of the 

governance and oversight of the Company’s financial processing 
and reporting, internal controls and risk management;
•  provide advice and assurance to the Board on whether it 
has discharged its duties and whether the Annual Report 
and Accounts, when taken as a whole, is fair, balanced and 
understandable and provides all the necessary information for 
shareholders and other stakeholders to assess the Company’s 
position, performance, business model and strategy;

•  monitor and review the operation and effectiveness of the 

Group’s Internal Audit function, including its independence, 
strategic focus, activities, plans and resources;

•  supervise the appointment of the Group Chief Risk & Audit 

Officer;

•  manage the relationship with the Group’s external auditors on 
behalf of the Board (including appointment, independence, 
effectiveness and remuneration);

•  conduct a tender for the external audit contract at least every 

10 years and make appointment recommendations to the Board;

•  review the Company’s arrangements for its workforce/ 

stakeholders to raise concerns in confidence about possible 
improprieties in financial reporting or other matters; and
•  consider and review material legal and regulatory policy 

compliance issues or risks, and maintain oversight of the 
arrangements in place for the management of statutory and 
regulatory compliance in areas such as financial crime.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202273

During the year, the Committee reviewed an annual internal 
assessment of the independence, objectivity and effectiveness of the 
Internal Audit function. This assessment demonstrated that the 
maturity of the Internal Audit function had continued to improve since 
the External Quality Assessment carried in 2021 and the previous 
internal assessment in 2020. The Committee remains satisfied that the 
Internal Audit function has the necessary integrity, objectivity and 
competency to fulfil its mandate. It has also satisfied itself that the 
Internal Audit function has adequate standing and is free from 
management or other restrictions.

Review of the system of risk management 
and internal controls
Our risk management and internal controls, including compliance with 
Our Code, and policies are assessed through a self-certification 
process. We also have a programme to assess the Group’s Entity 
Level Controls. The results of the annual process, together with the 
conclusions of the internal reviews by Internal Audit and the in-depth 
reviews of business unit control frameworks undertaken by the 
Committee, enable the Committee, on behalf of the Board, to form 
and report their view on the effectiveness of risk management and 
internal controls. During 2022, the Committee oversaw the work of 
Internal Audit and the functional support teams, alongside the 
management teams. As part of its oversight, the Committee received 
verbal and written reports on movements in the Group Principal Risks, 
as well as updates on other Group frameworks such as legal and 
regulatory compliance. The Committee has confidence in its ability to 
identify issues that arise and the business units’ ability to remediate 
control gaps in the business, where necessary, in line with our risk 
appetite. The Committee noted the risk management process and 
internal controls have been in place throughout the year and remain 
effective, though we recognise the need for ongoing and continuous 
review or, where necessary, improvement. Examples of continuous 
improvement derived actions taken during 2022 were the 
implementation of: 

(i) automation enhancements to Entity Level Controls attestation; and 

(ii) a new quality assurance methodology to assure the effectiveness of 
the independent Group-level Controls and IT General Controls testing.

Fair, balanced and understandable
In line with the UK Code, the Committee, on behalf of the Board, 
reviews the Annual Report, to determine if, when taken as a whole, it is 
fair, balanced and understandable and provides the information 
necessary for shareholders and stakeholders to assess the Company’s 
position and performance, culture, business model and strategy. 
Additionally, the Committee considers the processes and controls 
involved in the production of the Annual Report, as well as the financial 
responsibilities of the Directors. There is a robust governance 
framework around the production of the Annual Report which ensures 
it is critically reviewed and signed off by the key teams in the relevant 
businesses and functions.

External auditors 
The Committee manages the relationship with the Group’s external 
auditors on behalf of the Board. The Committee considers annually the 
scope, fee, audit plan, performance objectivity and independence of 
the external auditors.

To ensure objectivity, key members of the external audit team rotate off 
the Company’s audit. To safeguard the independence of the 
Company’s external auditors and the integrity of the audit process, the 
recruitment of senior colleagues from the Company’s auditors is not 
permitted for a period of at least two years after they cease to be 
involved in the provision of services to the Company.

Main activities during 2022
During the year, the Committee met four times and considered a broad 
range of topics, our key highlights are disclosed below:

•  reviewed business risk areas, accounting judgements and 

effectiveness of the finance function and control environment. 
Details of key judgements and financial reporting matters in 2022 
are set out on pages 75 to 79;

•  reviewed accounting judgements, in particular those relating to 

the accounting for the c.700k customers acquired by British Gas 
Energy through Supplier of Last Resort processes, the sale of 
Spirit Energy’s Norwegian assets and interests in the Statfjord 
field, the calculation of the onerous supply contract provision, the 
impairment write-back for our Nuclear asset and the downstream 
supply bad debt provision assessment;

•  reviewed the Viability and Going Concern assessments and 

associated disclosures;

•  reviewed the 2021 financial results, 2021 Annual Report and 

Accounts, 2022 Interim results and following year end, the 2022 
financial results, having regard to any matters that may have 
been communicated by Deloitte;

•  considered the effectiveness of the external audit process and 

Internal Audit function;

•  continued oversight of the maintenance and development of the 

control environment and finance systems, particularly in the 
context of the ongoing migration of British Gas Energy customers 
to the ENSEK platform;

•  reviewed the approach taken to assess credit risk exposure 
amidst exceptionally volatile commodity prices, as well as 
reviewing the wider impact of a high commodity price 
environment;

•  reviewed matters relating to the Group’s pension schemes, 

including the triennial review and the impact of changes in gilt 
yields (see note 22);

•  monitored information systems security and data security risk 
management, particularly in view of geopolitical developments 
during the year;

•  received updates on legal, regulatory and ethical compliance, 

particularly in respect of energy trading and the sale and delivery 
of FCA regulated products and services as well as the operation 
of Our Code and the Speak Up helpline; 

•  reviewed the Company’s preparedness for forthcoming legal and 

regulatory changes, including reform of the UK corporate 
governance regime;

•  reviewed regular reports and recommendations from Internal and 

External Audit on risk, assurance and controls; and

•  carried out in-depth reviews of the risks and controls environment 
for British Gas Energy, British Gas Services & Solutions, Centrica 
Business Solutions, Bord Gáis Energy and Energy Marketing 
& Trading, as well as the Group-wide financial risk and Group 
definitions of capital employed.

Risk management and internal controls
Internal Audit
The Committee is responsible for monitoring and reviewing the 
operation and effectiveness of the Group’s Internal Audit function, 
including its independence, strategic focus, activities, plans and 
resources. The Chief Risk & Audit Officer has direct access to the 
Chairman of the Board and to the Committee Chair, and is 
accountable to the Committee.

The Committee reviewed and approved the Group’s annual Internal 
Audit plan (‘the plan’). The plan is designed with reference to the 
Group’s Principal Risks, which regularly evolve. Further information on 
the Principal Risks is available on pages 28 to 33. During the year, the 
Committee received regular updates on the Internal Audit team’s 
findings and reviewed progress against follow-up actions implemented 
by the business units.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202274

Following a competitive external audit process in 2016, Deloitte were 
appointed as the Company’s auditors at the beginning of 2017 and will 
this year perform their sixth full audit. Consistent with auditing 
requirements, Jane Boardman took over from James Leigh as 
Deloitte’s lead audit partner following conclusion of the 2021 audit.

In accordance with the CMA order on Statutory Audit Services for 
large companies, the Committee has considered the appropriate time 
to put the audit out to competitive tender. Given the complexity of the 
business it remains important to balance the benefits of a fresh 
perspective from a new audit firm, with the negative effects of the 
disruption and educational time requirements from both tendering and 
onboarding. The recent Deloitte lead audit partner rotation has 
provided a fresh perspective and accordingly, as shared last year, the 
Committee considers it is in the best interests of shareholders for the 
Company to continue to plan for a competitive audit tender in 2026 
(the 10-year legal threshold) with the successful firm taking over for the 
2027 financial year. The re-appointment of Deloitte as auditors for the 
2022 financial year was approved by shareholders at the AGM in June 
2022 and Deloitte has been recommended for re-appointment again 
in 2023. The Committee confirms that this recommendation is free 
from influence by any third party and no contractual term of the kind 
mentioned in Article 16(6) of the Audit Regulation has been imposed 
on the Company.

The Company has complied with the Statutory Audit Services Order 
2014 for the financial year under review. 

Effectiveness of the external audit process and the 
independence and objectivity of the external auditors
To assess the effectiveness of the external audit process and the 
independence and objectivity of the external auditors, the Committee 
carried out an assessment, as in prior years, primarily looking at the 
key areas of:

•  robustness of the audit process;
•  quality of people and service;
•  quality of delivery;
•  independence and objectivity; and
•  value added advice.

This assessment included an internal questionnaire, which was 
completed by the Chairman of the Board, Committee members and 
senior members of management on their views of Deloitte’s 
performance. The questionnaire covered a review of the audit partner 
and team, the audit scope and approach, audit plan execution, auditor 
independence and objectivity and robustness of challenge of 
management. Separately, Deloitte also provided an assessment, via an 
internal management questionnaire, of management’s controls, 
judgements and engagement throughout the audit process. The 
feedback was reviewed by management and reported to the 
Committee. The Committee and the Board confirm that they have 
taken all the necessary steps to become aware of any relevant audit 
information and to pass that information onto Deloitte. The Committee 
was satisfied with the external auditors’ commitment to audit quality, 
the robust and professional working relationship with management 
and demonstration of strong technical knowledge and professional 
scepticism. In addition, to ensure the independence of the external 
auditors, and in accordance with International Standards on Auditing 
(UK & Ireland) 260 and Ethical Standard 2019 issued by the 
Accounting Practices Board and as a matter of best practice, Deloitte 
have confirmed their independence as auditors of the Company. On 
the basis of Deloitte’s confirmation and report on their approach to 
audit quality and transparency, the Committee concluded that: Deloitte 
possesses the appropriate qualifications and expertise; remains 
independent of the Group; and, coupled with effective management 
engagement, that the audit process was effective.

Corporate Reporting Review
The Audit and Risk Committee assists the Board in fulfilling its 
oversight responsibilities by reviewing and monitoring the integrity of 
the financial information provided to shareholders and other 
stakeholders. The Committee oversees financial reporting and related 
risks and internal controls, and also has a role in overseeing the 
internal and external auditors, as well as interacting with other 
members of management and external stakeholders as required. 
During the year, the ‘TCFD’ disclosures and the disclosures related to 
climate in the Group’s 2021 Annual Report and Accounts were 
reviewed by the Corporate Reporting Review (CRR) team of the 
Financial Reporting Council (FRC). As a result, the Group received a 
small number of queries and subsequently committed to supplement 
existing disclosures and clarify certain climate ambitions. The 
Committee was pleased that the responses provided to the CRR dealt 
with the matters raised and the enhancements to the disclosures have 
been made in this 2022 Annual Report and Accounts. The Committee 
does note however that the review conducted by the FRC was based 
solely on the Group’s published Annual Report and Accounts and 
does not provide assurance that it is correct in all material respects.

Non-audit fees
To safeguard the objectivity and independence of the external auditors, 
the Committee is responsible for the policy on the award of non-audit 
services to the external auditors. A copy of this policy is available on 
our website centrica.com. The Chair of the Committee must approve 
all requests to utilise Deloitte for non-audit services. There is an annual 
cap on non-audit work during the ordinary course of business of 
£1million, which is assessed each year for appropriateness in the 
context of external guidance and regulation.

Overall total non-audit fees incurred in 2022 were £0.9 million (2021: 
£1.7 million), including £0.5 million for the review of the interim results 
and £0.3 million for the audit of the Ofgem consolidated segmental 
statements. In line with the non-audit fees policy, approval for this 
expenditure was sought and received from the Committee in advance 
of the work commencing. The amount incurred in the year is well 
below the legal cap of 70% of non-audit fees (for services not required 
by regulation) compared to the three-year average of statutory audit 
fees, amounting to approximately 7%.

In normal circumstances, all significant non-audit work is put out to 
tender and Deloitte are only ever appointed if their experience and 
knowledge makes them the most appropriate supplier and it is clear 
another firm could not undertake the work without adversely impacting 
the business.

Committee effectiveness
The Committee undertakes an annual review of its terms of reference 
to ensure that it accurately reflects the role carried out by the 
Committee, taking into account any new internal and external 
developments and responsibilities. The Committee’s terms of reference 
are available on our website centrica.com.

The Committee considers that it has continued to discharge its 
oversight role effectively in an area where expectations and 
requirements are constantly evolving with insightful and regular 
engagement and support from management. Read more about the 
Committee’s effectiveness on page 57.

Kevin O’Byrne
on behalf of the Audit and Risk Committee 
15 February 2023

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Key judgements and financial reporting matters in 2022

Audit and Risk Committee reviews and conclusions

75

The Committee noted the extreme volatility in short-term commodity 
prices during the year, with very significant rises seen earlier in the year 
before then falling back towards the year-end – although prices still 
remained well above 2021 levels. The Committee understood that this 
dynamic had a critical impact on many of the other judgements listed 
below.

The Committee reconfirmed continued support for the longer-term ‘P50’ 
median curve (derived from third parties) approach. It noted that the 
‘P50’ long-term commodity price forecasts were broadly similar 
year-on-year for all commodities and that these prices were dwarfed by 
the near-term increases.

As a result of the above, the Committee was comfortable the curves 
were reasonable.

Sensitivities of the asset impairment tests to changes in price forecasts 
are provided in note 7 on page 146 to 150.

The Committee noted the use of a price curve intended to be consistent 
with net zero by 2050 in the impairment sensitivities and believed the 
output provided useful information to readers of the accounts. 

The Committee also noted and welcomed the inclusion of a Climate 
Change accounting considerations section in note 3. 

The Committee noted that the Group’s policy and methodologies in 
classifying and valuing energy derivatives were unchanged from 
previous periods.

The Committee also reviewed and understood the breakdown by 
business of the movement in IFRS 9 energy derivative valuations in the 
Group Income Statement.

They reflected on the fact the Group is generally a net buyer of 
commodity and that the certain re-measurement derivative net loss of 
£5.2 billion (being £6.4 billion loss for UK Supply book trades, offset by 
£1.2 billion gain for Upstream, EM&T and other books) was 
predominantly as a result of the extreme volatility in short-term 
commodity prices during the year. As prices rose significantly and then 
fell back, the timing of entering into the hedge trades was important.

The Committee noted the link between the derivative certain                 
re-measurements for the UK supply books and the onerous supply 
contract provision for certain re-measurements, as discussed below.

Further detail is provided in notes 2 and 7 on pages 128 to 129 and 146 
to 150.

The Committee noted and continued to concur with the specific 
judgement around LNG contract own use classifications.

Determination of forecast commodity prices and
their use in valuing long-lived assets and derivative contracts
Commodity price forecasts are a key assumption in the valuation of the 
Group’s long-lived assets and derivative contracts. For short-term 
commodity prices over the next four years, observable liquid market 
prices (as at 31 December 2022) are taken as the best view of expected 
price. For the longer-term period thereafter, the Group uses a ‘P50’ 
median price curve, derived from a collection of third-party forecasts. 
This approach is deemed to align to pricing that a reasonable market 
participant would use. The Group has used these price curves in its 
asset impairment testing and contract valuations.

The Group has also obtained commodity price forecasts which are 
intended to be consistent with net zero by 2050. These are lower than 
the ‘P50’ curves the Group has adopted for NBP Gas and for baseload 
power. The Group has shown the impact of such price forecasts on the 
gas assets and Nuclear assets in note 7 of the financial statements.

Energy derivatives – classification and valuation
The Group enters into numerous commodity contracts in its ordinary 
course of business. This can be to procure load for its downstream 
business, sell output from its upstream assets, to trade around its other 
commodity exposures or to make money from proprietary activities. 
On entering into these contracts, the business assesses each of the 
individual trades and classifies them as either:

(i)  Out of scope of IFRS 9:

For ‘own use’ contracts (i.e. customer contracts, contracts to take 
delivery and meet customer demand or sell upstream output) and 
contracts that cannot be net settled.

(ii)  In scope of IFRS 9:

Contracts for commodities which have the ability to be and practice of 
being net settled.

Energy contracts outside the scope of IFRS 9 are accruals accounted. 
Those contracts considered to be within the scope of IFRS 9 are treated 
as derivatives and are marked-to-market (fair valued). If the derivatives 
are for proprietary energy trading, they are recorded in the business 
performance column of the Group Income Statement. If they are entered 
into to protect and optimise the value of underlying assets/contracts or 
to meet the future downstream demand needs, they are recorded as 
certain re-measurements.

The fair-value of derivatives are estimated by reference to published 
liquid price quotations for the relevant commodity. Where the derivative 
extends into illiquid periods, the valuation typically uses the ‘P50’ 
median price curves (see Determination of long-term commodity prices 
and their use valuing long-lived assets).

Judgement is required in all aspects of both the classifications and 
valuations.

One of the Group’s critical accounting judgements is that its LNG 
contracts are outside the scope of IFRS 9 because they are entered into 
for its own purchase and sale requirements (‘own use’).

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202276

Key judgements and financial reporting matters in 2022

Audit and Risk Committee reviews and conclusions

The Committee reviewed the change in the underlying derivative  
hedge values of the residential and business books and therefore  
the movement in the onerous energy supply contract provision.

The Committee noted that this movement is mainly driven by the 
change in energy prices and that whilst the Company would expect  
the remaining onerous provision to predominantly unwind in 2023,  
this is dependent on market movements.

The Committee observed that the residential onerous provision could 
come back in 2023 if derivative hedges moved back into the money  
but this is dependent on energy prices and the hedged position.

The Committee reviewed the key assumptions used in the onerous 
provision calculation and noted the reduced sensitivity to margin  
and customer churn assumptions. It noted the disclosures included  
in the financial statements to highlight this area.

The Committee held discussions with the external auditors to confirm 
the appropriateness of the accounting treatment and to confirm their 
views of the assumptions used.

Further detail is provided in notes 2, 3 and 7 on pages 128 to 136  
and 146 to 150.

Onerous energy supply contract provision
The Group’s residential and business energy supply contracts are 
accruals accounted. The Group operates and manages a hedging 
strategy to ensure that the future costs of supplying these customer 
portfolios are appropriately managed.

These hedges are generally in the scope of IFRS 9 and are measured at 
fair value (see ‘Energy Derivatives – classification and valuation’ above). 
They are recognised as certain re-measurements in the Group’s income 
statement until the point at which the related costs to purchase 
electricity and gas are incurred.

In 2021, following a substantial increase in near-term commodity prices, 
significant gains arose on these procurement hedges as they are 
marked-to-market. This moved both the residential and business supply 
hedges to being significantly in-the-money. Because of this hedge value 
recognition, the assessment of whether the supply contracts were 
onerous had to be calculated based on the cost of fulfilling these 
arrangements, including the reversal of previous mark-to-market gains.

Accordingly, the Group determined that at 31 December 2021, the 
future costs to fulfil customer contracts including marked-to-market 
reversals would exceed the charges recovered from customers because 
the associated hedging gains had already been recognised in the 
Income Statement. The Group therefore recognised an onerous supply 
contract provision of £2.5 billion at that date. 

In 2022, following the significant losses on procurement hedges (see 
‘Energy Derivatives – classification and valuation’ above), the residential 
element of the supply book had moved to an overall out-of-the-money 
position, whilst the business element remained in-the-money 
(predominantly because a different hedging strategy is employed).

Consequently, for residential, the costs to fulfil the customer contract 
including marked-to-market reversals no longer exceed the charges 
expected to be recovered from customer. Therefore, no onerous supply 
contract provision is required for this element and the previous provision 
has been reversed.

Conversely, for business, the future costs to fulfil customer contracts 
including marked-to-market reversals is still expected to exceed  
the charges recovered from customers and accordingly an onerous 
provision of circa £1 billion is required for this element. 

This has been calculated by estimating the expected margins from 
business energy supply customers, and deducting from this margin the 
expected costs to fulfil those arrangements, including energy purchase 
costs reflecting the historic mark to market gains (as the hedge book 
remains in-the-money), and directly attributable overhead costs.  
For customers where this results in a loss, an onerous contract 
provision is recorded.

The movement in the onerous provision has been reflected as a certain 
re-measurement in the Income Statement because these supply 
contracts are economically related to the fair value movements on  
the hedges. (Note that the Income Statement movement is £1.8 billion, 
because a £0.3 billion onerous provision was acquired as part of the 
AvantiGas purchase – see note 12.)

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Key judgements and financial reporting matters in 2022

Audit and Risk Committee reviews and conclusions

77

The Committee challenged management and the external auditors on 
the key inputs to the impairment models including price, outage rates, 
assumed lives, tax and discount rates, and were comfortable with the 
conclusions reached.

The Committee reviewed the Nuclear investment write-back and noted 
that the increase in near-term commodity prices had more than offset 
the cost of the Electricity Generator Levy. 

The Committee noted that price sensitivity disclosures have been 
included in the financial statements.

Further detail on impairment write-back and the assumptions used  
in determining the recoverable amounts is provided in notes 7  
and S2 on pages 146 to 150 and 187 to 199.

The Committee reviewed management’s groupings of receivables by  
the key factors affecting recoverability (e.g. payment method, nature  
of customers) and considered the levels of provisions booked against 
each grouping, at the year-end.

The Committee discussed the approach with the external auditors.

The Committee was comfortable with the provisions booked, including 
the increase in the macroeconomic provisions, whilst noting the 
significant estimation uncertainty in this area.

The Committee noted the continued enhanced disclosure in note 17, 
setting out the judgemental nature of the provisioning and the sensitivity 
analysis to allow users of the accounts to model different outcome 
scenarios.

Impairment reversals of long-lived assets
The Group makes judgements and estimates in considering whether  
the carrying amounts of its assets are recoverable:

Upstream (Power assets and Gas assets)
For Upstream assets, discounted cash flows are prepared from 
projected production profiles of each field or power asset, taking into 
account forecast future commodity prices, to assess their recoverable 
amount. When deriving forecast cash flows, market prices are used  
for the period when a commodity is liquid. For the longer-term illiquid 
period, the ‘P50’ median price curve is used (see ‘Determination  
of forecast commodity prices and their use valuing long-lived assets 
and derivatives’, above).

Judgement is also required around production volumes. For Nuclear, 
individual station information and recent availability data is factored in  
to the overall asset valuation. The expected operating life of Sizewell 
has continued to be reflected to 2055 in the modelling, beyond the 
original design life. For Gas assets, each field has specific reservoir  
and field characteristics and is modelled independently. 

During 2022, new taxes have also been announced and these have 
been included in the discounted cash flow modelling. For Nuclear,  
the Electricity Generator Levy applies a tax rate of 45% on revenues 
exceeding a benchmark price of £75/MWh and will apply from  
1 January 2023 to 31 March 2028. For Gas assets, the Energy Profits 
Levy will increase to 35% (bringing the headline rate on gas asset  
profits to 75% from 65%) from 1 January 2023 and continue until  
31 March 2028. 

Despite the implementation of these new taxes, the year-on-year 
increase in forecast commodity prices has more than offset their impact.  
As a result, an exceptional impairment reversal of £195 million has been 
booked in relation to the Nuclear investment.

For Gas assets, significant impairment headroom remains. Because the 
field carrying values have generally already been written back to their 
depreciated historic cost, no further write-back is allowed.

Sensitivity analysis has been provided in the financial statements  
to show the impact if there was a 50% reduction in short-term liquid 
prices (see note 7).

Credit provisions for trade and other receivables
The IFRS 9 impairment model requires credit provisions (‘bad debt’)  
for trade and other receivables to be based on an expected credit loss 
model, as opposed to an incurred loss basis. The economic effects of 
the inflationary pressures on household income, not least energy prices, 
and the wider cost of living crisis will likely impact the ability of the 
Group’s customers to pay amounts due. Accordingly, there is significant 
judgement around the levels of forecast bad debt and the provisioning 
required at the year-end.

The Group’s residential and business energy supply customers account 
for the majority of Group’s credit exposure (with balances associated 
with our trading business generally received within 30 days). Expected 
default rates in these areas are calculated initially on a matrix basis  
by considering recent historical loss experience, the nature of the 
customer, payment method selected and, where relevant, the sector  
in which they operate. Management has then also factored in forward-
looking economic assumptions, taking into account inflation and 
affordability forecasts.

In the prior year a high-level macroeconomic provision of £30 million 
was maintained to cover inflationary concerns. In 2022, the deemed 
quality and relative ageing of the Group’s debt has improved compared 
with last year, reducing the underlying modelled provision output  
(on a % basis). However, given the economic environment the high  
level macroeconomic provisions has been increased by £95 million  
(to £125 million) to cover the inflationary and cost of living concerns.  
For UK Downstream energy supply, the bad debt charge as a 
percentage of revenue increased to 2.1% (2021: 1.1%). The closing  
bad debt provision moved to 26% (2021: 29%) of UK energy supply 
gross receivables.

Due to the significant estimation uncertainty in this area, management 
continues to provide detailed analysis and sensitivities in note 17 to the 
Financial Statements.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202278

Key judgements and financial reporting matters in 2022

Audit and Risk Committee reviews and conclusions

Classification and presentation of exceptional items and certain 
re-measurements
The Group reflects its underlying financial results in the business 
performance column of the Group Income Statement. To be able to 
provide this in a clear and consistent presentation, the effects of certain 
re-measurements of financial instruments and onerous supply contract 
provisions, and exceptional items are reported separately in a different 
column in the Group Income Statement.

The classification of items as exceptional and specific trades as certain 
re-measurements (see ‘Onerous energy supply contract provision’ and 
‘Energy Derivatives – classification and valuation’ sections above) are 
subject to defined Group policies. These policies are reviewed annually 
by management.

At the year-end, exceptional items included the Nuclear impairment 
reversal and loss on disposal from the sale of Spirit Energy’s Norwegian 
and Statfjord fields noted above. Also included is a write-back of 
£12 million predominantly associated with a gas engine in Centrica 
Business Solutions. 

Certain re-measurements totalled an overall circa £3.4 billion loss – 
being £5.2 billion loss from derivatives and £1.8 billion gain from the 
onerous supply contract provision movement.

Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) Accounting
Following the unprecedented rise in commodity prices in the second 
half of 2021, a number of UK energy suppliers were unable to continue 
trading and the Group was appointed as the Supplier of Last Resort  
for the customers of nine suppliers.

Under Ofgem’s licence conditions, the Group is entitled to make  
a Last Resort Supplier Payment claim for the shortfall between costs 
reasonably incurred in supplying gas and electricity to premises under 
the Last Resort Supply Direction, and the charges recovered from 
customers (which are limited by the tariff cap).

The Group submitted an initial claim in 2021, covering a six-month 
period from the date of appointment, and received confirmation of 
Ofgem’s acceptance in December 2021. The claim primarily covered 
incremental commodity costs, incurred as a result of procuring gas and 
electricity to supply affected customers. The initial claim is currently 
being settled in 12 monthly instalments ending in April 2023 and a total 
of £258 million has been received during 2022. The Group submitted  
a second claim to Ofgem in Autumn 2022, recognising both actual 
commodity costs incurred and additional costs which were not included 
in the initial claim. This includes the recovery of customer credit 
balances, where the Group had not waived the right to do so. The 
second claim was accepted by Ofgem in December 2022 and will be 
settled between April 2023 and April 2024. The value recognised for  
the SoLR receivable at 31 December 2022 is £275 million (31 December 
2021: £234 million), offsetting cumulative costs incurred of £426 million 
(31 December 2021: £185 million) and cumulative customer credit 
balances of £107 million (31 December 2021: £49 million).

The Group judges that the Last Resort Supplier Payment process 
represents an Ofgem support mechanism, enabling energy suppliers  
to provide stability to the customers of failed suppliers. The Group 
determines this is within the scope of IAS 20 ‘Government Grants’  
and amounts receivable under the mechanism are deemed virtually 
certain and are recognised as the related expenses are incurred  
or liabilities recognised.

Assets held for sale and discontinued operations
The Group announced on 8 December 2021 that it had agreed to 
dispose of the Spirit Energy Norwegian and Statfjord fields to Sval 
Energi and Equinor respectively, and treated the assets and liabilities  
as a disposal group held for sale from that point. 

The Group judged that this disposal group did not represent a separate 
major line of business or geographical operations, because the 
Upstream segment retained other European producing fields, and  
hence the Group concluded that the disposal group did not constitute  
a discontinued operation.

The transaction completed on 31 May 2022, resulting in an exceptional 
loss on disposal of £362 million (including recycling of historic foreign 
currency translation losses). The assets contributed £120 million of the 
Group’s profit after tax, prior to the completion date. 

The Committee noted that the policy on certain re-measurements  
and exceptional items remains unchanged from prior year. 

The Committee had formally reviewed and approved the Group’s policy 
on exceptional items in previous years and, in the current year, it used 
this policy to help inform the appropriateness of the proposed 
classifications. It challenged the items classified as exceptional items, 
considering their size, nature and incidence and in the context of the 
Group policy. The Committee concluded that separate disclosure of 
these items as exceptional was appropriate in the Financial Statements.

The Committee ultimately agreed that presenting certain re-measurements 
and exceptional items separately continues to allow underlying 
performance to be reflected on a consistent and comparable basis.

Further detail is provided in notes 2, 3 and 7 on pages 128 to 136 and 
146 to 150.

The Committee has considered the judgement made by the Group and 
concurs that the recognition of the SoLR receivable continues to be 
appropriate and matches the costs and liabilities incurred or recognised 
by the Group during the year.

The Committee held discussions with the external auditors to verify the 
approach being taken and noted that the accounting treatment aligns 
with industry practice.

Further detail is provided in note 1 on pages 126 to 127.

The Committee noted that it had previously concurred that classification 
of the disposal group as a discontinued operation was not appropriate 
because the Group retains the Spirit Energy UK and Netherlands 
business, post-completion.

The Committee held discussions with the auditors on the appropriateness 
and consequences of this conclusion. It was re-assured by those 
discussions and noted the extensive disclosures included in the 
Financial Statements on this area.

Further detail on this disposal is provided in note 12 on pages 156  
to 158.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Key judgements and financial reporting matters in 2022

Audit and Risk Committee reviews and conclusions

79

Energy supply revenue recognition
The Group’s revenue for energy supply activities includes an estimate  
of energy supplied to customers between the date of the last meter 
reading and an estimated year-end position. This is estimated through 
the billing systems, using historical consumption patterns, on a 
customer-by-customer basis, taking into account weather patterns,  
load forecasts and the differences between actual meter readings being 
returned and system estimates. An assessment is also made of any 
factors that are likely to materially affect the ultimate economic benefits 
which will flow to the Group, including bill cancellation and re-bill rates. 
To the extent that the economic benefits are not expected to flow to the 
Group, revenue is not recognised.

At the year-end, unread energy income for the continuing supply 
businesses was £2.9 billion (2021: £1.7 billion).

The Group’s revenue was also impacted by the UK Government’s 
customer support schemes. These schemes have been accounted  
for under IFRS 15: ‘Revenue from Contracts with Customers’. Revenue 
of circa £1.75 billion has been recognised from Government from both 
the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. 

Pensions
The assets and liabilities, and the cost associated with providing 
benefits under defined benefit schemes is determined separately for 
each of the Group’s schemes. Judgement is required in setting the  
key assumptions used for the actuarial valuation which determines  
the ultimate cost of providing post-employment benefits, especially 
given the length of the Group’s expected liabilities.

The net Group pension asset position was £40 million (2021: £nil).  
The UK defined benefit schemes used a nominal discount rate of 4.7% 
(2021: 1.8%) and inflation of 3.0% (2021: 3.1%)

Following the Liability Driven Investment (LDI) crisis in the pensions 
arena in late 2022, the Group provided a £400 million interest-bearing 
loan to the UK Registered Pension Schemes to ensure the schemes 
could maintain a high level of interest and inflation hedging and meet 
any collateral requirements.

The Group judged that this should be accounted for as a loan (within 
Securities) in the books of the Group and as a reduction in scheme 
assets for the Pension Schemes.

As a consequence of the LDI issues, the pension scheme now has a 
greater proportion of unquoted assets in its asset portfolio. As a result 
the Group undertakes more detailed reviews of these valuations, whilst 
acknowledging the inherent uncertainty compared with quoted assets.

Fair, balanced and understandable
The Board is required to confirm that the Annual Report and Financial 
Statements are fair, balanced and understandable. To enable the Board 
to make this declaration, there is a year-end review process to ensure 
that the Committee and the Board have access to all relevant 
information, including management’s papers on significant issues.

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement
The Group is required to prepare an annual regulatory statement 
(Consolidated Segmental Statement (CSS)) for Ofgem which breaks 
down our licensed activities for the financial year into a generation, 
domestic and non-domestic and electricity and gas result.

The CSS is reconciled to our externally reported International Financial 
Reporting Standards Annual Report and Accounts. The Group publishes 
the CSS at the same time as the full-year Annual Report and Accounts 
and the CSS is independently audited.

In preparing the CSS, judgement is required in the allocation of non- 
specific costs between domestic and non-domestic and electricity and 
gas, and the distinction between licensed and non-licensed activities.

The Committee has reviewed the level of unread revenue and unbilled 
accrual made during the year and discussed with management and  
the external auditors.

The Committee noted that the ENSEK has had a different process  
on unbilled accrual but had followed the same estimation process  
as in previous years, for customers on the existing SAP platform,  
and a similar process for the new energy platform and that the external 
auditors had independently reperformed this calculation to within  
an immaterial difference.

It discussed the accounting treatment for the customer support 
schemes with management and the Group’s auditors and was 
comfortable with the treatment adopted.

More details of the customer support schemes are provided in note 1  
on pages 126 to 127, on unread energy income are provided in note 3 
on page 132 and on unbilled energy income in note 17 on page 171.

The Committee noted the key pension assumptions and disclosures  
in the Financial Statements.

It noted that these assumptions were derived on a consistent basis  
to previous periods.

The Committee recognised the role of the independent actuary, who is 
consulted on the appropriateness of the assumptions, and discussions 
were also held with the external auditors.

The Committee also understood the issues that arose from the LDI crisis 
and the need to provide extra funding to the schemes to ensure they 
remained appropriately hedged. It also discussed the accounting 
treatment with the auditors and ultimately concurred with this 
judgement.

It also noted the greater proportion of unquoted assets in the scheme 
portfolio and welcomed the greater scrutiny on these valuations.

Further details on pensions are set out in notes 1 and 22 on pages 127 
and 175 to 179.

The Committee reviewed the key factors considered in determining 
whether the Annual Report is fair, balanced and understandable.  
The Committee and all Board members received a draft of the Annual 
Report and Financial Statements in sufficient time to review and 
challenge the disclosures therein. In addition, the Committee took  
into consideration the external auditors’ reviews of the consistency 
between the reporting narrative of the Annual Report and the Financial 
Statements.

The Committee reviewed the Ofgem CSS and the key judgements  
and disclosures made in its preparation.

The external auditors also provided a report on the work on the CSS 
and held discussions with the Committee.

The full CSS and the independent audit opinion are set out on pages 
239 to 251.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202280

Nominations Committee

Membership, meeting 
attendance and key focus

Dear Shareholder
On behalf of the Board, I am pleased to present the 
Nominations Committee report for 2022 which explains 
the Committee’s focus and activities during the year.

Committee members
Scott Wheway (Chair) 
Carol Arrowsmith 
Nathan Bostock (with effect from 9 May 2022) 
CP Duggal (with effect from 16 December 2022) 
Heidi Mottram 
Kevin O’Byrne 
Amber Rudd (with effect from 10 January 2022)

Stephen Hester and Pam Kaur retired as members of 
the Committee on 7 June 2022.

Biographical details of the Committee Chair and 
members can be found on pages 62 to 65. Meeting 
attendance of the Committee members can be found 
on page 66.

Meeting attendees by invitation
Group Chief Executive Officer 
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary 
Group Chief People Officer

Focus areas in 2022
•  Board skills;
•  Board diversity;
•  Non-Executive Director succession planning;
•  Executive Director succession planning;
•  Board Committee composition; 
•  Non-Executive Director recruitment;
•  Senior Independent Director succession;
•  approach to workforce engagement;
•  Board training requirements; 
•  election and re-election of Directors at the 2022 

AGM; and

•  approach to, and findings arising from, an annual 
Board effectiveness assessment (see page 57).

Committee overview
The Nominations Committee is responsible for ensuring that the Board 
and its Committees have the appropriate balance of skills, knowledge, 
and experience to effectively lead the Company both now and in  
the future. This is achieved through a formal procedure for the 
appointment of new Directors to the Board, an effective succession 
planning process, reviewing Board composition and Board skills  
and assessing Board training requirements. 

Main activities during 2022
Board succession planning and Board skills
The Committee is responsible for leading the succession planning 
process and making recommendations to the Board. The Committee 
takes a long-term view to succession planning, regularly reviewing 
Board tenure, Board diversity (particularly diversity of gender, cultural 
background and experience) and assessing the skills required by  
the Board to best support the Company’s strategy on a multi-year 
lookahead as well as in the near term. Details of the wide range of 
skills possessed by the Board today can be found on pages 62 to 65. 
The Committee’s work on succession planning directly informed 
recruitment in 2022. A focus area for the Committee in 2023 will 
remain ensuring the Company continues to have appropriate 
succession plans for different time horizons.

Non-Executive Director recruitment
A primary focus area for the Committee in 2022 was Non-Executive 
Director recruitment.

Centrica has a thorough and robust search process for the selection of 
new Non-Executive Directors. In identifying and nominating candidates 
to fill Board vacancies, the Committee considers candidates from a 
wide range of backgrounds, assessing them on merit against objective 
criteria and with due regard for the benefits of diversity on the Board. 
The Committee therefore takes particular interest in the recruitment 
process of its independent search firms to ensure that a diverse pool 
of candidates is considered for any vacancy.

A shortlist of candidates is shared with the Committee, meetings are 
scheduled with Directors and members of management, and then 
once the candidates have been identified, and their ability to meet the 
necessary time commitment is confirmed, a recommendation is made 
to the Board.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Spencer Stuart supported the search processes that led to appointing 
Amber Rudd, Nathan Bostock and Chanderpreet (CP) Duggal as 
Non-Executive Directors in 2022. Although Carol Arrowsmith was  
a member of its Advisory Group during 2021 and early 2022, there  
are no other connections between Spencer Stuart, the Company and 
its individual Directors. There were no changes in Executive Directors 
during 2022. 

Executive Director succession 
On 12 January 2023, we announced that Russell O’Brien will be 
appointed Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and an Executive 
Director on 1 March 2023. Kate Ringrose will step down as CFO and 
an Executive Director on 28 February 2023 and will leave Centrica at 
the end of 2023 following an orderly transition. Russell brings broad 
experience across the energy value chain, including roles as global 
CFO for both Shell’s Integrated Gas and Retail businesses.

Board training
The Committee reviewed the training received by the Board during 
2022 as well as the training requirements for the Board in 2023.  
In doing so, the Committee sought to ensure the Board remained 
equipped with the latest knowledge and understanding to support 
effective decision-making. Board training in 2022 included sessions  
on cyber security, energy market trends and wholesale energy trading. 
The Committee also identified further areas of training directly linked  
to Centrica’s strategy that will inform the Board’s training programme  
in 2023. Details of the induction for all new Directors are on page 60.

Oversight of Director external appointments
To ensure that Directors will continue to have sufficient time to commit 
to their Centrica responsibilities, any additional external appointments 
taken up require advance approval by the Board. This included  
the other members of the Board considering and approving my 
appointment as a Non-Executive Director of Lloyds Banking Group 
and as Chair of Scottish Widows Group, following my retirement  
from the role of Chair of AXA UK plc.

A focus on diversity and inclusion
We operate in increasingly diverse communities and this diversity  
is evident in our workforce and our customers, suppliers and other 
stakeholders. As set out in our Board Diversity Policy adopted in  
July 2019 we know that being inclusive of the diversity we have in  
our business will give us a competitive advantage. The Committee 
therefore continues to embrace the strategic importance of diversity 
and inclusion, including as part of the Board’s own succession 
planning. 

As at 31 December 2022, 44.4% of the Board and 50% of 
independent Non-Executive Directors (excluding the Chairman of the 
Board) were women, exceeding the target in Listing Rule 9.8.6(9).  

81

As at 31 December 2022, the Board composition met, and continues 
to meet, the target ethnic minority representation in Listing Rule 
9.8.6(9), except for the specific period following the resignation of Pam 
Kaur and appointment of CP Duggal. The Board comprises nationals 
of four different countries (the UK, Ireland, USA and South Africa),  
with a wide range of backgrounds and experience. 

Having met or exceeded all applicable diversity targets for listed 
company boards in the past two years, following recent directorate 
changes with Kate Ringrose stepping down as the Group Chief 
Financial Officer in 2023, we recognise the need for the Board’s 
diversity to remain consistent with or exceed these requirements  
in future. The Board is fully committed to securing this outcome at  
the earliest next opportunity and the Committee will ensure that these 
requirements inform and assume the necessary priority in the Board’s 
succession planning in 2023. 

Further information on the steps that the Company is taking to create 
a diverse and inclusive workplace is on pages 40 to 41.

Workforce engagement
The Committee reviewed the Board’s approach to workforce 
engagement pursuant to the expectations of Section 5 of the UK 
Code, ultimately adopting a collective approach to workforce 
engagement involving all Non-Executive Directors leveraging a 
combination of different types of engagement, including: listening 
sessions with colleagues; meetings with senior leaders and future 
talent; and dedicated engagement sessions with the Chairs of the 
employee-led colleague networks. 

Committee effectiveness
The Committee undertakes an annual review of its terms of reference 
to ensure that they accurately reflect the role carried out by the 
Committee, taking into account any new internal and external 
developments and responsibilities. The Committee’s terms of reference 
are available on our website centrica.com/TOR.

The Committee considers that it has continued to discharge  
its oversight role effectively in an area where expectations and 
requirements are constantly evolving with insightful and regular 
engagement and support from management. Read more about  
the Committee’s effectiveness on page 57.

Scott Wheway
on behalf of the Nominations Committee 
15 February 2023

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202282

Safety, Environment and Sustainability Committee

Membership, meeting 
attendance and key focus

Committee members
Heidi Mottram (Chair) 
Nathan Bostock (with effect from 28 July 2022) 
Amber Rudd (with effect from 10 January 2022) 
Scott Wheway

Pam Kaur retired as a member of the Committee  
on 7 June 2022.

Biographical details of the Committee Chair and 
members can be found on pages 62 to 65. Meeting 
attendance of the Committee members can be found 
on page 66.

Meeting attendees by invitation
Kevin O’Byrne 
Carol Arrowsmith 
CP Duggal (with effect from 16 December 2022) 
Group Chief Executive 
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary  
Group Chief People Officer

Focus areas in 2022
•  Health and Safety
•  Environment
•  Responsible business
•  Governance

Dear Shareholder
On behalf of the Board, I am pleased to present the Safety, 
Environment and Sustainability Committee (SESC) report  
for the year ended 31 December 2022 which explains the 
Committee’s focus on, and activities relating to, health  
and safety (H&S), environment and responsible business 
matters during the year.

Committee overview 
The Committee’s role and responsibilities, on behalf of the Board,  
are to review and monitor the culture, practices, risks and performance 
of Centrica with respect to H&S, ESG (Environmental, Social and 
Governance) and broader responsible business matters. This is 
achieved through a rigorous review of performance data, the 
Company’s commitments and targets and activities, programmes  
and initiatives which relate to Centrica’s H&S, social and sustainability 
priorities and values. As part of its focus, the Committee also provides 
input to, and review of, the Company’s ESG annual reporting 
disclosure requirements.

Main activities during 2022 
The Committee considered a broad range of topics and the key 
highlights are disclosed below.

Health and Safety
As a standing item on the agenda, the Committee maintained its 
regular focus on H&S performance metrics, assurance activity and 
material developments. The Committee reviewed risk identification and 
controls and considered that the Group had appropriate capabilities, 
correct processes and engaged culture in H&S. A focus area for the 
Committee was ensuring that any learnings from any H&S incidents 
were properly reviewed and, where appropriate, the relevant actions 
taken to mitigate the possibility of reoccurrence.

At each meeting, the Committee invited management from specific 
Business Units to discuss occupational and process safety reviews, 
outcomes and improvements derived from targeted interventions  
and future action plans.

Environment
The Committee provided oversight of the Company’s continued 
commitment to, and role in, the drive to net zero, including the review 
of a scorecard that reported progress to date against the Company’s 
People & Planet Plan and the Climate Transition Plan, as well as the 
impact of the Company’s operations on the environment and the 
Company’s green credentials.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202283

Centrica works with suppliers seeking to continuously raise standards 
through its responsible sourcing assurance activity. The Committee 
reviews this activity on an annual basis, evaluating the progress made 
and providing feedback on any specific issues identified. In addition, 
the Committee approved the audit plan for 2023 and considered  
the external perceptions of Centrica’s reputation. 

Governance
In addition to the above, the Committee had opportunities to receive 
relevant training on matters specific to the Committee’s remit.  
The Committee also reviewed corporate governance developments, 
ESG expectations and behaviours including key changes in law and 
regulation as well as examples of best practice. 

Committee effectiveness
The Committee undertakes an annual review of its terms of reference 
to ensure that it accurately reflects the role carried out by the 
Committee, taking into account any new internal and external 
developments and responsibilities. The Committee’s terms  
of reference are available on our website centrica.com/TOR.

The Committee considers that it has continued to discharge  
its oversight role effectively in an area where expectations and 
requirements are constantly evolving with insightful and regular 
engagement and support from management. Read more about  
the Committee’s effectiveness on page 57.

Heidi Mottram
on behalf of the Safety, Environment and Sustainability Committee 
15 February 2023

+  Read more about our People & Planet Plan on pages 39 to 44

The Climate Transition Plan first published in November 2021 was 
updated on 29 April 2022 to take into account retained Spirit Energy 
assets and published on the Company’s website. At the 2022 AGM, 
the Climate Transition Plan, through an advisory non-binding vote,  
was supported by the overwhelming majority of shareholders (79.96% 
of votes received). In accordance with the UK Corporate Governance 
Code 2018, Centrica consulted some of the shareholders who did  
not support the resolution in order to understand the reasons behind 
their decision. The Committee reflected upon the feedback, and will 
oversee that these constructive views, together with overall investor 
expectations relating to ESG factors, are continually taken into account 
when developing the Climate Transition Plan and other environmental 
plans in the future.

The Committee investigated and assessed the impact on the Climate 
Transition Plan of major investment decisions taken by the Group, 
satisfying itself that the Group was striking the balance between 
discharging its obligation to support security of energy supply in the 
short term through investments in activities such as gas-fired peakers 
in Ireland, whilst still ensuring that the Group continued to focus on 
opportunities to deliver the targets in its Climate Transition Plan in the 
longer term. The Committee will continue to provide oversight and 
scrutiny of the Company’s decarbonisation plans.

Responsible business
The Committee reviewed and endorsed Centrica’s new approach to 
charity partnerships in the UK being locally focused, noting the high 
level of colleague support and engagement that the new approach 
generated. The Committee was also pleased to continue to support 
Bord Gáis’s successful long-term relationship with Focus Ireland. 

The Committee had specific sessions in the year to discuss modern 
slavery reporting practices and the robust management of modern 
slavery risk in the supply chain. This included the recommendation  
to the Board to adopt the Company’s 2021 Modern Slavery Act 
Statement, which was in line with UK Home Office requirements  
and industry guidance. 

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202284

Remuneration Committee

Membership, meeting 
attendance and key focus

Committee members
Carol Arrowsmith (Chair) 
CP Duggal (with effect from 16 December 2022) 
Heidi Mottram 
Amber Rudd (with effect from 10 January 2022)

Stephen Hester retired as a member of the 
Committee on 7 June 2022

Biographical details of the Committee Chair and 
members can be found on pages 62 to 65. Meeting 
attendance of the Committee members can be found 
on page 66.

Meeting attendees by invitation
Chairman of the Board 
Group Chief Executive 
Group Chief People Officer 
Group Head of Reward

Focus areas in 2022
 • Approval of new Remuneration Policy
 • Executive Director salary reviews
 • Review of pay issues across the wider workforce
 • Cost of living support for colleagues
 • Gender and ethnicity pay gap report
 • Review and approval of 2022 financial and 
business targets and individual objectives
 • Review and approval of Directors’ expenses
 • Executive shareholding update
•  Review and approval of remuneration package for 

Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Dear Shareholder
On behalf of the Board I present the Remuneration Report 
for the year ended 31 December 2022.

The past two years have been a challenging time for our industry. 
We have faced the biggest energy crisis since the 1970’s, huge 
instability in our markets together with an unprecedented round of 
energy company failures leaving stranded customers. Never has 
stability and the importance of being able to respond to our 
customers’ needs been greater. The leadership team at Centrica 
has worked tirelessly to ensure that our business navigated these 
challenges and continued on our journey to improve our customer 
experience. We have work to do but believe that 2022 has been a 
turning point. 

As the Remuneration Committee we have focused on balancing the 
views and experiences of our stakeholders with our responsibility to 
pay our leaders fairly in that context. 

At our last AGM we proposed a new Remuneration Policy. Our aim 
was to design a remuneration structure that would support our 
strategic direction, enable us to engage our leadership team in the 
continuing transformation of Centrica and support our requirement 
for a team capable of making those changes, whilst addressing the 
challenges our Company and industry faces going forward. We 
introduced a new framework for annual bonus to allow us to 
incorporate judgement on our operational performance whilst 
retaining a strong focus on financial achievement. We replaced the 
long term incentive plan with a restricted share plan and thereby 
reduced the maximum share award from 3 times salary to a 
maximum of 1.5 times salary. During that review I spoke with many 
of our largest shareholders and as part of that process I received 
strong support for our leadership team and genuine interest in 
our aims. 

I am pleased to say that we received support in favour of the new 
Policy at our AGM in June. This indicated that our shareholders 
understood and supported the rationale for moving to a new 
long-term incentive structure. We believe this will provide a stronger 
and more stable link with the long-term performance of our 
business so enabling us to attract people capable of leading 
Centrica which remains a complex business. We granted the first 
Restricted Share Plan (RSP) awards to our Executives shortly after 
the AGM.

Throughout my conversations with shareholders, I heard many of 
you expressing your strong support for the management team and 
the progress that was being made to simplify and stabilise 
our company. 

Performance of our Executive team
Our Group Chief Executive, Chris O’Shea, has continued to show 
outstanding leadership, drive and determination to turn around the 
company for our 10 million customers, 20,000 colleagues and our 
many shareholders. Stability is vitally important to continue our 
transformation and for our customers, our colleagues and our 
shareholders who need us to retain a strong leadership team 
to deliver on our commitments.

We are investing in the future of UK energy and we have an 
ambitious investment pipeline of net zero aligned options. We have 
also re-opened our gas storage facility, Rough, to improve UK 
energy security.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202285

The COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis, which saw the 
collapse of several energy suppliers, have demonstrated the need for 
well-funded, well-run energy companies. We have taken a responsible 
approach by safeguarding customer deposits and stepped in to help 
more than 700,000 customers that were left without a supplier.

Our financial resilience has allowed us to support customers through 
the energy crisis including donating £50 million to help vulnerable 
customers. Our donations will continue to grow with our commitment 
to give 10% of British Gas Energy and Bord Gáis Energy profits.  
This has enabled us to create the largest package of voluntary energy 
support for customers in the UK. 

This financial resilience has also meant that we can support our 
people. In 2022 we provided two significant cost of living payments to 
colleagues to help them to manage rising household costs. We have 
introduced a number of other financial and non-financial initiatives for 
our colleagues including an energy allowance for all colleagues who 
are British Gas customers and reduced priced meals at all our sites. 
We have launched a number of new programmes aimed at supporting 
the mental health of our colleagues, particularly those that are 
providing vital support to our customers every day. In addition, we 
have invested £25m in customer service with the recruitment of 700 
additional UK-based agents to allow us to manage the increase in 
demand from our customers. More information on our support to 
colleagues is set out in the Group Chief People Officer report on 
pages 37 to 38.

Our financial stability has also enabled us to fulfil our commitment  
to shareholders with the announcement in 2022 of the reinstatement 
of our dividends and the £250 million share repurchase programme 
which is well underway.

Financial performance outcomes for the year
As set out earlier in this report, the wider Centrica business has 
delivered exceptionally strong financial performance. Our portfolio  
has been simplified and our balance sheet strengthened. 

Within our portfolio, our businesses are linked and well-positioned  
for growth. Our strong asset-backed balance sheet and our liquidity 
allows us to manage volatile markets effectively.

In my letter to shareholders last year, I explained that Chris O’Shea  
had elected not to accept his 2021 annual bonus payment due to the 
hardships faced by our customers. This decision was made after Chris 
had not received a bonus payment for the previous two financial years. 
I made it clear in my letter that if performance in 2022 justified a bonus, 
it was our intention to pay that bonus because we cannot expect  
to attract and retain leaders in the future if we do not meet our 
commitment to recognise and reward the performance and talent  
of our people.

The adjusted EPS measure had defined threshold, target and 
maximum levels. Exceptional overall business performance in 2022 
resulted in our EPS outcome being well above the maximum level  
that had been set. The Committee reviewed the impact of commodity 
prices on the outcome and noted that, excluding this impact, the 
outcome would remain above maximum. 

The Committee carefully considered the impact of this year’s 
exceptional movement in commodity prices on performance 
compared to the targets set at the start of the year. Even after 
excluding the positive impact of commodity prices this year, the 
underlying financial performance was still above the maximum level  
for the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).

Strong performance in various areas across the Group also meant 
that the majority of the balanced scorecard measures and targets 
were met in full. This included measures that reflect the capacity we 
have to deliver for our customers, strong free cash flow generation, 
the material improvement in the cost:income ratio in EM&T and 
progress against our long-term climate-related targets. In addition, 
whilst we continued to invest to improve our customer complaints 
taskforce and frontline resource, complaint volumes were above  
the prior year, partly due to pricing and cost of living concerns in  
the general economy. As a consequence, our cost to serve under 
some bases was above plan. Overall, this resulted in a score of 80% 
against the balanced scorecard.

With regards to individual performance, the Committee reviewed Chris 
O’Shea’s contribution to, and leadership of the business, and agreed 
that he has performed exceptionally well throughout 2022. Highlights 
include step changes in customer outcomes, focus on instilling a 
culture of delivery and operational excellence and significant long-term 
improvement in colleague engagement scores. The Committee 
determined that an outcome of above target, at 88% of maximum, 
under this element of the annual bonus was appropriate.

For Kate Ringrose, the Committee determined that an outcome at 
62.5% of maximum, under the personal objectives element of the 
annual bonus was appropriate based on her performance in the year, 
particularly in respect of her leadership and management during the 
recent commodity price environment and work in building the asset 
portfolio. 

This results in bonuses of 89.5% of maximum (179% of salary)  
for Chris O’Shea and 83% of maximum (125% of salary) for  
Kate Ringrose. 

Long Term Incentive Plan
In 2020 the Committee approved a Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) 
award for Chris O’Shea relating to the performance period 2020-2022. 
This was in line with our previous Remuneration Policy.

It is the opinion of the Committee that the exceptional financial 
performance against the stretching targets that were set for 2022  
does justify a bonus payment for both the Group Chief Executive 
(CEO) and the Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO). 

The performance targets for the LTIP award included Total Shareholder 
Return (TSR), Economic Profit (EP), Underlying Adjusted Operating 
Cash Flow growth (UAOCF) and key performance indicators (KPIs) 
focused on safety, customer and colleague engagement.

Annual Incentive Plan
The assessment of annual performance for the Centrica leadership 
team is 75% based on business performance and the remaining 25% 
based on individual performance against strategic objectives.

The business performance element for the year was split equally 
between a financial measure, earnings per share (EPS), and the 
outcome of a balanced scorecard of financial and operational 
measures that were critical to the success of the organisation in 2022. 
Balanced scorecard measures included key Group financial 
performance measures as well as important business unit measures 
such as the cost to serve for our customer-facing businesses and a 
cost:income ratio for our Trading business (see page 89 for details).

TSR performance over the three-year period has been strong against 
peers and resulted in an outcome of 62.4% of the maximum for this 
metric. Performance against the other financial measures exceeded 
the three-year targets set by the Committee at the start of the 
performance period in 2020 and has therefore resulted in maximum 
outcomes under these metrics. The Committee considered 
performance under the non-financial KPIs including the process  
safety outcome, achieved at maximum, and NPS, achieved between 
threshold and maximum, and taking the measures together 
determined an outcome under this element of 50% of maximum. 

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202286

This results in an overall vesting outcome of 76% of maximum for the 
2020 LTIP.

For various reasons, including the Board’s involvement in the planned 
divestment of Direct Energy, the grant of the 2020 LTIP was delayed 
until May 2021. This award will therefore not vest until 2024, and the 
shares will be released in 2026, following the mandatory two-year 
holding period.

As the performance period for the award ended on 31 December 
2022, the estimated value of the vested award has been included in 
the single figure for total remuneration table on page 88. In addition, 
the Committee felt it was appropriate at this point to review whether 
the CEO (the only recipient of a 2020 LTIP award) could benefit from 
windfall gains over the period. The Committee looked at a number of 
factors, including the share price of the award at grant and the strong 
performance of Centrica compared with that of our direct peers and 
the wider market over the three-year performance period. Following 
this review, the Committee concluded that as a result of the following 
actions already taken, the risk of a windfall gain has been sufficiently 
mitigated: 

•  The Committee reduced the award level to 250% of salary at grant 
compared to the maximum of 300% of salary to reflect historic 
share price performance (a reduction of 17%).

•  The later grant date in 2021 resulted in a share price on grant of  

55 pence, compared to if the award had been granted at the normal 
time (which would have been shortly after the onset of COVID-19)  
at a price of circa 37 pence (a further reduction of 33%).

Therefore, given the reduction of award on grant and the delay in 
vesting, the Committee concluded that no further adjustment for 
windfall gains was necessary to the vesting outturn of 76% 
of maximum.

Further details are set out on pages 90 to 91.

CEO salary review
We considered carefully the pay arrangements for the wider workforce 
when we debated the salary adjustment for the CEO. Typically, our pay 
arrangements take effect from 1 April. This year we accelerated the 
timing so that the pay rises became effective 1 January for the wider 
workforce. These arrangements were negotiated and communicated 
with support from our trade unions for which we are appreciative. For 
the majority of colleagues, the pay deal in total was worth more than 
10% of salary. This included base salary increases of at least 5% and a 
package of additional financial support, including lump sum payments, 
to recognise the continuing challenge from the rising cost of living. 

A salary increase of 2.6% will be awarded to the CEO effective 1 April 
2023 taking his salary from £794,375 to £815,000. This increase is 
below the average base pay increase provided to the wider workforce 
of 5%. Further details are provided on page 89. 

Director changes
We announced in January that Russell O’Brien will be appointed 
Group CFO on 1 March 2023. The Committee considered carefully  
the salary that should be offered to Russell O’Brien in his new role. In 
particular, we took account of his considerable relevant experience 
and previous finance and treasurer roles at Shell. We also were aware 
of the competitive landscape for other similar senior and complex roles 
as well as salaries within the ranges paid by the companies which the 
Committee believe are appropriate comparators for the Group. As a 
result, the new CFO’s salary will be £540,000. Other elements of his 
package will be fully in line with the approved Remuneration Policy. 

Kate Ringrose will step down as CFO and an Executive Director on  
28 February 2023 and is expected to leave Centrica towards the end 
of 2023 after an orderly transition. The Committee agreed that Kate  
will be treated as a good leaver for the purposes of her outstanding 
long-term incentive awards, which will be pro-rated to her termination 
date. 

We have deliberated over these individual decisions, and in particular 
the pay outcomes for our CEO in respect of the year ending 
December 2022 and firmly believe that the Remuneration Committee 
must be willing to pay the CEO against his contract for delivering 
exceptional personal leadership of the business in very challenging 
times. We believe that the decisions taken by Chris and his team have 
substantially and positively impacted the business and its ability to 
serve customers and contributed to greater energy stability in 
the market.

The Committee is dedicated to an open and transparent dialogue  
with our shareholders and therefore I welcome views on any part  
of our remuneration arrangements.

Carol Arrowsmith
on behalf of the Remuneration Committee 
15 February 2023

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022At a Glance

How we’ve supported our stakeholders in 2022
2

£50m

Support to help customers during 
the energy crisis

Significant cost of living payments 
made

10%

Of British Gas and Bord Gáis profits  
to be donated until current crisis is over

£25m

Invested in customer service

s
r
e
m
o
t
s
u
C

Annual Incentive Plan (AIP)

18ppt

Increase in colleague engagement

3700

New colleagues joined us

l

s
r
e
d
o
h
e
r
a
h
S

s
e
u
g
a
e

l
l

o
C

87

£250m

Share repurchase programme 
launched

3p

Full year dividend per share

Chris O’Shea CEO

Kate Ringrose CFO

Overall 
outturn 89.5%

Overall 
outturn 83%

N ot achieved

W eighting

A chieved

EPS 

Balanced Scorecard 

Personal 

37.50%

37.50%

25%

Read more on pages 89 to 90

Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP)

N ot achieved

W eighting

A chieved

O utturn

Weighting

Relative TSR
33.33%

UAOCF
22.22%

EP
22.22%

KPIs
22.22%

Relative TSR 

UAOCF 

EP 

KPIs 

33.33%  62.4%

22.22%  100%

22.22%  100%

22.22% 

50%

Read more on pages 90 to 91

Outturn

62.4%

100%

100%

50%

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 
 
 
 
 
 
 
88

Directors’ Annual Remuneration Report

Directors’ remuneration in 2022 
This report sets out information on the remuneration of the Directors for the financial year ended 31 December 2022.

Single figure for total remuneration (audited)

Executives

£000

2022

Chris O’Shea

Kate Ringrose

Total
2021
Chris O’Shea

Kate Ringrose(6)

Total

Salary/ 
fees

Bonus 
(cash)

Bonus 
(deferred)(1)

Benefits(2)

LTIPs(3)

Pension(4)(5)

Total

Total fixed 
remuneration

Total variable 
remuneration

790
459
1,249

775
432
1,207

711
288
999

—
243
243

711
288
999

—
243
243

16
16
32

18
15
33

2,262
—
2,262

—
—
—

—
33
33

82
44
126

4,490
1,084
5,574

875
977
1,852

806
508
1,314

875
491
1,366

3,684
576
4,260

—
486
486

(1) In accordance with the Remuneration Policy, 50% of the bonus is deferred into shares which are held for three years.
(2) Taxable benefits include car allowance, health and medical benefits. Non-taxable benefits include matching shares received under the Share Incentive Plan (SIP). 

Both taxable and non-taxable benefits are included in the table.

(3) The estimated value of the LTIP award that was granted in respect of the 2020-22 performance period is included in the table above, based on a share price of 83.65 

pence (the 3 month average share price for the period ending 31 December 2022). The award will vest in May 2024 and the shares will then be subject to an additional 
two-year holding period. Further details of the performance outcomes are set out on page 90. £766K of the estimated value of the LTIP is attributed to share price growth. 
Dividend equivalents of £22K have been included.

(4) Notional contributions to the Centrica Unapproved Pension Scheme defined contribution section (CUPS DC) for Chris O’Shea and Kate Ringrose have been included 

in this table as if CUPS DC was a cash balance scheme. This includes a deduction in respect of an allowance for CPI inflation on the opening balances of 4.1% in 2022 
(0.7% in 2021).

(5) For Chris O’Shea, the high CPI inflation (4.1%) that was applied to the CUPS DC fund value at the start of the year has offset the poor investment returns achieved over 

the year. Therefore, when comparing the start of year fund value to the year-end value the result is negative which is reflected as zero in the table above.

(6) Kate Ringrose was appointed to the Board on 18 January 2021

Single figure for total remuneration (audited)
Non-Executives

£000

Scott Wheway

Carol Arrowsmith

Nathan Bostock(1)

CP Duggal(2)

Stephen Hester(3)

Pam Kaur(4)

Heidi Mottram

Kevin O’Byrne

Amber Rudd(5)

Total

(1) Nathan Bostock joined the Board on 9 May 2022
(2) CP Duggal joined the Board on 16 December 2022
(3) Stephen Hester stepped down from the Board on 7 June 2022
(4) Pam Kaur stepped down from the Board on 7 June 2022
(5) Amber Rudd joined the Board on 10 January 2022

Salary/fees

Total

2021

410

93

93

73

93

98

2022

410

93

47

3

40

32

93

109

71

2021

410

93

93

73

93

98

2022

410

93

47

3

40

32

93

109

71

898

860

898

860

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Base salary/fees
Pay across the wider workforce
Following a period of negotiation and consultation with our trade 
unions, a pay deal was agreed in December 2022, to apply to UK 
colleagues in 2023. For the majority of colleagues, the pay deal in total 
was worth 10% of salary. This included base salary increases of at 
least 5% and a package of additional financial support, to recognise 
the continuing challenge from the rising cost of living. The additional 
support comprised non-consolidated lump sum payments and the 
backdating of pay increases. This means that our lower paid 
colleagues will receive a total pay increase of 12-13%, and all our 
customer-facing colleagues will receive a total pay increase of at least 
10%, in 2023.

Pay for our Executive and Non-Executive Directors
The base salary for the Group Chief Executive (CEO) and the 
Chairman of the Board were reviewed by the Committee in January 
2023. Taking into consideration the increases across the wider 
workforce, and salary benchmarking data for similar roles 
commensurate in size and complexity with Centrica, the Committee 
determined that the salary for the CEO would be increased by 2.6% to 
£815,000 and the salary for the Chairman of the Board would be 
increased by 2.6% to £420,500.

Non-Executive Director (NED) fee levels were reviewed in December 
2022 and it was agreed the base fees would be increased by 4.8% 
to £76,000. This increase was recommended in order to align the fees 
with the market rate for the FTSE 100, to ensure Centrica is able to 
attract and retain NEDs with sufficient skills, knowledge and 
experience. The increase of 4.8% is below the average increase 
across the wider UK workforce.

The previous base fee for NEDs had been in place since 2016 
and although fees have been reviewed each year, no increase 
has been applied for the past seven years. 

Bonus – Annual Incentive Plan (AIP)
In line with the Remuneration Policy, in 2022 75% of the award 
was based on a mix of financial and business measures based 
on Centrica’s priorities for 2022 and 25% was based on individual 
personal objectives.

The Committee agreed that half of the financial/business performance 
measures for 2022 would be based on an Earnings per Share (EPS) 
target with a defined threshold, target and maximum, as follows:

Adjusted EPS

Threshold

3.6p

Target

6.1p

Max

8.6p

Outcome

34.9p

The EPS outcome was 34.9 pence which was significantly above the 
level for maximum achievement set by the Committee.

In addition, the Committee determined a balanced scorecard for the 
remaining financial and business elements of the AIP. It was agreed 
that there would be no formula to translate the scorecard to a bonus 
outcome and no formal weighting of individual measures. Instead, the 
Committee would discuss performance and consider the overall 
outcome against the balanced scorecard.

The balanced scorecard of measures, targets and outcomes was 
as follows: 

89

Group

BG Energy

BG S&S

BG S&S

Bord Gáis

Measure

Adjusted 
Operating Profit
Free Cash Flow
Net (Debt)/Cash
Complaints
Complaints
Reschedules
Cost to serve

BG Energy

Cost to serve(1)

CBS

EM&T

Order Intake
Opex: GM Ratio

Customer 
numbers

Colleague 
engagement
Progress towards 
climate transition 
plan

Customers on 
Ensek

Target

£642m

Outcome

£2,823m

£468m
£12m
8%
7%
8.5%
€88.9 per 
customer
£92 per 
customer
£428m
51%

10,186,000 
unique 
customers
63%

Make good 
progress against 
the interim 
climate targets of 
Centrica’s People 
& Planet Plan, 
including input 
measures tracked 
on the Climate 
Transition Plan 
dashboard
2m

£2,487m
£1,199m
14.4%
12.6%
6.2%
€108.9 per 
customer
£112 per 
customer
£212m
21%

10,258,000 
unique 
customers
73%

Achieved

2m

(1) British Gas Energy cost to serve per customer excluding bad debt was £83, 

against a target of £83

The Committee carefully considered the outcomes against the EPS 
target and the balanced scorecard measures, determining an outcome 
of 100% against the EPS target and 80% against the balanced 
scorecard. Achievement against the overall financial and business 
targets therefore was at 180% of target.

Each Executive had a set of stretching personal objectives which 
included key non-financial performance indicators (KPIs) that were 
important to the success of the business in 2022. The KPIs were 
cascaded to business and functional leaders to ensure a strong line of 
sight to key priorities through the organisation. 

Chris O’Shea’s objectives for 2022 included delivering against 
significant operational improvements as well as agreeing the longer 
term energy transition plan to deliver a compelling strategic narrative. 
The Committee believes that these objectives were met in full with the 
operational improvements in the Services business, the launch of a 
new business division focused on net zero ventures and the re-
opening of the Rough storage facility. Chris successfully navigated 
challenging regulatory and political issues, continuing to build capability 
and promote a performance and delivery culture whilst delivering 
shareholder value through new investment opportunities and portfolio 
shaping. Based on an assessment of achievement against strategic 
and personal objectives during the year the Committee determined 
that an outcome of above target, at 88% of maximum, against the 
personal objectives element of the annual bonus was appropriate. The 
overall bonus outcome for the CEO was therefore a payment of 
£1,421,931. 

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202290

Kate Ringrose’s objectives for 2022 included improving key capability and cultural structures in the finance and Digital Technology Services 
functions to ensure delivery of the longer-term plan and enabling the Group to deliver the strategy presented to the market. She supported the 
company to navigate the complex challenges and risks of the volatile commodity price environment. Kate made key changes to strengthen her 
leadership teams to ensure reporting and monitoring was more robust. Based on an assessment of achievement against strategic and personal 
objectives during the year, the Committee determined that an outcome of above target, at 62.5% of maximum under the personal objectives 
element of the annual bonus was appropriate. The overall bonus outcome for the CFO was therefore a payment of £575,121.

Long-term incentive awards relating to the performance period 2020-22
Performance conditions
The performance conditions relating to the three-year period ending in 2022 are set out below, together with the achievement against these 
performance conditions. Vesting between stated points is on a straight-line basis.

Financial targets and outcomes
Measures

Relative Total Shareholder Return (TSR)

Underlying adjusted operated cash flow (UAOCF) growth

Absolute aggregate Economic Profit (EP)

Non-financial KPI improvement

(1) Compound annual growth rate.

Weightings

0.333

0.222
0.222
0.222

Threshold (25%)

Maximum (100%)

Targets

FTSE 100 
median
CAGR 2%(1)
1,357m
See below

FTSE 100 
upper quartile
CAGR 5%(1)
£1,797m
See below

Outcomes

62.4%

55.8%
£2,638m
50%

Centrica’s TSR during the three-year performance period was 10.3%, compared with the required threshold level of -1.1%, therefore the TSR 
portion of the LTIP will vest at 62.4%. 

Financial performance across the three-year performance period was strong, resulting in an above maximum outcome against the UAOCF target 
(an outcome of 55.8%) and the absolute aggregate EP target (an outcome of £2,638m).

Non-financial KPI targets and outcomes
KPI improvement relates to closure of the gap between performance at the start of the period (baseline performance) and our long-term 
aspirational goals which are generally aligned with upper quartile market performance. 

Baseline performance

Long-term goal

KPI

Threshold
vesting

Maximum
vesting

We expect the KPI performance gap to close by 25% for threshold vesting and 50% for maximum vesting. The KPI measures, targets and 
outcomes for the 2020-22 cycle were:

Safety

Total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR)(1)

Tier 1 and Tier 2 process safety event frequency rate(1)

Customer satisfaction
Aggregate brand NPS across our customer businesses weighted by 
customer numbers

Complaints per 100,000 customers across our customer businesses 
weighted by customer accounts
Colleague engagement (percentage favourable)

(1) Per 200,000 hours worked.

Baseline 
performance 

Threshold

Maximum

Long-term goal

Outcomes

Targets

1.06
0.08

12.95

3,879

43

0.86
0.073

13.61

3,449

51.5

0.45
0.065

14.26

3,019

60

0.25
0.05

16

1.12
0.00

14

2,159

6,552

77

73

Performance against the non-financial KPIs across the performance period was mixed, with colleague engagement and process safety 
outcomes reaching the maximum level, NPS being 60% between threshold and max, and LTIFR and complaints outcomes not reaching 
threshold. The Committee determined that the level of vesting for this portion of the award would be 50%, to reflect what it considered to be the 
genuine performance of the Company over the performance period.

Overall performance outcome
The LTIP award was granted in May 2021 and therefore it will vest in May 2024, after which the shares are then subject to a mandatory holding 
period of two years. Taking into account the achievement against the financial performance targets, and the agreed outcome against the 
non-financial targets, the Committee approved the overall vesting outcome of 76%. The estimated value of the shares that will vest in respect of 
the three-year performance period, which ended in December 2022, has been included in the single figure for total remuneration on page 88. 
The shares will be released at the end of the holding period, in May 2026.

The Committee looked at a number of factors, including the share price of the award at grant and the strong performance of Centrica compared 
with that of our direct peers and the wider market over the period. Following this review, the Committee concluded that as a result of the 
following actions already taken, the risk of a windfall gain has been sufficiently mitigated: 

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202291

•  At grant, the award level had been reduced to 250% of salary compared to the maximum of 300% of salary to reflect historic share price 

performance (a reduction of 17%). 

•  The delay of the grant as noted above resulted in a share price on grant of 55 pence, compared to if the award had been granted at the 

normal time (which would have been shortly after the onset of COVID-19) at a price of circa 37 pence (a further reduction of 33%).

Assuming the Committee took no action at the time of grant (assumed to be 1 April 2020, in line with the historic grant date), the CEO would 
have been granted 6,265,157 shares at a share price of 37 pence. However the percentage of salary reduction in combination with the delay of 
grant (meaning the share price increased from 37 pence to 55 pence) resulted in a 44% reduction in the number of shares granted to the CEO 
(to 3,522,471). 

Pension
In 2020, it was agreed that the pension contributions for the new and existing Executive Directors would be 10% of base salary to align them 
with the wider UK workforce. In 2022 the pension contribution rate across the UK workforce was 10-14%.

Chris O’Shea and Kate Ringrose participated in the Centrica Unapproved Pension Scheme Defined Contribution section (CUPS DC).

Notional contributions to the CUPS DC scheme have been included in the single figure for total remuneration table as if it was a cash balance 
scheme and therefore notional investment returns for the year have also been included. The notional pension fund balances for each Executive 
are disclosed below:

CUPS DC Scheme(1)

Chris O’Shea(1)

Kate Ringrose(1)(2)

(1) The retirement age for the CUPS DC scheme is 62.
(2) Kate Ringrose was appointed to the Board on 18 January 2021

Total notional  
pension fund as at  
31 December 2022 
£

319,407
78,761

Total notional  
pension fund as at  
31 December 2021  
£

312,710
43,670

Directors’ interests in shares (number of shares) (audited)
The table below shows the interests in the ordinary shares of the Company for all Directors who served on the Board during 2022.

For the Group Chief Executive the minimum shareholding requirement is 300% of base salary and for the Group Chief Financial Officer  
the minimum shareholding requirement is 200% of base salary. The achievement against the requirement is shown below.

Executive Directors have a period of five years from appointment to the Board, or from any material change in the minimum shareholding 
requirement, to build up the required shareholding. Given the remuneration decisions that have been taken over the past three years,  
the Committee recognises that achieving the level of shareholding is challenging.

The Committee continues to keep both the shareholding requirement, and achievement against the shareholding requirement, under review  
and will take appropriate action should they feel it necessary.

A post-cessation shareholding requirement of 100% of the in-employment shareholding requirement (or full actual holding if lower) is applicable 
for two years post-cessation.

Beneficially owned(1)

Shares subject 
to performance 
conditions

Shares vested but 
unexercised

Shares subject to 
continued service 
only(2)

Shares 
exercised 
in the year 

Shareholding 
requirement 
(% of salary)

Current 
shareholding
(% of salary)(3)

Executives

Chris O’Shea(4)(5)

Kate Ringrose(5)

Non-Executives
Carol Arrowsmith

Nathan Bostock

CP Duggal

Stephen Hester

Pam Kaur

Heidi Mottram

Kevin O’Byrne

Amber Rudd(6)

Scott Wheway

598,827
550,579

7,954,419
1,501,143

49,286
27,000
—
20,700
—
10,000
40,000
23,204
110,187

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

—
—

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

1,497,593
725,290

68,689
379,134

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

300
200

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

69
110

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

(1) These shares are owned by the Director or a connected person and they are not, save for exceptional circumstances, subject to continued service or the achievement  
of performance conditions. They include for Executives shares purchased in April 2022 with deferred AIP funds which have mandatory holding periods of three years  
and which will be subject to tax at the end of the holding periods.

(2) Shares owned subject to continued service include RSP shares awarded in 2022 and SIP free and matching shares that have not yet been held for the three-year 

holding period.

(3) The share price used to calculate the achievement against the guideline was 91.94 pence, the price on 31 December 2022.
(4) Chris O’Shea purchased 44,475 shares during the year. Due to LTIP awards granted in 2018 and 2019 not vesting, and the fact that Chris O’Shea has not received  

an Annual Incentive Plan payment with a corresponding deferred bonus award for the last three years, his shareholding is below the projected level. However, he will 
receive shares from the 2022 deferred bonus plan in March 2023, which will increase his achievement against the guideline to 159% of salary.

(5) During the period from 1 January 2023 to 15 February 2023 both Chris O’Shea and Kate Ringrose acquired 361 shares through the SIP. 
(6) During the period from 1 January 2023 to 15 February 2023 Amber Rudd acquired 2,058 shares through the NED Share Purchase Agreement.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202292

Share awards granted in 2022 (audited)
Set out below are details of share awards granted in 2022 to Executive Directors.

2022 RSP

Chris O’Shea

Kate Ringrose

Plan

RSP
RSP

Award Type

Conditional 
Conditional 

Number 
of shares(1)

1,496,336
724,033

Basis of  
award  
% of salary

150%
125%

Face value  
of award  
£

1,191,563
576,563

Vesting  
date

June 2025
June 2025

Release  
date

June 2027
June 2027

(1) The number of shares awarded under the RSP was calculated by reference to a price of 79.6 pence, being the average of the Company’s share price over the five trading 

days immediately preceding the date of grant of 23 June 2022.

The RSP award is measured against an underpin. If the Committee is not satisfied the underpin has been met, the Committee may scale back 
the awards (including to zero). In assessing the underpin, the Committee will consider the Company’s overall performance, including financial and 
non-financial performance measures over the course of the vesting period, as well as any identified material risk or regulatory failures. Financial 
performance will include elements such as revenue, profitability, shareholder experience and return on capital. Non-financial performance will 
include a range of operational and strategic measures critical to the Company’s long-term sustainable success.

For the 2022 award, the factors that the Committee will consider include, but are not limited to the following: 

•  a review of overall financial performance over the three-year vesting period; 
•  whether there have been any sanctions or fines issued by a Regulatory Body (participant responsibility may be allocated collectively or 

individually);

•  whether a major safety incident has occurred which may or may not have consequences for shareholders;
•  whether there has been material damage to the reputation of the Company (participant responsibility may be allocated collectively or 

individually);

•  whether there has been failure to make appropriate progress against our Climate Transition Plan which sets out our ambition to be a net 

zero business by 2045 and help our customers be net zero by 2050;

•  return on capital with reference to the cost of capital;
•  TSR performance over the vesting period, including with reference to the wider energy sector; 
•  management of customer numbers over the vesting period; and
•  progress against broader ESG commitments.

2022 Deferred AIP
The 2022 AIP award was delivered 50% in cash and 50% in deferred shares, which were awarded on 1 April 2022. The face value of the award 
is based on the share price on the date of award, which was 79.65 pence. Deferred shares are not subject to further performance conditions 
and vest following a three-year holding period.

Kate Ringrose

Plan

Award Type

AIP Deferred shares

Number  
of shares

304,549

Face value  
of award  
£000

242,579

Vesting  
date

April 2025

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 20222022 cash flow distribution to stakeholders
The Committee monitors the relationship between the Directors’ total remuneration and cash outflows to other stakeholders. As demonstrated 
by the chart, the Directors’ aggregate total remuneration for the year equates to 0.04% (2021: 0.05%) of the Group’s operating cash flow.

  To staff
  To Directors
  To government
  To shareholders 
  Investing activities 

27%
0.04%
23%
2%
48%

  To staff
  To Directors
  To government
  To shareholders 
  Investing activities 

33%
0.05%
17%
0%
50%

2022

2021

93

Annual percentage change in remuneration of Directors and colleagues 
The table below shows the percentage changes (on a full-time equivalent basis) in the Executive and Non-Executive Directors’ remuneration  
over the last three financial years compared to the amounts for full-time colleagues of the Group for each of the following elements of pay: 

Percentage change from 2019 to 2020

Percentage change from 2020 to 2021

Percentage change from 2021 to 2022

Executive Directors

Salary/fees

Benefits

Bonus

Salary/fees

Benefits

Bonus

Salary/fees

Chris O’Shea(1)(2)(3)

Kate Ringrose(3)

Non-Executive Directors

Scott Wheway

Carol Arrowsmith

Nathan Bostock(4)

CP Duggal(5)

Heidi Mottram

Kevin O’Byrne(6)

Amber Rudd(7)

Average per colleague 
(excluding Directors)(3)

6.3
—

268.8
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

—
—

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
1.1

—
—

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
236.4

—
—

—
—
—
—
27.8
—
—
1.77

-28
—

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
-10.27

—
—

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
16.25

2.5
2.5

—
—
—
—
—
20.51
—
1.89

Benefits

-11.11
6.67

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

Bonus

100
18.72

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
17.82

(1) Chris O’Shea was appointed to the Centrica Board as Group Chief Financial Officer on 1 November 2018 and became interim Group Chief Executive with effect from  
17 March 2020. He was appointed as Group Chief Executive on 14 April 2020. From 17 March until 31 December 2020, he elected to waive £100,000 of his salary.

(2) Chris O’Shea has not been paid a bonus since this disclosure has been included and therefore the payment of a bonus shows the percentage change of 100%.
(3) The comparator group includes all management and technical or specialist colleagues based in the UK in Level 2 to Level 6 (where Level 1 is the Executive and Non-
Executive Directors). There are insufficient colleagues in the Centrica plc employing entity to provide a meaningful comparison. The colleagues selected have been 
employed in their role for full years to give meaningful comparison. The group has been chosen because the colleagues have a remuneration package with a similar 
structure to the Executive Directors, including base salary, benefits and annual bonus. The bonus number relating to 2022 colleagues is an estimate of the payments  
due to be made in March/April 2023.

(4) Nathan Bostock was appointed to the Board on 9 May 2022.
(5) CP Duggal was appointed to the Board on 16 December 2022.
(6) Kevin O’Byrne took on the role of Senior Independent Director from 1 June 2022.
(7) Amber Rudd was appointed to the Board on 10 January 2022.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 
 
 
 
 
 
94

The chart below shows the ratio of remuneration of the CEO to the 
average UK colleague of the Group.

CEO pay ratio
2022
2021
2020

2019

2018

Option B
Option B
Option B
Option B
Option B

25th  
percentile

50th  
percentile

75th  
percentile

128:1
29:1
32:1
34:1
72:1

77:1
24:1
15:1
29:1
59:1

70:1
15:1
14:1
22:1
44:1

For 2020 the CEO total remuneration figure includes the single figure chart combined 
earnings of both Iain Conn and Chris O’Shea for the period that they were in the 
CEO role during 2020.

2022

CEO remuneration

Colleague 25th percentile

Colleague 50th percentile

Colleague 75th percentile

Salary

Total pay and benefits

790,000
25,709
39,984
41,124

4,490,000
35,073
57,939
63,705

The Company has used its gender pay gap data (Option B in the 
Directors’ Reporting Regulations) to determine the colleagues whose 
remuneration packages sit at the lower, median and upper quartile 
positions across the UK workforce. This is deemed the most 
appropriate methodology for Centrica given the different pension  
and benefit arrangements across the diverse UK workforce.  
To ensure this data accurately reflects individuals at each quartile 
position, a sensitivity analysis has been performed. The approach 
has been to review the total pay and benefits for a number of 
colleagues immediately above and below the identified colleague 
at each quartile within the gender pay gap analysis. 

The annual remuneration for the three identified colleagues has been 
calculated on the same basis as the CEO’s total remuneration for the 
same period in the single figure table on page 88 to produce the ratios.

The ratio of CEO pay compared with the pay for the average colleague 
has increased in 2022 due to the disclosure of an annual bonus and 
an LTIP award for the CEO. The CEO has not received any payment 
from a long-term award since joining Centrica, nor an annual bonus 
since 2018. In 2022, a large proportion of CEO remuneration was 
delivered through the LTIP which was measured over a three-year 
performance period, from 2020-2022. The LTIP will be released in 
shares in 2026. In future, long-term incentives will be delivered to the 
CEO through the Restricted Share Plan which has a lower overall 
quantum, at 50% of the previous LTIP. The Company believes the 
ratios are appropriate given financial and business performance 
outcomes in 2022, and the size and complexity of the business.

Pay for performance
The table below shows the CEO’s total remuneration over the last 10 
years and the achieved annual short-term and long-term incentive pay 
awards as a percentage of the plan maximum.

Chief Executive 
single figure for total 
remuneration £000

Annual short-term 
incentive payout 
against max 
opportunity  
%

Long-term incentive 
vesting against max 
opportunity  
%

Chris O’Shea
2022
2021
2020

Iain Conn
2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

Sam Laidlaw
2014

2013

4,490
875
765

239
1,186
2,335
1,678
4,040
3,025

3,272
2,235

89.5
0
0

0
0
41
0
82
63

34
50

76
0
0

0
0
18
26
0
0

35
0

For 2020 the single figure for total remuneration for both Iain Conn and Chris O’Shea 
are shown. The total remuneration figure for Chris O’Shea includes his earnings 
during 2020 as CFO and CEO. 

The performance graph below shows Centrica’s TSR performance 
against the performance of the FTSE 100 Index over the 10-year 
period to 31 December 2022. The FTSE 100 Index has been chosen 
as it is an index of similar-sized companies and Centrica has been 
a constituent member throughout the majority of the period.

Total return indices – Centrica and FTSE 100

200

150

100

50

0

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Centrica Total return index
Source: Datastream from Refinitiv

FTSE 100 Total return index

Fees received for external appointments 
of Executive Directors
There were no fees received for external appointments. Kate Ringrose 
represented Centrica as a non-executive director of EDF Energy 
Nuclear Generation Group Limited and Lake Acquisitions Limited. 
She received no fees or remuneration relating to these external 
appointments in 2022.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Relative importance of spend on pay 
The table below shows the percentage change in total remuneration 
paid to all colleagues compared to expenditure on dividends and share 
buyback for the years ended 31 December 2021 and 2022.

Share repurchase(1)

Dividends

Staff and employee costs(2)

2022  
£m

43
59
1,440

2021  
£m

0
0
1,247

%  
Change

N/A
N/A
15

(1) 47,201,133 shares were purchased during 2022 as part of the share buyback 

arrangement

(2) Staff and employee costs are as per note 5 in the notes to the Financial 

Statements.

Payments to past Directors (audited)
During 2022, no payments were made to past Directors with the 
exception of the payments disclosed in the single figure for total 
remuneration table on page 88.

Payments for loss of office (audited)
No payments for loss of office were made in 2022.

Advice to the Remuneration Committee 
Following a competitive tender process, PwC was appointed as 
independent external advisor to the Committee in May 2017.

PwC also provided advice to Centrica globally during 2022 in the areas 
of employment taxes, regulatory risk and compliance issues and 
additional consultancy services.

PwC’s fees for advice to the Committee during 2022 amounted  
to £132,900 which included the preparation for and attendance 
at Committee meetings. The fees were charged on a time spent  
basis in delivering advice that materially assisted the Committee in 
its consideration of matters relating to executive remuneration.

The Committee takes into account the Remuneration Consultants 
Group’s (RCG) Code of Conduct when dealing with its advisors. PwC 
is a member of the RCG and the Committee is satisfied that the advice 
it received during the year was objective and independent and that the 
provision of any other services by PwC in no way compromises 
their independence.

Statement of voting
Shareholder voting on the resolutions to approve the Directors’ 
Remuneration Policy, and the Directors’ Remuneration Report,  
put to the 2022 AGM, was as follows:

Directors’ Remuneration Policy
Votes for

%

Votes against

3,132,342,144

83.48

619,903,528

1,275,033 votes were withheld.

Directors’ Remuneration Report
Votes for

%

Votes against

3,628,823,825

96.71

123,420,614

1,247,419 votes were withheld.

%

16.52

%

3.29

Implementation in the next financial year
Base salaries for Executive Directors were reviewed in January 2023 
and the Committee determined that increases would be applied to  
the salary of the CEO and the Chairman of the Board. Salaries for the 
Non-Executive Directors were approved by the Board in December 

95

2022 and the base fee was increased with effect from 1 January 2023. 
See further detail on page 89.

AIP awards will be in line with the limits set out in the Remuneration 
Policy table, not exceeding 200% of base salary. At least 75% of the 
award will be based on a mix of financial and business measures 
based on Centrica’s priorities for the forthcoming year and up to 25% 
will be based on strategic and personal objectives. The financial 
targets will align with the Group Annual Plan.

The Committee carefully considered the impact of this year’s 
exceptional movement in commodity prices on performance 
compared to the targets set at the start of the year. Even after 
excluding the positive impact of commodity prices on our infrastructure 
businesses this year, the underlying financial performance was still 
above the maximum level for the AIP. We intend to continue to exclude 
the impact of commodity prices on our infrastructure in future years.

The targets are considered commercially sensitive until the end of the 
financial year and will therefore be disclosed retrospectively in the 
Remuneration Report for 2023.

Restricted Share Plan (RSP) awards will be granted to the Executives. 
In line with the previous year the awards will be 150% of salary for the 
CEO and 125% of salary for the Group Chief Financial Officer.

The RSP awards will vest after three years, subject to a performance 
underpin, with an additional two-year post-vesting holding period.

In line with the Remuneration Policy, vesting will be contingent  
on the satisfaction of a discretionary underpin, assessed over  
a three-year period.

In assessing the underpin, the Committee will consider the Company’s 
overall performance, including financial and non-financial performance 
measures over the course of the vesting period, as well as any material 
risk or regulatory failures identified. Financial performance will include 
elements such as revenue, profitability, shareholder experience and 
return on capital. Non-financial performance will include a range of 
operational and strategic measures critical to the Company’s long-term 
sustainable success.

For the 2023 award, the factors that the Committee will consider 
include, but are not limited to the following: 

•  a review of overall financial performance over the three-year 

vesting period; 

•  whether there have been any sanctions or fines issued by a 
Regulatory Body (participant responsibility may be allocated 
collectively or individually);

•  whether a major safety incident has occurred which may or may 

not have consequences for shareholders;

•  whether there has been material damage to the reputation of the 
Company (participant responsibility may be allocated collectively 
or individually);

•  whether there has been failure to make appropriate progress 

against our Climate Transition Plan which sets out our ambition 
to be a net zero business by 2045 and help our customers  
be net zero by 2050;

•  return on capital with reference to the cost of capital;
•  TSR performance over the vesting period, including with 

reference to the wider energy sector;

•  management of customer numbers over the vesting period; and

•  progress against broader ESG commitments including customer 
service, colleague engagement and our transition to net zero.

The Remuneration Report has been approved by the Board 
of Directors and signed on its behalf by:

Raj Roy
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary 
15 February 2023

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202296

Directors’ Remuneration Policy
The Remuneration Policy was approved by shareholders at the AGM 
on 7 June 2022.

This section contains a summary of Centrica’s Directors’ Remuneration 
Policy (Policy) that will govern and guide the Group’s future 
remuneration payments. The full version can be found on our website 
at centrica.com.

The Policy operated as intended in 2022. 

Objectives of the Policy
The Policy aims to deliver remuneration arrangements that:

•  attract and retain high-calibre Executives in a challenging and 

competitive global business environment;

•  place strong emphasis on both short-term and long-term 

performance;

•  are strongly aligned to the achievement of strategic objectives 
and the delivery of sustainable long-term shareholder value 
through returns and growth; and

•  seek to avoid creating excessive risks in the achievement of 

performance targets.

Summary of Policy design
Summary of Policy design

Fixed remuneration

Annual Incentive Plan (AIP)

Restricted Share Plan (RSP)

Pension

Base  
pay

Benefits

Mix of financial, business and strategic measures

Underpin aligned to strategic priorities

50% of award deferred into  
shares for three years

Three-year performance period followed  
by two-year holding period

Malus and clawback

How the Policy links to our Strategy 
At Centrica we are strongly led by our Purpose – “to help customers 
live sustainably, simply and affordably”. Our Strategy is driven by our 
Purpose and our enduring Values at Centrica underpin our delivery 
and culture. Whilst we have evolved our Strategy to help meet the 
challenges of today and prepare us for a net zero future, our Values 
remain firmly embedded in who we are and give direction to everything 
we do.

Further information on our Purpose and Values is set out on page 7.

We need to engage our leadership team to fulfil our Purpose and to 
ensure Centrica is focused on delivery and positioned for growth.

The AIP focuses the Executives on the delivery of our near-term 
objectives, with at least 75% of the award based on a mix of financial 
and business measures based on Centrica’s priorities for the 
forthcoming year and up to 25% based on individual strategic and 
personal objectives for the year. All targets align with the Group 
Annual Plan.

An RSP is the most appropriate long-term incentive vehicle for our 
Executives as it reduces the upper limit of payment and is aligned  
with our goal to simplify all aspects of our business. Potential payouts 
from restricted shares are far less variable than conventional 
long-term incentives.

The RSP has a three-year vesting period and the Committee will 
consider the Company’s overall financial and non-financial 
performance during this period. Consideration will be given to 
elements such as revenue, profitability, shareholder experience and 
Centrica’s progress towards a net zero future.

As we continue to restore shareholder value, the RSP will ensure a 
large proportion of our Executives’ pay is based on direct and 
uninhibited share price movement. 

We operate an RSP for leaders below the most senior management 
and this approach therefore creates alignment between our Executives 
and our senior colleagues.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Policy table for Executives
The following table summarises each element of the Policy for the Executives.  

Purpose and  
link to strategy

Operation and  
clawback

Maximum  
opportunity

Performance  
measures

97

Not applicable.

Usually, base salary increases in 
percentage terms will be within the 
range of increases awarded to other 
employees of the Group. 

Increases may be made above this  
level to take account of individual 
circumstances such as a change in 
responsibility, progression/development 
in the role or a significant increase  
in the scale or size of the role. 

Maximum of 200% of base salary 
earned during the financial year.  
For threshold performance, up to 25% 
of the maximum opportunity will pay 
out. For on-target performance, 50% of 
the maximum opportunity will pay out. 

At least 75% based on a mix 
of financial performance and 
business measures aligned  
to Centrica’s priorities for the 
forthcoming financial year and 
up to 25% based on individual 
objectives aligned to the 
Group’s priorities and strategy.

Performance is assessed over 
one financial year.

Base pay/salary

Reflects the scope and 
responsibility of the role 
and the skills and 
experience of the 
individual. 

Salaries are set at a level 
sufficient for the Group to 
compete for international 
talent and to attract and 
retain Executives of the 
calibre required to 
develop and deliver our 
Strategy.

Base salaries are reviewed annually 
taking into account individual and 
business performance, market 
conditions and pay in the Group  
as a whole.

When determining base salary levels, 
the Committee will consider factors 
including:
•  remuneration practices within  

the Group; 

•  change in scope, role and 

responsibilities; 

•  the performance of the Group; 
•  experience of the Executive; 
•  the economic environment; and
•  when the Committee determines  

a benchmarking exercise is 
appropriate, salaries within the ranges 
paid by the companies which the 
Committee believe are appropriate 
comparators for the Group.

Annual Incentive Plan (AIP)

Designed to incentivise and 
reward the performance of 
individuals in the delivery of 
short-term financial and 
non-financial metrics. 

In line with the Group’s annual 
performance management process, 
each Executive has an agreed set  
of stretching individual objectives  
for each financial year. 

Performance measures 
are linked to the delivery 
of the Group’s long-term 
financial goals and key 
Group priorities. 

Following the end of the financial year, 
to the extent that performance criteria 
have been met, up to half of the AIP 
award is paid in cash.

To further align the interests of 
Executives with the long-term interests 
of shareholders, the remainder is paid  
in deferred shares which are held for 
three years. No further performance 
conditions will apply to the deferred 
element of the AIP award.

Dividend equivalents may be paid  
as additional shares or cash. 

Malus and clawback apply to the cash 
and share awards.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202298

Purpose and  
link to strategy

Operation and  
clawback

Maximum  
opportunity

Performance  
measures

Restricted share plan (RSP)

The maximum opportunity for RSP 
awards will be 150% of salary earned 
during the financial year for Executives.

Designed to reward and 
incentivise the delivery of 
long-term performance 
and shareholder value 
creation.

RSP awards granted to Executives will 
normally vest after three years subject 
to the achievement of an underpin, and 
are subject to a two-year post-vesting 
holding period during which the 
Executives may not normally dispose  
of their vested shares except as is 
necessary to pay tax and social security 
contributions arising in respect of their 
RSP awards.

Dividend equivalents are accrued  
during the vesting period and calculated 
on vesting on any RSP share awards. 
Dividend equivalents are paid as 
additional shares or as cash.

Malus and clawback apply to the 
awards.

The RSP will be subject to  
an underpin framework.  
In assessing the underpin,  
the Committee will consider 
the Company’s overall 
performance, including 
financial and non-financial 
performance measures over 
the course of the vesting 
period as well as any material 
risk or regulatory failures 
identified.

Financial performance can 
include elements such  
as revenue, profitability, 
shareholder experience and 
return on capital. Non-financial 
performance can include a 
range of operational and 
strategic measures critical  
to the Company’s long-term 
sustainable success.

The Committee may scale 
back the awards (including  
to zero) if it is not satisfied  
the underpin has been met.

Not applicable.

Executives are entitled to participate in 
a Company money purchase pension 
arrangement or to take a fixed salary 
supplement (calculated as a percentage 
of base salary, which is excluded from 
any AIP calculation) in lieu of pension 
entitlement. 

The Group’s policy is not to offer 
defined benefit arrangements to new 
employees at any level, unless this  
is specifically required by applicable 
legislation or an existing contractual 
agreement.

The Group offers Executives a range of 
benefits including (but not limited to): 
•  a company-provided car and fuel,  

or a cash allowance in lieu; 

•  life assurance and personal accident 

insurance; 

•  health and medical insurance for the 
Executive and their dependants; and
•  health screening and wellbeing services.

Pensions

Positioned to provide  
a market competitive 
post-retirement benefit,  
in a way that manages 
the overall cost to the 
Company.

Benefits

Positioned to support 
health and wellbeing and 
to provide a competitive 
package of benefits that 
is aligned with market 
practice.

All-employee share plans

Provides an opportunity 
for employees to 
voluntarily invest in the 
Company.

The maximum benefit for Executives is 
10% of base salary earned during the 
financial year. This compares with the 
average pension benefit across the 
wider UK workforce, currently 10-14% 
of salary.

Cash allowance in lieu of company  
car – currently £15,120 per annum. 

The benefit in kind value of other 
benefits will not exceed 5%  
of base salary. 

Not applicable.

Executives are entitled to participate in 
all-employee share plans on the same 
terms as all other eligible employees.

Maximum contribution limits are set  
by legislation or by the rules of each 
plan. Levels of participation apply 
equally to all participants.

Not applicable.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 202299

Performance  
measures

Not applicable. 

Purpose and  
link to strategy

Operation and  
clawback

Maximum  
opportunity

Shareholding requirements 

To align the interests  
of Executives with 
shareholders over  
a long-term period 
including after departure 
from the Group.

In-employment requirement 
During employment, the CEO and CFO 
are required to build and maintain a 
minimum shareholding of 300% and 
200% of their base salary respectively.

Executives must also hold 100% of 
vested incentive shares (net of tax) until 
the shareholding requirement is met. 

Post-employment requirement 
Executives are required to hold shares 
after cessation of employment to the full 
value of the shareholding requirement 
(or the existing shareholding if lower at 
the time) for a period of two years. 
Shares purchased by Executives with 
their own monies are excluded from the 
post-employment requirement. 

In-employment requirement 
The current shareholding requirement is 
maintained at 300% of base salary for 
the CEO and 200% of base salary for 
the CFO. 

Post-employment requirement 
Executive Directors will be expected to 
retain the lower of the shares held at 
cessation of employment and shares to 
the value of 300% of base salary for the 
CEO and 200% of base salary for the 
CFO for a period of two years. 

Only shares earned from vested 
incentives will be included within the 
post-employment shareholding 
requirement.

Notes to the Policy table
The Committee reserves the right to make any remuneration payments 
and payments for loss of office, notwithstanding that they are not in 
line with the Policy set out on pages 96 to 103, where the terms of  
the payment were agreed before the Policy came into effect, at a time 
when the relevant individual was not an Executive of the Company or, 
in the opinion of the Committee, the payment was not in consideration 
for the individual becoming an Executive of the Company. For these 
purposes payments include the amounts paid in order to satisfy 
awards of variable remuneration and, in relation to an award over 
shares, the terms of the payment are agreed at the time the award is 
granted. This includes satisfying LTIP awards granted in accordance 
with historic remuneration policies.

The Committee may make minor amendments to the Policy (for 
regulatory, exchange control, tax or administrative purposes or to take 
account of a change in legislation) without obtaining shareholder 
approval for that amendment.

Malus and clawback 
In line with UK corporate governance best practice, the Committee 
can apply malus (that is reduce the number of shares in respect  
of which an award vests) or delay the vesting of awards. In addition, 
where an award has vested, the resulting shares will generally be  
held for a period during which they may be subject to clawback.  
The following provisions apply:

•  AIP – cash awards: malus will apply up to the payment of the 
cash AIP award and clawback will apply for a period of three 
years after the cash AIP payment;

•  AIP – deferred shares: clawback will apply during the vesting 
period of three years following the payment of the cash AIP 
award to which the deferred shares relate;

•  historic LTIP awards: malus will apply during the vesting period 

and up to the date of vesting and clawback will apply for a period 
of two years post-vesting; and

•  RSP awards: malus will apply during the vesting period and  

up to the date of vesting and clawback will apply for a period  
of two years post-vesting.

Legacy awards are governed by the malus and clawback provisions 
within the respective policy and plan rules. For awards granted under 
the Policy malus and clawback provisions may be applied in the 
following circumstances: 

•  material financial misstatement; 
•  where an award was granted, or performance was assessed, 
based on an error or inaccurate or misleading information; 
•  action or conduct of a participant amounts to fraud or gross 

misconduct; 

•  events or the behaviour of a participant have led to censure 
of the Company or Group by a regulatory authority or cause 
significant detrimental reputational damage;

•  material failure of risk management; or 
•  corporate failure.

Pension arrangements applying to Executives
All registered scheme benefits are subject to HMRC guidelines  
and the Lifetime Allowance. 

The Centrica Unapproved Pension Scheme (CUPS) defined 
contribution (DC) section provides benefits for individuals not eligible  
to join the CUPS defined benefit (DB) section and for whom registered 
scheme benefits are expected to exceed the Lifetime Allowance.  
The CUPS DC section is offered as a direct alternative to a cash  
salary supplement. 

CUPS is unfunded but the benefits are secured by a charge over 
certain Centrica assets. An appropriate provision in respect of the 
accrued value of these benefits has been made in the Company’s 
balance sheet. 

The Centrica Pension Plan (CPP) is a registered defined benefit plan 
which is closed to new members.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022100

Discretion and judgement
It is important that the Committee maintains the flexibility to apply 
discretion and judgement to achieve fair outcomes as no remuneration 
policy and framework, however carefully designed and implemented, 
can pre-empt every possible scenario. The Committee needs to be 
able to exercise appropriate discretion to determine whether 
mechanistic or formulaic outcomes are fair, in context and can be 
applied in an upward or downward manner when required. 

Judgement is applied appropriately by the Committee, for example 
when considering the political and social pressures on the business, 
the impact of significant movements in external factors such as 
commodity prices, in setting and evaluating delivery against individual 
and non-financial performance targets to ensure they are considered 
sufficiently stretching and that the maximum and minimum levels are 
appropriate and fair. 

The Committee has absolute discretion to decide who receives 
awards, the level of the awards under the incentive plans and the 
timing, within the parameters set in the rules and the limits in the 
Policy table.

Recruitment Policy
The Committee will apply the same Policy during the policy period  
as that which applies to existing Executives when considering  
the recruitment of a new Executive in respect of all elements  
of remuneration as set out in the Policy table. 

Whilst the maximum level of remuneration which may be granted 
would be within plan rules and ordinarily subject to the maximum 
opportunity set out in the Policy table, in certain circumstances,  
an arrangement may be established specifically to facilitate recruitment 
of a particular individual up to 25% above the maximum opportunity, 
albeit that any such arrangement would be made within the context  
of minimising the cost to the Company. 

The policy for the recruitment of Executives during the policy period 
includes the opportunity to provide a level of compensation for 
forfeiture of annual bonus entitlements and/or unvested long-term 
incentive awards (at a value no greater than what is forfeit) from an 
existing employer, if any, and the additional provision of benefits in 
kind, pensions and other allowances, as may be required in order to 
achieve a successful recruitment. The Company has a clear 
preference to use shares wherever possible and will apply timescales 
at least as long as previous awards.

Details of the relocation and expatriate assistance that may be available as part of the recruitment process can be found in the table below.

Relocation and expatriate assistance

Purpose and link to strategy

Operation and clawback

Maximum opportunity
Performance measures
Changes

Enables the Group to recruit or promote the appropriate individual into a 
role, to retain key skills and to provide career opportunities.
Assistance may include (but is not limited to) removal and other relocation 
costs, housing or temporary accommodation, education, home leave, 
repatriation and tax equalisation.
Maximum of 100% of base salary. 
Not applicable. 
No changes.

Service contracts
Service contracts provide that either the Executive or the Company may terminate the employment by giving one year’s written notice. The 
Committee retains a level of flexibility, as permitted by the UK Corporate Governance Code 2018, in order to attract and retain suitable 
candidates. It reserves the right to offer contracts which contain an initial notice period in excess of one year, provided that at the end of the first 
such period the notice period reduces to one year. All Executive and Non-Executive Directors are required to be re-elected at each AGM.

Executive Director

Chris O’Shea

Kate Ringrose

Date of appointment to role

Date of current contract Notice from the Company

Notice from the individual

1 November 2018

10 December 2020

18 January 2021

17 January 2021

12 months

12 months

12 months

12 months

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Termination policy 
The Committee carefully considers compensation commitments in the event of an Executive’s termination. The aim is to avoid rewarding poor 
performance and to reduce compensation to reflect the departing Executive’s obligations and to mitigate losses. 

Remuneration element Scenario

Payment

101

Base salary, pension 
and other benefits

Dismissal with cause

All other scenarios

AIP

Dismissal with cause
Resignation

Change of control

Exceptions*

LTIP and RSP

Dismissal with cause or 
resignation
Change of control

Exceptions*

No further payments made except those that an individual may be contractually entitled 
to. 
Either continue to provide base salary, pension and other benefits for any unworked 
period of notice or, at the option of the Company, to make a payment in lieu of notice. 

Typically any payment in lieu of notice will be made in monthly instalments and reduce,  
or cease completely, in the event that remuneration from new employment is received.
AIP award and any deferred awards will be forfeit. 
Executives leaving as a result of resignation will forfeit any potential AIP award for the 
performance year in which the resignation occurs. 
The AIP award will be pro-rated for time (based on the proportion of the AIP period 
elapsed at the date of change of control). 

The Committee has discretion to determine that the AIP does not pay out on change  
of control and will continue under the terms of the acquiring entity. 

The Committee has discretion to dis-apply pro-rating in exceptional circumstances. 

Deferred awards may vest immediately or be exchanged for new equivalent awards  
in the acquirer where appropriate. 
An AIP award for the year in which the termination occurs may be made following the 
normal year-end assessment process, subject to achievement of the agreed performance 
measures and time apportioned for the period worked.

Any award would normally be payable at the normal time with a 50% deferral in line with 
the Policy table.

The Committee has discretion to accelerate the vesting of deferred awards.
All unvested awards will lapse. 

Existing awards will be exchanged on similar terms or vest to the extent that the 
performance conditions have been met at the date of the event and be time-apportioned 
to the date of the event or the vesting date, subject to the overriding discretion of the 
Committee.
Any outstanding awards will normally be pro-rated for time based on the proportion  
of the performance and/or vesting period elapsed. 

Performance will be measured at the end of the performance period.

On death, awards may vest earlier than the normal date.

The Committee has the discretion to dis-apply pro-rating or accelerate testing  
of performance conditions in exceptional circumstances.

 * Exceptions are defined by the plan rules and include those leaving due to the following reasons: ill health, disability, redundancy, retirement (with agreement from the 

Company), death, or any other reason that the Committee determines appropriate.

Following termination, awards continue to be subject to malus and clawback provisions in line with those set out in the rules and the Policy. 

Pay fairness across the Group
The Group operates in a number of different environments and has many employees who carry out a range of diverse roles across a number  
of countries. In consideration of pay fairness across the Group, the Committee believes that ratios related to market competitive pay for each  
role profile in each distinct geography are the most helpful. 

The ratios of salary to the relevant market median are compared for all permanent employees across the Group and are updated using salary 
survey benchmarking data on an annual basis. 

Unlike the significant majority of the workforce who receive largely fixed remuneration, mainly in the form of salary, the most significant 
component of Executive compensation is variable and dependent on performance. As such, the Committee reviews total compensation  
for Executives against benchmarks rather than salary alone. 

A number of performance-related incentive schemes are operated across the Group which differ in terms of structure and metrics from those 
applying to Executives. 

The Group also offers a number of all-employee share schemes and Executives participate on the same basis as other eligible employees. 

Performance measures applying to Executives are cascaded down through the organisation. Group employment conditions include high 
standards of health and safety and employee wellbeing initiatives. 

External appointments of Executives 
It is the Company’s policy to allow each Executive to accept one non-executive directorship of another company, although the Board retains  
the discretion to vary this policy. Fees received in respect of external appointments are retained by the individual Executive and are set out  
in the Directors’ Annual Remuneration Report each year.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022102

Consideration of the UK Corporate Governance Code 
As part of its review of the Policy, the Committee has considered the factors set out in provision 40 and provision 41 of the UK Corporate 
Governance Code 2018 (Code). In the Committee’s view, the proposed Policy addresses those factors as set out below:

Principles of the Code

Clarity 

Remuneration arrangements should be transparent and promote effective 
engagement with shareholders and the workforce

Simplicity

Remuneration structures should avoid complexity and their rationale and operation 
should be easy to understand

Risk

Remuneration arrangements should ensure reputational and other risks from 
excessive rewards, and behavioural risks that can arise from target-based incentive 
plans, are identified and mitigated

Predictability

The range of possible values of rewards to individual directors and any other limits 
or discretions should be identified and explained at the time of approving the Policy

Proportionality

The link between individual awards, the delivery of strategy and the long-term 
performance of the Group should be clear. Outcomes should not reward poor 
performance

Alignment to culture

Incentive schemes should drive behaviours consistent with the Group’s purpose, 
values and strategy

How the Policy aligns

The Policy is simple and designed to support long-term, sustainable performance. 
Shareholders were extensively consulted in the design of the Policy, and the key 
rationale for the changes that were made. The Policy received shareholder approval 
at the AGM in June 2022.The Committee proactively seeks engagement with 
shareholders on remuneration matters on an ongoing basis. 

During the year, consultation took place with recognised trade unions on pay  
across the wider workforce. No direct engagement with the workforce occurred  
on executive remuneration. 

In order to enhance the level of engagement with our employees going forward, a 
Shadow Board, comprising colleagues across the business and in different locations, 
has been launched. Through the Shadow Board, colleagues will be able to discuss 
and share views on executive pay. During 2022, the Shadow Board was focused on 
establishing itself and beginning to engage with the Centrica Leadership Team and 
the Senior Leadership Team, although executive pay was not discussed. Details of 
how the Shadow Board engaged in discussions on executive pay will be disclosed in 
next year’s Directors’ Remuneration Report and on an ongoing basis.

The latest Policy results in a clear simplification of remuneration arrangements 
through the replacement of a performance share plan, with a simpler restricted  
share plan. 

We further operate an annual incentive (the AIP) with a straightforward deferral 
structure to allow it to be easily understood.

The performance conditions for variable elements are clearly communicated to,  
and understood by, participants and aligned with strategy.

The majority of the Executives’ total remuneration is weighted towards variable  
pay (and provided in shares).

The arrangements result in a reduced risk of excessive reward, through lower 
quantum for the Executive team alongside an increased discouragement of 
excessive risk-taking behaviour through the use of a post-employment shareholding 
requirement.

The Committee also retains discretion to override formulaic outcomes for incentive 
plans. Malus and clawback provisions mitigate behavioural risks by enabling 
payments to be reduced or reclaimed in specific circumstances.

The Policy sets out the maximum potential value for each element of remuneration 
subject to the achievement of performance conditions.

The potential total remuneration outcomes are easily quantifiable and are set out in 
the illustrations provided in the Policy.

As highlighted in Risk, the Committee has discretion to override formulaic outcomes 
if they were deemed to be inappropriate. 

Remuneration is appropriately balanced between fixed and variable pay. 

Short-term performance targets are linked to the Group’s strategy and the use of 
deferral in the AIP ensures a link to long-term performance through this element.

The introduction of an RSP ensures a strong link to long-term performance as 
executive reward is directly linked to the share price of the Company.

The short-term incentive plans are measured against performance measures which 
underpin the Group’s culture and strategy. 

The incentive structure is cascaded through the top six levels of the organisation 
ensuring that it drives the same behaviours across the Group. 

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Non-Executive Directors’ remuneration
Remuneration Policy
Centrica’s policy on Non-Executive Directors’ (Non-Executives) fees takes into account the need to attract high-calibre individuals required  
to support the delivery of our strategy.

Remuneration Policy table

Purpose and  
link to strategy

Operation and  
clawback

Maximum  
opportunity

Performance  
measures

103

Chairman and Non-Executive Director Fees 

Sufficient level to secure 
the services of 
individuals possessing 
the skills, knowledge 
and experience to 
support and oversee the 
Executive Directors in 
their execution of the 
Board’s approved 
strategies and 
operational plans.

Fees reflect market 
practice as well as the 
responsibilities and time 
commitment required by 
our Non-Executives.

The fee levels for the Chairman are 
reviewed every two years by the 
Remuneration Committee.  
The fee levels of the Non-Executives are 
reviewed at least every two years.  
Non-Executives are paid a base fee for 
their services. Where individuals serve as 
Chair of a Committee of the Board, 
additional fees are payable. The Senior 
Independent Director also receives an 
additional fee. 

The Company reserves the right to pay a 
Committee membership fee in addition 
to the base fees. 

Current fee levels (applying from 1 January 2023)(1):

Chairman of the Board

Basic fee for Non-Executives

Additional fees

Chair of Audit and Risk Committee

Chair of Remuneration Committee

Chair of Safety, Environment and Sustainability Committee

Senior Independent Director

Employee Champion

The maximum level of fees payable to 
Non-Executives, in aggregate, is set out 
in the Articles of Association.

Not applicable. 

up to £495,000

£76,000

£25,000

£20,000

£20,000

£20,000

£20,000

(1) Non-Executive Director (NED) fee levels were reviewed in December 2022 and it was agreed the base fees would be increased by 4.8%. Further details can be found  

on page 89.

Recruitment policy
The policy on the recruitment of new Non-Executives during the policy period would be to apply the same remuneration elements as for the 
existing Non-Executives. It is not intended that variable pay, day rates or benefits in kind be offered, although in exceptional circumstances such 
remuneration may be required in currently unforeseen circumstances. The Committee will include in future Remuneration Reports details of the 
implementation of the policy as utilised during the policy period in respect of any such recruitment to the Board.

Terms of appointment 
Non-Executives, including the Chairman, do not have service contracts. Their appointments are subject to Letters of Appointment and the 
Articles of Association. All Non-Executives are required to be re-elected at each AGM. The date of appointment and the most recent re-
appointment and the length of service for each NED are shown in the table below:

Non-Executive Director

Date of appointment to role

Date of re-appointment Notice from the Company

Notice from the individual

Scott Wheway

Carol Arrowsmith

Stephen Hester

Pam Kaur

Amber Rudd

Nathan Bostock

CP Duggal

Heidi Mottram

Kevin O’Byrne

1 May 2016

11 June 2020

1 June 2016

1 February 2019

10 January 2022

9 May 2022

16 December 2022

1 January 2020

13 May 2019

7 June 2022

7 June 2022

7 June 2022

7 June 2022

7 June 2022

7 June 2022

–

7 June 2022

7 June 2022

6 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

6 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

3 months

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022104

Other Statutory Information

Index to Directors’ Report and other disclosures

70

104

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Articles of Association

108 to 120

Audit Information

62 to 65

8 to 9

Board of Directors

Business Model

52 and 260

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions

Conflicts of Interest

Directors’ indemnities and insurance

Directors’ service contracts and letters 
of appointment

Directors’ share interests

Disclosure required under Listing Rule 
9.8.4 R

Diversity

Dividends

Events after the balance sheet date

Financial instruments

60

105

103

91

105

40 and 258

Note 11
Page 155
Note 26
Page 186
Notes 19, S2 and 
S6 on pages 172, 
188 to 199, 210 
to 213

2 to 54

Future developments

71

73

104

37 to 42

105

Note S8
Page 215

10 to 44

1

28 to 33

66 to 69

105

44 and 71

12 to 13

39 to 43

46 to 54

Human rights

Internal control over financial reporting

Material shareholdings

People

Political donations and expenditure

Related party transactions

Results

Risk management

Section 172(1) statement (Director’s Duty)

Share capital

Speak Up

Stakeholder engagement (including 
employees, suppliers and customers)

Sustainability

TCFD

8, 13, 37 to 38, 
44, 45, 57, 71, 84, 
89, 101 and 105

The Company’s approach to investing in 
and rewarding its workforce

The Directors submit their Annual Report and Accounts for Centrica 
plc, together with the consolidated Financial Statements of the 
Centrica group of companies, for the year ended 31 December 2022. 
The Directors’ Report required under the Companies Act 2006 (the 
‘Act’) comprises this Directors’ and Corporate Governance Report 
(pages 56 to 106) including the TCFD section for disclosure of our 
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Strategic Report (page 52). 
The management report required under Disclosure Guidance and 
Transparency Rule 4.1.5 R comprises the Strategic Report (pages 2  
to 54) (which includes the risks relating to our business), Shareholder 
Information (page 252) and details of acquisitions and disposals made 
by the Group during the year in note 12 (pages 156 to 158). The 
Strategic Report on pages 2 to 54 fulfils the requirements set out in 
Section 414 of the Act. This Directors’ and Corporate Governance 
Report fulfils the requirements of the corporate governance statement 
required under Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rule 7.2.1.

Articles of Association (‘Articles’)
The Company’s Articles were adopted at the 2019 Annual General 
Meeting (AGM) and may only be amended by a special resolution of 
the shareholders. The Articles include various rules outlining the 
running and governing of the Company, for example rules relating to 
the appointment and removal of the Directors and how the Directors 
can use all of the Company’s powers (except where the Articles or 
legislation says otherwise), for example in relation to issuing and buying 
back shares. The Articles can be found on our website centrica.com. 
The Company proposes to put amended Articles to its shareholders at 
the 2023 AGM. Further information on the changes will be published in 
the 2023 Notice of Meeting.

Centrica shares
Significant shareholdings
At 31 December 2022, Centrica had received notification of the 
following interests in voting rights pursuant to the Disclosure and 
Transparency Rules:

Research and development activities

Schroders Investment Management Limited

BlackRock, Inc.

Ameriprise Financial, Inc.

Bank of America Corporation

Date  
notified

% of share
 capital(1)

08.04.2022
07.12.2022
10.06.2022
22.11.2022

5.25
5.00
<5%
<5%

(1) Percentages are shown as a percentage of the Company’s issued share capital 
when the Company was notified of the change in holding. As at 15 February 
2023, the Company had received no further notifications. Copies of historic 
notifications and any notifications received since 15 February 2023, can be found 
on our website at centrica.com/rnsannouncements.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Share capital
The Company has a single share class which is divided into ordinary 
shares of 6 14/81 pence each. The Company was authorised at the 
2022 AGM to allot up to 1,969,096,844 ordinary shares as permitted 
by the Act. A renewal of a similar authority will be proposed at the 
2023 AGM. The Company’s issued share capital as at 31 December 
2022, together with details of shares issued during the year, is set  
out in note 25 to the Financial Statements on page 186.

Rights attaching to shares
Each ordinary share of the Company carries one vote. Further 
information on the voting and other rights of shareholders is set  
out in the Articles and in explanatory notes which accompany  
notices of general meetings, all of which are available on our website 
centrica.com. There are no shareholder agreements or restrictions 
in 2022.

Purchase of shares
As permitted by the Articles, the Company obtained shareholder 
authority at the 2022 AGM to purchase its own shares up to a 
maximum of 590,729,053 ordinary shares of 6 14/81 pence each.  
The Company commenced a share repurchase programme on 
15 November 2022. As at 31 December 2022, 47,201,133 shares 
had been purchased under this authority (of which 45,714,883 shares 
had been settled) and 47,171,692 shares were held as treasury shares 
(of which 45,685,442 shares had settled). The shares purchased 
represent approximately 0.8% of the issued ordinary share capital  
at an aggregate cost of approximately £44 million (£43 million in 
respect of settled shares). Dividends are waived in respect of shares 
held in the treasury share account. Further details are set out in note 
S4 to the Financial Statements on page 208.

Shares held in employee benefit trusts
The Centrica plc Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) is used to purchase 
shares on behalf of the Company for the benefit of employees, in 
connection with the Restricted Share Scheme. The Centrica plc Share 
Incentive Plan Trust (SIP Trust) is used to purchase shares on behalf of 
the Company for the benefit of employees, in connection with the SIP. 
Both the Trustees of the EBT and the SIP Trust, in accordance with 
best practice, have agreed not to vote any unallocated shares held in 
the EBT or SIP Trust at any general meeting and dividends are waived 
in respect of these shares. In respect of allocated shares in both  
the EBT and the SIP Trust, the Trustees shall vote in accordance  
with participants’ instructions. In the absence of any instruction,  
the Trustees shall not vote.

Employee participation in share schemes
The Company’s all-employee share schemes are a long-established 
and successful part of our total reward package, encouraging the 
involvement of UK employees in the Company’s performance through 
employee share ownership. We operate tax-advantaged Sharesave 
(SAYE) schemes in the UK and Ireland, and a Share Incentive Plan 
(SIP) in the UK, with good levels of take-up for all share plans across 
the Group. Currently, 14% of eligible employees participate in 
Sharesave and 32% of eligible employees participate in the SIP.  
In 2022 all eligible employees globally were awarded a Profit Share 
award under the SIP.

105

Other information
Directors’ indemnities and insurance
In accordance with the Articles, the Company has granted a deed  
of indemnity, to the extent permitted by law, to the Directors of the 
Company. Qualifying third-party indemnity provisions (as defined  
by Section 234 of the Act) were in force during the year ended 
31 December 2022 and remain in force. The Company also maintains 
directors’ and officers’ liability insurance for its Directors and officers. 
The Company has granted qualifying pension scheme indemnities  
in the form permitted by the Companies Act 2006 to the directors of 
Centrica Pension Plan Trustees Limited, Centrica Engineers Pension 
Trustees Limited and Centrica Pension Trustees Limited, that act as 
trustees of the Company’s UK pension schemes.

Political donations
The Company operates on a politically neutral basis. No political 
donations were made by the Group for political purposes during 
the year.

Payments policy
We recognise the importance of good supplier relationships to the 
overall success of our business. We manage dealings with suppliers  
in a fair, consistent and transparent manner.

Significant agreements – change of control 
There are a number of agreements to which the Company is party  
that take effect, alter or terminate upon a change of control of the 
Company following a takeover bid.

The significant agreements of this kind include:

•  those that relate to 2009, when the Company entered into 

certain transactions with EDF Group in relation to an investment 
in the former British Energy Group, which owned and operated 
a fleet of nuclear power stations in the UK. The transactions 
include rights for EDF Group and the Company to offtake power 
from these nuclear power stations. As part of the arrangements, 
on a change of control of the Company, the Group loses its 
right to participate on the boards of the companies in which it 
has invested. Furthermore, where the acquirer is not located in 
certain specified countries, EDF Group is able to require Centrica 
to sell out its investments to EDF Group; and

•  committed facility agreements, subordinated fixed rate notes 
and bonds issued under the Company’s medium-term note 
programme.

The Remuneration Policy sets out on page 101 details on the 
treatment of the Executive Directors’ pay arrangements, including the 
treatment of share schemes in the event of a change of control.

Disclosures required under Listing Rule 9.8.4 R
The Company is required to disclose certain information under Listing 
Rule 9.8.4 R in the Directors’ Report or advise where such relevant 
information is contained. All such disclosures are included in this 
Directors’ and Corporate Governance Report, other than the following 
sections of the 2022 Annual Report and Accounts:

Information

Location in Annual Report

Page(s)

Capitalised interest 
(borrowing costs)

Details of long-term 
incentive schemes

Financial Statements

Remuneration Report

150, note 8

85 and 90

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022106

Directors’ statements
Accounting standards require that Directors satisfy themselves that it is 
reasonable for them to conclude whether it is appropriate to prepare 
the Financial Statements on a going concern basis. The Group’s 
business activities, together with factors that are likely to affect its 
future development and position, are set out in the Group Chief 
Executive’s Statement on pages 4 to 6 and the Business Reviews on 
pages 22 to 25. After making enquiries, the Board has a reasonable 
expectation that Centrica and the Group as a whole have adequate 
resources to continue in operational existence and meet their liabilities 
as they fall due, for the foreseeable future.

For this reason, the Board continues to adopt the going concern basis 
in preparing the Financial Statements.

The Directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting 
records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company’s 
transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the 
financial position of the Company and enable them to ensure that  
the Financial Statements comply with the Companies Act 2006.

They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company 
and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection 
of fraud and other irregularities.

The Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of  
the corporate and financial information included on the Company’s 
website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation 
and dissemination of Financial Statements may differ from legislation  
in other jurisdictions.

Responsibility statement 
Each of the Directors confirm that to the best of their knowledge:

•  the Financial Statements, prepared in accordance with the 

relevant financial reporting framework, give a true and fair view 
of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the 
Company and the undertakings included in the consolidation 
taken as a whole;

•  the Strategic Report includes a fair review of the development 

and performance of the business and the position of the 
Company and the undertakings included in the consolidation 
taken as a whole, together with a description of the principal 
risks and uncertainties that they face; and

•  the Annual Report and Financial Statements, taken as a 

whole, are fair, balanced and understandable and provide the 
information necessary for shareholders to assess the Company’s 
position and performance, business model and strategy.

The names of the Directors and their functions are listed on pages 62 
and 64.

Information to the independent auditors
The Directors who held office at the date of this Report confirm that:

•  they have taken all the steps that they ought to have taken as a 
Director in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit 
information and to establish that the Company’s auditors are 
aware of that information; and

•  there is no relevant audit information of which Deloitte LLP are 

unaware.

This confirmation is given and should be interpreted in accordance 
with the provisions of Section 418 of the Companies Act 2006.

Deloitte LLP have expressed their willingness to continue in office as 
auditors and a resolution to re-appoint them will be proposed at the 
forthcoming AGM.

By order of the Board

Raj Roy
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary 
15 February 2023

Additionally, the Directors’ Viability Disclosure, which assesses the 
prospects for the Group over a longer period than the 12 months 
required for the going concern assessment, is set out on pages 34  
to 36. Further details of the Group’s liquidity position are provided in 
notes 24 and S3 to the Financial Statements on pages 182 to 185 
and 200 to 206.

Directors’ responsibilities statement
The Directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and the 
financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the Directors to prepare financial statements  
for each financial year. Under that law, the Directors are required  
to prepare the Group financial statements in accordance with 
international accounting standards, in conformity with the requirements 
of the Companies Act 2006. The Directors have also chosen to 
prepare the parent company financial statements in accordance with 
Financial Reporting Standard 101 ‘Reduced Disclosure Framework’.

Under company law, the Directors must not approve the financial 
statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view 
of the state of affairs of the Company and of the profit or loss of the 
Company for that period.

In preparing the parent company financial statements, the Directors 
are required to:

•  select suitable accounting policies and then apply them 

consistently;

•  make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable 

and prudent;

•  state whether Financial Reporting Standard 101 ‘Reduced 
Disclosure Framework’ has been followed, subject to any 
material departures disclosed and explained in the Financial 
Statements; and

•  prepare the Financial Statements on the going concern basis 
unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Company will 
continue in business.

In preparing the Group Financial Statements, International Accounting 
Standard 1 requires that Directors:

•  properly select and apply accounting policies;
•  present information, including accounting policies, in a manner 
that provides relevant, reliable, comparable and understandable 
information;

•  provide additional disclosures when compliance with the 

specific requirements in IFRSs are insufficient to enable users to 
understand the impact of particular transactions, other events 
and conditions on the entity’s financial position and financial 
performance; and

•  make an assessment of the Company’s ability to continue  

as a going concern.

Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022Governance | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

107

Financial 
Statements

108 Independent Auditor’s Report
121 Group Income Statement
122 Group Statement of Comprehensive Income
123 Group Statement of Changes in Equity
124 Group Balance Sheet
125 Group Cash Flow Statement
126 Notes to the Financial Statements
225 Company Financial Statements
237 Gas and Liquids Reserves (Unaudited)
238 Five Year Summary (Unaudited)
239 Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement

108

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Independent Auditor’s Report

Report on the audit of the financial statements

1. Opinion
In our opinion:

• the financial statements of Centrica plc (the ‘Company’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘Group’) give a true and fair view of the state of the 

Group’s and of the Company’s affairs as at 31 December 2022 and of the Group’s loss for the year then ended;

• the Group financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom adopted international accounting 

standards;

• the Company financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting 

Practice, including Financial Reporting Standard 101 ‘Reduced Disclosure Framework’; and

• the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

We have audited the financial statements which comprise:

• the Group Income Statement;
• the Group Statement of Comprehensive Income;
• the Group and Company Statements of Changes in Equity;
• the Group and Company Balance Sheets;
• the Group Cash Flow Statement; and
• the related notes 1 to 26 and the supplementary notes S1 to S11 of the Group financial statements and notes I to XVI of the Company 

financial statements.

The financial reporting framework that has been applied in the preparation of the Group financial statements is applicable law and United 
Kingdom adopted international accounting standards. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in the preparation of the 
Company financial statements is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 101 ‘Reduced Disclosure 
Framework’ (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

2. Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities 
under those standards are further described in the auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. 

We are independent of the Group and the Company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the 
financial statements in the UK, including the Financial Reporting Council’s (the ‘FRC’s’) Ethical Standard as applied to listed public interest 
entities, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. The non-audit services provided to 
the Group for the year are disclosed in note S9 to the financial statements. We confirm that we have not provided any non-audit services 
prohibited by the FRC’s Ethical Standard to the Group or the Company.

We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

109

3. Summary of our audit approach

Key audit matters

The key audit matters that we identified in the current year were:
• judgements associated with accounting for energy supply arrangements to British Gas Energy and Centrica Business Solution 

customers; 

• impairment reversal in respect of the Group’s investment in Nuclear; 
• valuation of complex energy derivative contracts; and
• judgements associated with going concern assumptions.
Energy supply arrangements
In the prior year, the key audit matter covered judgements associated with the supply of energy including the billed debt provision, the 
risk of onerous supply contracts and accounting for transactions under the SoLR mechanism. 

While commodity prices were consistently high for the majority of 2022, a significant drop towards the end of the year saw prices retreat 
to lower levels, albeit more elevated than they had been in 2021. This drop meant that the derivative contracts to procure energy for 
residential supply contracts were in a liability position at 31 December 2022. Given the expected gain on subsequent unwind of these 
derivative liabilities, residential energy supply contracts were not considered onerous at year-end and thus the previously recorded 
onerous contract provisions, which had totalled £0.9bn at 31 December 2021, were fully reversed during December 2022. The 
remaining onerous contract provision of £1bn relates to the business energy supply contracts which are of a reduced level of judgement 
and estimation uncertainty and accordingly not identified as a key audit matter.

Similarly, transfers of customers to British Gas Energy under the Supplier of Last Resort (‘SOLR’) mechanism during 2022 were less 
material than those in 2021. Since the appropriate accounting for these was agreed in 2021 and remains consistent this year, we 
removed accounting for transactions under the SoLR mechanism as a key audit matter.

In the current year this key audit matter includes judgements associated with determining expected credit losses in respect of customer 
receivables as a result of the higher trend of commodity prices and the resultant price cap revisions during the year which have led to 
increased levels of judgement around the recoverability of trade receivables given the inherent higher risk of customer defaults. In 
addition, accounting considerations in relation to payments and vouchers to customers and credits to customers’ accounts in respect 
of the UK government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS), Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) and Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) 
were also considered as a key audit matter. Given the material number of customers migrated onto the new Energy billing platform 
(ENSEK) during the year and the developing nature of the controls environment, we also consider the accuracy and completeness of 
consumption data and unbilled revenue methodology in relation to ENSEK to be a key audit matter. 

Nuclear impairment reversal
Higher commodity prices in 2022 as explained above, coupled with the UK Government introducing the Electricity Generators Levy 
(EGL), impacted the forecast future cashflows of the Group’s Nuclear assets. Whilst the recoverable amount was lower at year-end, the 
carrying value of the Group’s investment was also adversely impacted due to a higher-than-expected defined benefit actuarial loss 
allocation by EDF (Nuclear asset operator). As a result, primarily due to high commodity prices in 2022, the Group has recorded an 
impairment reversal of £195m in the year. Given the significant impairment movement on the investment in Nuclear in the current year, 
we identified a key audit matter around the valuation of these assets.

Complex energy derivative contracts valuation
For other own-use contracts, these contracts are not at risk of breaching the own-use designation. The reduced risk associated with 
LNG and own-use contracts means that these were not identified as key audit matters in the current year. 

The key audit matter in the current year is focused on valuation of complex energy derivative contracts. We have identified a fraud risk, 
being the potential risk of management bias in the modelling of complex energy derivative contracts.

Going concern assumption
The going concern assumption, specifically margin liquidity risk, has been a source of significant audit effort this year driven by the high 
price environment and volatility experienced in the year in liquidity demands on the business. Given that this required increased and 
focused senior audit involvement, we have identified the audit of the going concern assumption as a key audit matter.  

Other matters
The Group’s Exploration and Production (E&P) assets exhibited reduced impairment risk due to significant headroom and commodity 
price rises over 2022 when compared to 2021, despite the impact of the Energy Price Levy (Group’s E&P business now taxed at 75%) 
and the commodity price drop near the end of the year. Given the reduced risk of E&P asset impairment, the key audit matter for 
impairment in the current year is solely focused on the judgements associated with the Nuclear asset impairment reversal.

The first half of 2022 witnessed the completion of the disposal of Spirit Energy’s Norwegian portfolio and Statfjord fields. We have 
therefore removed the key audit matter for ‘Presentation and accounting for the planned disposal of Spirit Norway and Statfjord’.

Within this report, key audit matters are identified as follows:

! Newly identified

r Increased level of risk

vw Similar level of risk

s Decreased level of risk

Materiality

The materiality that we used for the audit of the Group financial statements is £158m (2021: £35m). This materiality was determined on 
the basis of adjusted profit before tax. Adjusted profit before tax is the pre-tax business performance profit adjusted for the impact of 
exceptional items and certain re-measurements. The significant increase in materiality in 2022 reflects higher commodity prices 
contributing to higher adjusted profit for the Upstream and Trading segments.

The materiality of £158m represents 0.5% (2021: 0.2%) of business performance revenue, 0.5% (2021: 0.1%) of total assets, and 6.4% 
(2021: 0.9%) of free cash flow. 

110

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Scoping

All components of the Group were subject to a full scope audit other than those below which were subject to specified audit 
procedures:
• Bord Gáis;
• non-regulated parts of British Gas Services and Solutions segment; and
• Centrica Storage (within the Upstream segment).
New Energy Services (within the Centrica Business Solutions segment) was subject to review procedures as compared to an audit of 
specified account balances in the prior year given the current year qualitative and quantitative insignificance to the group.

Component materiality levels were set based on the size and audit risk associated with each component on a range of applicable 
metrics. Our risk assessment procedures resulted in a reduction in the group reporting scope for British Gas Services and Solutions 
given the limited volume of activities with limited profit compared to the Upstream (including Nuclear) and Trading segments which are 
designated as full scope audits. 

Significant changes 
in our approach

Other than the changes in key audit matters discussed above, there were no other significant changes in our audit approach when 
compared to 2021. 

4. Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation 
of the financial statements is appropriate.

Our evaluation of the directors’ assessment of the Group’s and Company’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of 
accounting is discussed in section 5.4.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually 
or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Group’s and Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least 
twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

In relation to the reporting on how the Group has applied the UK Corporate Governance Code, we have nothing material to add or draw 
attention to in relation to the directors’ statement in the financial statements about whether the directors considered it appropriate to 
adopt the going concern basis of accounting.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this 
report.

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

111

5. Key audit matters
Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgement, were of most significance in our audit of the financial statements 
of the current period and include the most significant assessed risks of material misstatement (whether or not due to fraud) that we 
identified. These matters included those which had the greatest effect on the overall audit strategy, the allocation of resources in the audit 
and directing the efforts of the engagement team.

These matters were addressed in the context of our audit of the financial statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon, and 
we do not provide a separate opinion on these matters.

5.1 Judgements associated with accounting for energy supply arrangements to British Gas Energy and Centrica Business 
Solutions customers s

Key audit matter 
description

The Group supplies gas and power to residential and business customers in the UK through its British Gas Energy and Centrica 
Business Solutions segments. 

The impact of key events, including current macroeconomic factors, high commodity prices, the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the 
resultant cost-of-living crisis has increased the level of judgement regarding recoverability of customer debt within the Group’s British 
Gas and Centrica Business Solutions energy supply businesses, increasing the risk of material misstatement in the determination of 
expected credit losses at 31 December 2022. Credit losses of £809m (2021: £584m) have been recognised on amounts due of 
£3,106m (2021: £2,013m) from the supply of energy to customers, including £125m (2021: £30m) of additional provisions to reflect the 
cost-of-living crisis. Further details on credit losses relating to trade receivables can be found in notes 3b and 17.

Recognising the growing pressure on the cost of living in form of higher energy and other household or business costs, the UK 
Government introduced various schemes to provide support to customers as part of a suite of cost-of-living and business support 
measures. These are EBRS, EBSS and EPG. The Group is the initial recipient of cash under these schemes. The Group recognised 
£2,883m (2021: nil) of revenue and amounts received under various government support schemes with further details shown in notes 
1b and 4b. At year-end, the Group held trade receivables in relation to government schemes of £284m as at 31 December 2022.

British Gas Energy continued the migration of customers onto its new digital energy platform (ENSEK) during the year. As at 
31 December 2022, £2.1bn of revenue (2021: £0.4bn) was recognised from customers on this platform. Revenue from customers 
on the ENSEK platform is presented within the overall revenue figure in note 4. 

These matters are also considered by the Audit and Risk Committee in its report on pages 75 to 79.

Expected credit losses in respect of customer receivables 
The key assumptions in the determination of expected credit losses in British Gas Energy and Centrica Business Solutions include the 
methodology used to determine the impact that macroeconomic factors will have on the future cash collection and the resultant need to 
record additional provisions, over and above the ‘business-as-usual’ provisions. 

Given the level of judgement and the impact of provisioning on key performance indicators of the Group, we identified a risk of material 
misstatement due to fraud in the recording of credit losses within British Gas Energy and Centrica Business Solutions.

Accounting for customer support schemes 
Government support schemes include EBSS where residential customers have directly received a cash or credit amount, EPG which 
protects residential customers from increases in energy costs by limiting the amount suppliers can charge per unit of energy used and 
EBRS which protects business customers by capping the amount charged by energy suppliers for energy consumption. There is 
judgement in determining whether this revenue meets the definition of revenue under IFRS 15 Revenue from contracts with customers. 

ENSEK revenue
Customer migration to the ENSEK platform has continued throughout 2022. Given the significant quantum of revenue, the developing 
controls environment and the difference from legacy SAP systems in the methodology used to derive unbilled revenue related to 
customers on ENSEK, there is a risk, including a fraud risk over the accuracy and completeness of the revenue recognised.

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How the scope of 
our audit responded 
to the key audit 
matter

Expected credit losses in respect of customer receivables 
• We tested and relied upon controls relevant to the calculation of billed debt provisions, where applicable.
• With involvement of our IT and data analytics specialists, we tested the accuracy of the underlying debt books, including the age of 

debt, and recalculated management’s provision rates based on historic cash collection.

• We assessed how amounts receivable at 31 December 2021 were collected over 2022 in order to estimate an expected profile of the 
recovery of 31 December 2022 balances, on a ‘business as usual basis’. We applied this profile to 31 December 2022 debt and then 
assessed:
– the impact and sensitivity of this profile based on external forecasts such as household disposable income and inflation forecasts 

and the impact on billed debt provisions as the economic situation changes; and 

– management’s accounting for the impact of these changes in the billed debt provision estimate. 

• We considered the extent to which the provision on a ‘business as usual basis’ factors in the change the current macroeconomic 

environment.

• We understood and challenged the methodology and relevant controls over the determination and recording of the additional 

macroeconomic provision, with reference to available third-party analysis. 

• Given the significant increase in provision (including an additional macroeconomic provision) in 2022 and considering that the 
provision as a percentage of gross debt has reduced, we performed procedures to challenge the completeness and the 
appropriateness of the provision.

• We assessed the appropriateness of the disclosures provided relating to this key source of estimation uncertainty, and the range of 

sensitivities disclosed.

Accounting for customer support schemes
• We assessed whether the revenue recognised under EBSS, EBRS and EPG falls within the scope of IFRS 15 ‘Revenue from 
Contracts with Customers’. This included assessing the reasonableness of the accounting treatment adopted including the 
methodology and controls associated with recording the revenue.

• We evaluated the expected revenue under various government support schemes with the actual amounts recorded in the books of 

accounts, investigating differences above a pre-determined threshold.

• We assessed the appropriateness of the disclosures and the presentation of the revenue recognised in the Group income statement 
from the various government support schemes within the ‘Business performance group revenue’ line item of the Group income 
statement.

ENSEK revenue
• We obtained an understanding of the relevant controls over the recognition of revenue from customers within the ENSEK system, 

including those regarding the completeness and accuracy of consumption data within ENSEK. 

• We understood and tested controls associated with the migration exercise, including validating the accuracy and completeness of 

the balance migrated from the legacy SAP systems. 

• We evaluated the accuracy of amounts recorded as revenue by testing the consumption data against supporting documentation.
• We challenged the methodology used to calculate the ENSEK unbilled revenue, through comparison with the legacy SAP approach 

and calculating an expectation of unbilled revenue, investigating differences above a pre-determined threshold.

Key observations

We are satisfied that the Group’s billed debt provisions of £812m (2021: £587m), including £125m (2021: £30m) of additional provisions 
to reflect macroeconomic uncertainty, and the associated methodology to calculate this adjustment, are appropriate. We consider the 
additional manual provision recognised to be appropriate and close to the mid-point of a calculated reasonable range.

We are satisfied that the amounts recognised under various government schemes meet the definition of revenue under IFRS 15 
‘Revenue from Contracts with Customers’ and are satisfied that the revenue has been appropriately presented within the ‘Business 
performance group revenue’ line item of the Group income statement.

We are satisfied that the accuracy and completeness of the Group’s ENSEK energy revenue, including the methodology to generate 
unbilled revenue is appropriate. Whilst improvements were made to controls during the year in relation to revenue recognition, they were 
not yet at a stage where we were able to rely on them. 

 
5.2. Impairment reversal in the Group’s investment in Nuclear vw

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Key audit matter 
description

How the scope of 
our audit responded 
to the key audit 
matter

As highlighted in section 3 above, commodity prices were consistently high in 2022 before witnessing a significant drop towards the end 
of the year, albeit higher than 2021 levels. The decrease in future forecast cashflows in the assessment of investment in Nuclear was 
offset by the decrease in carrying value as a result of a pension actuarial loss allocated by the operator. The total pre-impairment book 
value of the investment in Nuclear was £1,560m (2021: £1,625m) with a pre-tax impairment reversal of £195m (2021: £747m) recorded 
as at 31 December 2022. 

The details on the key sources of estimation uncertainty underpinning the impairment reversal for these assets can be found in note 3(b). 
Details on the sensitivity of the above impairment reviews to changes in key assumptions such as commodity prices are disclosed in 
note 7(c). This includes sensitivities associated with the Group’s commodity price curves if these curves were aligned with the net zero 
scenario (‘net zero curve’) which assumes governmental policies are put in place to achieve the temperature and net zero goals by 
2050. The matter is also considered by the Audit and Risk Committee in its report on page 77.

Given the significant impairment movement in the investment in Nuclear in the current year, we identified a key audit matter around the 
valuation of these assets for impairment testing purposes. The underlying impairment reversal has been recorded within the exceptional 
items and certain re-measurements column of the Group income statement.

The key assumptions and judgements underpinning the impairment testing of the investment in Nuclear include:

• forecast future commodity prices, including the likely impact of the Paris Accord and climate change on those prices;
• forecast future generation profiles of the assets;
• forecast future cash flows for the assets;
• availability forecasts in respect of the nuclear power stations;
• useful life estimates; 
• impact of the Electricity Generator levy on the future forecast of cashflows; and 
• the discount rate. 

Procedures on the overall impairment reversal review:
• We understood management’s process for identifying indicators of impairment and impairment reversal and for performing their 

impairment assessment.

• We obtained an understanding of the relevant controls relating to the asset impairment models, the underlying forecasting process 

and the impairment reviews performed.

• We evaluated and challenged the key assumptions and inputs into the impairment models, which included performing sensitivity 
analysis, to evaluate the impact of selecting alternative assumptions. We evaluated changes in key assumptions and assessed 
retrospectively whether prior year assumptions were appropriate.

• We involved our internal valuation specialists to evaluate management’s discount rates, which involved benchmarking against 

available market views and analysis.

• We tested the arithmetical accuracy of the impairment models. 
• We assessed the appropriateness of management’s disclosures of the key assumptions and sensitivities including the presentation of 

the impairment reversals within the exceptional items and certain re-measurements column of the Group income statement.

Procedures relating to forecast future cash flows:
• We confirmed that forecast cash flows were consistent with the operator approved forecasts, where relevant, and analysed 

reasonably possible downside sensitivities. 

• We assessed the reasonableness of the plants’ forecast outage rates by looking at recent historic outage rates and sensitised the 

impact of a change in assumptions on the overall impairment reversal.

• We evaluated the Group’s estimation of future commodity prices, benchmarked against externally available future commodity price 
estimates and performed sensitivity analysis with alternative future prices. This includes a scenario which assumes governmental 
policies are put in place to achieve the temperature and net zero goals by 2050. We recalculated management’s disclosures relating 
to the sensitivity of the Group’s impairment tests to reduced commodity prices, including the net zero curves.

• We involved our tax specialist to adjudge the reasonableness of implementation of the Electricity Generators Levy and as a result, 

aiding the audit team’s subsequent impact assessment on the forecasted future cash outflows. 

Key observations

We are satisfied that the key assumptions used to determine the value in use of the Group’s investment in Nuclear is appropriate, 
including production and availability forecasts. We are also satisfied that the Group’s discount rate assumptions are determined based 
on acceptable valuation methodologies. 

The Group’s future commodity price estimates are in the middle of the acceptable range of external sources, consistent with the prior 
year. We observed that generally, the forecasts from acceptable external sources for gas and baseload prices were above the assumed 
prices in the net zero scenario. We considered the sensitivity disclosures relating to the impact on the Group’s impairment reviews of 
future commodity price estimates arising from climate change to be acceptable.

We are satisfied that the Group’s impairment reversal is appropriate and the presentation under the exceptional items and certain       
re-measurements column of the Group income statement is consistent with Group policy. 

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5.3. Valuation of complex energy derivative contracts r 

Key audit matter 
description

As disclosed in note 7 to the financial statements, a re-measurements loss of £5,160m (2021: gain of £1,289m) on energy derivative 
contracts has been recognised in the year. Details on the Group’s energy contracts can be found in note 19 and note S3(a). The key 
sources of estimation uncertainty associated with energy contracts can be found in note 3(b) with further details on the presentation of 
certain re-measurement arising on derivatives disclosed in note 2(b). The matter is also considered by the Audit and Risk Committee in 
its report on page 75. 

How the scope of 
our audit responded 
to the key audit 
matter

The Group undertakes proprietary trading activities and also enters into forward commodity contracts to optimise the value of its 
production and generation assets as well as to meet the future needs of its customers. Certain of these arrangements are accounted for 
as derivative financial instruments and are recorded at fair value. We identified a key audit matter relating to valuation of complex 
derivative trades performed internally by management’s valuation specialists. There is judgement required in valuing complex energy 
derivative contracts, particularly where there is modelling complexity and bespoke contractual terms (level 3 in accordance with IFRS 13 
‘Fair Value Measurement’). Given the judgement and potential of management bias in the modelling, we have identified a potential risk of 
fraud. Whilst the value of complex energy derivative contracts increased through the year due to the significant rise in commodity prices, 
the drop in prices in December 2022 has reduced the valuation to early 2022 levels. Given the continued and heightened level of risk as 
well as the complexity associated with disclosures, the valuation of these contracts is identified as a key audit matter.

• We understood the Group’s processes and tested controls, including the user access and segregation of duties controls, for 

authorising and recording commodity trades. 

• We have understood management’s process and tested the relevant controls relating to the valuation of complex energy derivatives 
within the Group’s Energy, Marketing and Trading (‘EM&T’) business. We also assessed the competence, capability and objectivity of 
management’s own internal valuation specialists.

• With involvement of financial instrument specialists, we assessed the value of material complex trades, either by creating an 

independent valuation or by testing how management developed their estimate. Particular emphasis was made to assess any new 
material models and material changes to relevant models including additional procedures to assess the reasonableness and 
appropriateness of these.

• We assessed the movement in the fair values based on the change in significant inputs, while testing these inputs, where relevant. 
• We considered the appropriateness of the relevant complex derivative energy contracts disclosure, including the key source of 

estimation uncertainty disclosures. 

Key observations

We are satisfied that complex derivative energy contracts are valued on an appropriate basis. 

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5.4. Judgements associated with going concern assumption ! 

Key audit matter 
description

During 2022, high and volatile commodity prices resulted in increased requirements for the Group and its counterparties to post and 
receive more significant cash margin collateral than was historically the case. To respond to this increased liquidity risk, the Group 
established enhanced processes in the trading businesses and in respect of Upstream to plan for and manage possible increased cash 
margin requirements. 

How the scope of 
our audit responded 
to the key audit 
matter

Key observations

The enhanced governance processes included establishing a Liquidity Working Group to monitor and respond to volatile market 
conditions, trading activity, and the ability of counterparties to pay margin calls. To monitor reasonably possible margin requirements, 
the Group used modelling and analysis of the volatile market conditions over the last two years to determine severe but plausible 
scenarios of the possible liquidity requirements. Additionally, the Group took active steps to both increase liquidity facilities available, 
and to reduce and mitigate margin requirements as a result of trading activity. Further details in relation to the Group’s measures are 
described in note 24(b) and the viability statement on pages 34 to 36. Given the impact of commodity price volatility on forecast liquidity 
headroom in the current year, the directors calculated minimum headroom under high, low and base price case scenarios. As such, 
this required increased and focused senior audit involvement and has led to the audit of the going concern assumption being identified 
as a key audit matter.

The key procedures to evaluate the directors’ assessment of the Group’s and Company’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern 
basis of accounting included:
• assessing the Group’s future cash flow forecasts, by considering actual cash flow performance in 2022, the volatile commodity price 

environment, historical accuracy of the Group forecasts and key assumptions underpinning management’s going concern 
assessment;

• agreeing the level of committed undrawn facilities of £4.0bn to signed facility agreements, along with support from our treasury 

specialists, where relevant, to review the key terms of the facility agreements;

• testing the clerical accuracy of the model used to prepare the cash flow forecasts and assessing the sophistication of the model used 

to prepare the forecasts;

• assessing the sensitivities run by the directors and the linkage of these sensitivities to the Group’s principal risks disclosed on pages 
30 to 33 of the Annual Report & Accounts. These sensitivities include the impact of margin cash volatility, a reduction in the Group’s 
credit rating, a reduction in commodity prices, or the risk of adverse weather and the resultant impact on cashflows; and

• assessing the appropriateness of management’s going concern disclosures in light of the above assessment.
Given the high degree of judgement required to determine appropriate scenarios, including the range of possible unanticipated volatility 
in commodity prices, our audit response to this risk was focused on: 

• understanding management’s process in determining the severe but plausible margin call scenarios and stressing the other drivers 

of liquidity demand in the trading businesses;

• challenging management’s assessment and rationale for each scenario, including the severity of the scenarios with respect to 
historical commodity prices and the probabilistic assessments of how elevated commodity prices may become in the future; 
• assessing the consistency of the margin call scenarios between the going concern model and that used to assess the viability of 

the Group;

• testing the assumptions and detailed model methodology underpinning the scenarios, including using the expertise of complex 

modelling specialists; and

• assessing the reasonability of the margin liquidity scenarios, available mitigations and whether management’s approach of 
incorporating these scenarios into the Group going concern and viability reasonable worst case analysis was appropriate. 

The Group’s key assumptions, methodology and the severity of the Group margin call scenarios were concluded to be appropriate in 
the context of current market conditions. We observed that the scenarios included modelling market conditions which were significantly 
more severe than were experienced in both 2021 and 2022. These scenarios included assessing statistically to a 95% confidence level 
the market conditions that may arise in the future, however they are not necessarily a predictor of all future conditions given the volatility 
of commodity markets.

We are satisfied the management’s disclosures regarding preparation of the financial statements on a going concern basis are 
appropriate.

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6. Our application of materiality

6.1 Materiality
We define materiality as the magnitude of misstatement in the financial statements that makes it probable that the economic decisions of a 
reasonably knowledgeable person would be changed or influenced. We use materiality both in planning the scope of our audit work and in 
evaluating the results of our work.

Based on our professional judgement, we determined the materiality of the financial statements as a whole as follows:

Materiality

Basis for 
determining 
materiality

Rationale for the 
benchmark applied

Group financial statements

Company financial statements

£158 million (2021: £35 million)

£150 million (2021: £33 million)

We determined Company materiality based on 3.0% (2021: 1.0%) 
of estimated net assets but capped materiality at 95% (2021: 95%) 
of Group materiality. Our final materiality constituted 2.8% of net 
assets (2021: 0.6% of net assets).

The percentage applied in determining Company materiality has 
been adjusted in the current year to reflect our historical audit 
experience. 

We considered net assets to be the most appropriate benchmark 
given the primary purpose of the Company is a holding company.

We determined materiality on the basis of 5% of adjusted profit 
before tax. Adjusted profit before tax is the pre-tax profit adjusted 
for the impact of exceptional items and certain re-measurements. 

The significant increase in materiality in 2022 reflects higher 
commodity prices contributing to higher adjusted profits for the 
Upstream and Trading segments.

The materiality of £158m represents 0.5% of business 
performance revenue, 0.5% of total assets, and 6.4% of free cash 
flow. In the prior year, materiality was based on a range of 
applicable metrics including free cash flow, shareholders’ equity 
and pre-tax profit adjusted for exceptional items and certain        
re-measurements. This represented 4.6% of final adjusted profit 
before tax. 

We considered adjusted profit before tax to be the most 
appropriate benchmark to measure the performance of the Group. 
We consider it appropriate to adjust for exceptional items and     
re-measurements as these items are volatile and not reflective 
of the underlying performance of the Group. 

We have reverted to this historical benchmark as it has become 
a more stable measure of performance following the impact of 
COVID-19 on pre-tax adjusted profit, which previously would 
have reduced materiality to a level which would not have reflected 
the size and scale of the Group. Notwithstanding the significant 
increase in year-on-year materiality, we challenged the 
appropriateness of using 5% of adjusted profit before tax for our 
assessment of materiality by looking at a range of alternative 
benchmarks. Given that the determined materiality was within 
the range of alternative benchmarks, we have concluded it to be 
appropriate. 

We considered our established materiality against the final audit 
results and considered that it remained appropriate in the context 
of the financial statements as a whole. 

6.2. Performance materiality
We set performance materiality at a level lower than materiality to reduce the probability that, in aggregate, uncorrected and undetected 
misstatements exceed the materiality for the financial statements as a whole. 

Performance 
materiality

Basis and rationale 
for determining 
performance 
materiality

Group financial statements

Company financial statements

70% (2021: 70%) of Group materiality 

70% (2021: 70%) of Company materiality)

The factors we considered in setting performance materiality at 70% of Group and Company materiality included:
• The overall quality of the control environment and that we were able to rely on controls in certain of the Group’s businesses.
• The nature, size and number of uncorrected misstatements identified in previous audits and management’s willingness to correct 

those adjustments. 

6.3 Error reporting threshold
The significant increase in materiality has led to an increase in the error reporting threshold, which stands at £7.9m (2021: £1.8m). We 
have however, at the Audit and Risk Committee’s request continued to report individual audit differences in excess of £5m (2021: £5m), 
as well as differences below that threshold that, in our view, warranted reporting on qualitative grounds. We also reported to the Audit and 
Risk Committee on disclosure matters that we identified when assessing the overall presentation of the financial statements.

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117

7. An overview of the scope of our audit

7.1 Identification and scoping of components
The Group is organised into segments as outlined in note 4. These segments contain a number of individual businesses, and we use 
these businesses as the basis for identifying and scoping components. In the current year, Aalborg was identified as a component of 
the Group given the significant contribution to the Group’s adjusted profit before tax. Other changes in scoping have been outlined in 
section 3 above. 

Our audit was scoped by obtaining an understanding of the Group and its environment, including Group-wide controls, and assessing the 
risks of material misstatement at the Group level. Having performed this assessment, we established the following audit scope for each of 
the Group’s businesses. 

Segment

British Gas Energy

Business

British Gas Energy 

Audit scope

Full scope audit

British Gas Services and Solutions

British Gas Services and Solutions

Audit of specified account balances

Bord Gáis Energy

Bord Gáis Energy

Audit of specified account balances

Energy, Marketing & Trading

Energy, Marketing & Trading (London)

Centrica Business Solutions

Upstream

Aalborg

New Energy Services

Energy supply

Nuclear

Spirit Energy

Centrica Storage

Full scope audit

Full scope audit

Review procedures

Full scope audit

Full scope audit

Full scope audit

Audit of specified account balances

This scoping resulted in 99% of Group revenue, 100% of Group adjusted profit before tax and 89% of Group shareholders’ equity being 
subject to audit excluding those where we performed review procedures. The equivalent figures in 2021 were 96% of Group revenue, 
98% of final pre-tax profit adjusted for exceptional items and 92% of shareholders’ equity.

7.2. Our consideration of the control environment
• Our audit strategy is to rely on controls over certain processes within the more established businesses of the Group. These included 
revenue within British Gas Energy, British Gas Services and Solutions, CBS Energy and Bord Gáis Energy; credit loss provisions in 
British Gas; and the Group’s central payroll and expenditure processes. 

• The use of data analytics in Energy, Marketing and Trading means the need for controls reliance is reduced as we are able to test close 

to 100% of all transactions.

• Given the importance of IT to the recording of financial information and transactions, we assessed the design and implementation of 

general IT controls, and placed reliance on those controls in certain areas. The key IT systems we included in scope include the Group’s 
SAP general ledger and consolidation financial reporting systems, the SAP and ENSEK revenue reporting systems in British Gas Energy 
and CBS Energy, the SAP reporting system in Bord Gáis Energy, the Endur trading system in Energy, Marketing and Trading, and 
Workday which is used to manage the Group’s payroll processes. 

• We adopted a non-controls reliance approach to test the ENSEK revenue given the dependency on manual checks and reviews. 

7.3. Our consideration of climate-related risks 
• Management has performed an assessment of the resilience of its annual strategic and financial planning process in the face of climate-
related issues. This included assessing the potential impact of the material risks and opportunities and its Climate Transition Plan on 
both the current balance sheet position and its accounting policies.

• Management identified higher risks of material misstatement on the impact of the net zero price scenario on the non-current long-life 
asset Upstream impairment tests. In response, management has performed further sensitivities based on forecast prices aligned to 
net zero price curves. The net zero price curves for E&P and Nuclear consider prices from International Energy Agency and Aurora 
respectively.

• We reviewed management’s climate change risk assessment and evaluated the completeness of the identified risks and impact on the 
financial statements. We also considered climate change within our audit risk assessment process in conjunction with our assessment 
of the balances. 

• To mitigate the net zero price scenario risk for the Exploration and Production (E&P) assets and the Group’s investment in Nuclear, 

we performed the following procedures:
– Assessed the reasonableness of management’s net zero prices by comparing these to the market net zero prices. 
– Engaged a financial advisory specialist to assess the appropriateness of the price providers utilised by the Group to assess whether 

net zero price curves are representative of the market view.

– Verified the mathematical accuracy of the conversion to Nominal 2022 prices by adjusting the raw external price forecast data 

for inflation.

• With the involvement of our climate specialists, we: 

– evaluated the financial statement disclosures to assess whether climate risk assumptions underpinning specific account balances 

were appropriately disclosed; and

– read the climate change-related statements (as disclosed in the People and Planet section in the Strategic Report) and considered 
whether the information included in the narrative reporting is materially consistent with the financial statements and our knowledge 
obtained in the audit.

 
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7.4. Working with other auditors
• All components except for Bord Gáis Energy and Aalborg are audited from the UK and we oversee all component audits through regular 

meetings and direct supervision. Whilst we visited Aalborg during the year, the oversight procedures on Bord Gáis were performed 
virtually.

• The Group audit team was directly involved in overseeing the component audit planning and execution, through frequent conversations, 

virtual and in person meetings, debate, challenge and review of reporting and underlying work papers. We held a two-day planning 
meeting with all component teams and specialists to discuss audit execution and our risk assessment, including risks of material 
misstatement due to fraud. In addition to our direct interactions and detailed instructions to our component audit teams, Jane 
Boardman has taken on the Lead Audit Partner and British Gas & Centrica Business Solutions Energy Supply partner roles. This 
enables direct group supervision on two of the most significant components.  

• We are satisfied that the level of involvement of the lead audit partner and Group audit team in the component audits has been 

extensive and has enabled us to conclude that sufficient appropriate audit evidence has been obtained in support of our opinion on the 
Group financial statements as a whole.

8. Other information
The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report 
thereon. This information comprises the Strategic report, the Directors’ and Corporate Governance report, the Committee reports, the 
Remuneration Report and the Other Statutory Information. The directors are responsible for the other information contained within the 
annual report. 

Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our 
report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with 
the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated.

If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a 
material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a 
material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

9. Responsibilities of directors
As explained more fully in the Directors’ responsibilities statement, the directors are responsible for the preparation of the financial 
statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary 
to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the directors are responsible for assessing the Group’s and the Company’s ability to continue as a 
going concern, disclosing as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the 
directors either intend to liquidate the Group or the Company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

10. Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, 
whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of 
assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when 
it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably 
be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the FRC’s website at 
frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

11. Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our 
responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our 
procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below. 

11.1. Identifying and assessing potential risks related to irregularities
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and 
regulations, we considered the following:

• the nature of the industry and sector, control environment and business performance including the design of the Group’s remuneration 

policies, key drivers for directors’ remuneration, bonus levels and performance targets;

• the Group’s own assessment of the risks that irregularities may occur either as a result of fraud or error including the Group’s fraud risk 

programme; 

• results of our enquiries of management, internal audit and the Audit and Risk Committee about their own identification and assessment 

of the risks of irregularities; 

• any matters we identified having obtained and reviewed the Group’s documentation of their policies and procedures relating to:

– identifying, evaluating and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
– detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected or alleged fraud; and
– the internal controls established to mitigate risks of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations. 

• the matters discussed among the audit engagement team including the component audit teams and relevant internal specialists, 
including tax, valuations, pensions, climate change, treasury and IT, regarding how and where fraud might occur in the financial 
statements and any potential indicators of fraud.

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119

As a result of these procedures, we considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the organisation for fraud and 
identified the greatest potential for fraud in the following areas: 

• the valuation of expected credit losses in respect of customer receivables;
• the accuracy and completeness of ENSEK revenue;
• the valuation of complex energy derivative contracts; and
• the valuation of decommissioning provisions. 

In common with all audits under ISAs (UK), we are also required to perform specific procedures to respond to the risk of management 
override.

We also obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the Group operates in, focusing on provisions of those laws 
and regulations that:

• had a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The key laws and regulations 

we considered in this context included the UK Companies Act, the UK Listing Rules, pensions and tax legislation; and 

• do not have a direct effect on the financial statements but compliance with which may be fundamental to the Group’s ability to operate 

or to avoid a material penalty. These included the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) and Regulations levied by the UK 
Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulatory Authority.

11.2. Audit response to risks identified
As a result of performing the above, we identified the following as key audit matters related to the potential risk of fraud: (1) valuation of 
complex energy derivative contracts; (2) accuracy and completeness of ENSEK revenue; and (3) valuation of expected credit losses in 
respect of customer receivables. The key audit matters section of our report explains the matters in more detail and also describes the 
specific procedures we performed in response to those key audit matters. 

Our procedures to respond to risks identified included the following:

• reviewing the financial statement disclosures and testing the supporting documentation to assess compliance with provisions of relevant 

laws and regulations described as having a direct effect on the financial statements; 

• enquiring of management, the Audit and Risk Committee, in-house legal counsel and the Group’s ethics team concerning actual and 

potential litigation and claims;

• reviewing the reporting to the Audit and Risk Committee, on matters relating to fraud and potential non-compliance with laws and 

regulations including the Group’s whistleblowing programme;

• performing analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement 

due to fraud;

• reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance, reviewing internal audit reports and reviewing correspondence with 

HMRC, Ofgem, the FCA and the PRA; 

• in addressing the risk of fraud associated with decommissioning provisions, we used data analytics to identify the assumptions to which 

the decommissioning model is most sensitive and performed focused audit procedures, including corroborating and benchmarking 
these inputs to independent documentation (such as project management cost, wells cost and norms and rates) and external industry 
reports; and

• in addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, testing the appropriateness of journal entries and other 

adjustments; assessing whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias; and evaluating 
the business rationale of any significant transactions that are unusual or outside the normal course of business.

We also communicated relevant identified laws and regulations and potential fraud risks to all engagement team members including 
internal specialists and component audit teams, and remained alert to any indications of fraud or non-compliance with laws and 
regulations throughout the audit.

Report on other legal and regulatory requirements

12. Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion the part of the Directors’ Remuneration Report to be audited has been properly prepared in accordance with the 
Companies Act 2006.

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the information given in the Strategic Report and the Directors’ Report for the financial year for which the financial statements are 

prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the Strategic report and the Directors’ Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the Group and the Company and their environment obtained in the course of the audit, 
we have not identified any material misstatements in the Strategic Report or the Directors’ Report.

120

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

13. Corporate Governance Statement
The Listing Rules require us to review the directors’ statement in relation to going concern, longer-term viability and that part of the 
Corporate Governance Statement relating to the Group’s compliance with the provisions of the UK Corporate Governance Code specified 
for our review.

Based on the work undertaken as part of our audit, we have concluded that each of the following elements of the Corporate Governance 
Statement is materially consistent with the financial statements and our knowledge obtained during the audit: 

• the directors’ statement with regards to the appropriateness of adopting the going concern basis of accounting and any material 

uncertainties identified set out on page 106;

• the directors’ explanation as to its assessment of the Group’s prospects, the period this assessment covers and why the period is 

appropriate set out on pages 34 to 36; 

• the directors’ statement on fair, balanced and understandable set out on page 73;
• the Board’s confirmation that it has carried out a robust assessment of the emerging and principal risks set out on page 29;
• the section of the annual report that describes the review of effectiveness of risk management and internal control systems set out on 

page 73; and

• the section describing the work of the Audit and Risk Committee set out on pages 72 to 79.

14. Matters on which we are required to report by exception

14.1. Adequacy of explanations received and accounting records
Under the Companies Act 2006 we are required to report to you if, in our opinion:

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
• adequate accounting records have not been kept by the Company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from 

branches not visited by us; or

• the Company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns.

We have nothing to report in respect of these matters.

14.2. Directors’ remuneration
Under the Companies Act 2006 we are also required to report if in our opinion certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration have not 
been made or the part of the Directors’ Remuneration Report to be audited is not in agreement with the accounting records and returns.

We have nothing to report in respect of these matters.

15. Other matters which we are required to address

15.1. Auditor tenure
Following the recommendation of the Audit and Risk Committee, we were reappointed by the shareholders on 10 June 2022 to audit 
the financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2022 and subsequent financial periods. The period of total uninterrupted 
engagement including previous renewals and reappointments of the firm is six years, covering the years ending 31 December 2017 to 
31 December 2022.

15.2. Consistency of the audit report with the additional report to the Audit & Risk Committee
Our audit opinion is consistent with the additional report to the Audit and Risk Committee we are required to provide in accordance with 
ISAs (UK).

16. Use of our report
This report is made solely to the Company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. 
Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in 
an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone 
other than the Company and the Company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed. 

As required by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rule (DTR) 4.1.14 R, these financial 
statements form part of the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) prepared Annual Financial Report filed on the National Storage 
Mechanism of the UK FCA in accordance with the ESEF Regulatory Technical Standard (‘ESEF RTS’). This auditor’s report provides no 
assurance over whether the annual financial report has been prepared using the single electronic format specified in the ESEF RTS.

Jane Boardman FCA (Senior statutory auditor)

For and on behalf of Deloitte LLP
Statutory Auditor

London, United Kingdom
15 February 2023

Group Income Statement

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

121

Operating costs before exceptional items and 
credit losses on financial assets

5  

(1,872)   

Credit losses on financial assets 

5,17  

Year ended 31 December 

Continuing operations

Group revenue
Cost of sales (i)

Re-measurement and settlement of derivative 
energy contracts

Gross profit

Exceptional items – net impairment reversals

Exceptional items – net loss on significant 
disposals

Exceptional items – net restructuring cost 
reversals

Operating costs

Share of profits/(losses) of joint ventures and 
associates, net of interest and taxation

Group operating profit/(loss)

Net finance cost

Profit/(loss) from continuing operations before 
taxation

Taxation on profit/(loss) from continuing 
operations

2022

Business 
performance
£m

Exceptional items 
and certain re-
measurements
£m

Notes

Results for the 
year
£m

Business 
performance
£m

2021

Exceptional items 
and certain re-
measurements
£m

Results for the 
year
£m

4,7  

5,7  

7  

4,7  

7  

7  

7  

5  

6  

4  

8  

33,637   

(28,198)   

(9,896)   

23,741 

14,986   

(13,212) 

18,300   

(15,430)   

(3,556)   

14,744 

2,749   

(12,681) 

—   

5,439   

(8,484)   

(3,394)   

(8,484) 

2,045 

—   

2,870   

(351)   

—   

—   

—   

(1,872) 

(1,703)   

—   

—   

207   

(351) 

207 

(362)   

(362) 

—   

— 

(116)   

—   

—   

—   

(2,223)   

(155)   

(2,378) 

(1,819)   

92   

3,308   

(143)   

1   

(3,548)   

—   

93 

(240) 

(143) 

(103)   

948   

(187)   

(434)   

(1,241)   

—   

—   

1,218   

(434) 

1,629 

(1,703) 

(116) 

1,218 

—   

— 

29   

1,247   

—   

6 

—   

29 

(572) 

(103) 

954

(187) 

3,165   

(3,548)   

(383) 

761   

6   

767 

7,9  

(1,046)   

793   

(253) 

(454)   

236   

(218) 

Profit/(loss) from continuing operations after 
taxation
Discontinued operations (ii)

7  

Profit/(loss) for the year

Attributable to:

Owners of the parent

Non-controlling interests

2,119   

—   

2,119   

2,050   

69   

(2,755)   

—   

(2,755)   

(2,832)   

77   

Earnings per ordinary share

From continuing and discontinued operations

Basic

Diluted

From continuing operations

Basic

Diluted

Interim dividend paid per ordinary share

Final dividend proposed per ordinary share

10

10

10

10

11

11

(636) 

— 

(636) 

(782) 

146 

Pence

(13.3) 

(13.3) 

(13.3) 

(13.3) 

1.0 

2.0 

307   

—   

307   

237   

70   

242   

624   

866   

549 

624 

1,173 

973   

(107)   

1,210 

(37) 

Pence

20.7 

20.5 

10.0 

9.9 

— 

— 

(i) Cost of sales includes a £1,766 million credit (2021: £2,530 million charge) relating to a reversal of the onerous energy supply contract provision within the certain 

re-measurements column. See note 7.

(ii) Profit from the disposal of Direct Energy reflected in discontinued operations is entirely attributable to equity holders of the parent. See note 7.

The notes on pages 126 to 224 form part of these Financial Statements.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
122

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Group Statement of Comprehensive Income

Year ended 31 December 

(Loss)/profit for the year

Other comprehensive income

Items that will be or have been reclassified to the Group Income Statement:

Impact of cash flow hedging (net of taxation)
Exchange differences on translation of foreign operations (i)
Exchange differences reclassified to Group Income Statement on disposal (i)

Net investment hedging gains reclassified to Group Income Statement (net of taxation)

Items that will not be reclassified to the Group Income Statement:

Net actuarial (losses)/gains on defined benefit pension schemes (net of taxation)

Gains on revaluation of equity instruments measured at fair value through other comprehensive
income (net of taxation)

Share of other comprehensive (loss)/income of associates, net of taxation

Other comprehensive (loss)/income, net of taxation

Total comprehensive (loss)/income for the year

Attributable to:

Owners of the parent

Non-controlling interests

Total comprehensive (loss)/income attributable to owners of the parent arises from:

Continuing operations

Discontinued operations

Notes

S4  

S4  

12,S4  

S4  

S4  

S4

14,S4  

S11  

2022
£m

(636) 

(20) 

(90) 

272 

— 

(124) 

— 

(293) 

(255) 

(891) 

(1,042) 

151 

(1,042) 

— 

(1,042) 

2021
£m

1,173 

(6) 

(49) 

(20) 

(40) 

144 

3 

152 

184 

1,357 

1,397 

(40) 

833 

564 

1,397 

(i) Exchange differences on translation of foreign operations includes £95 million (2021: £46 million) of losses attributable to the equity holders of the parent, and £5 million 

of gains (2021: £3 million of losses) attributable to non-controlling interests. Exchange differences reclassified to Group Income Statement on disposal includes a 
£272 million loss (2021: £20 million gain) attributable to the equity holders of the parent, and £nil (2021: £nil) attributable to non-controlling interests. See note S4.

The notes on pages 126 to 224 form part of these Financial Statements.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Group Statement of Changes in Equity

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

123

Share 
Capital
£m

Share 
Premium
£m

Retained 
Earnings
£m

Other 
Equity
£m

Non-controlling 
Interests
£m

Total
£m

1 January 2021

Profit/(loss) for the year

Other comprehensive income/(loss)

Total comprehensive income/(loss)

Employee share schemes and other 
share transactions

31 December 2021

(Loss)/profit for the year

Other comprehensive (loss)/income

Total comprehensive (loss)/income

Employee share schemes and other share 
transactions
Share buyback programme (i)

Dividends paid to equity holders

Distributions to non-controlling interests (note 12)

361   

2,347   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

2   

363   

30   

2,377   

—   

—   

—   

2   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

17   

—   

—   

—   

(836)   

1,210   

—   

1,210   

3   

377   

(782)   

—   

(782)   

(2)   

—   

(59)   

—   

(915)   

—   

187   

187   

(24)   

(752)   

—   

(260)   

(260)   

(14)   

(250)   

—   

—   

957   

1,210   

187   

1,397   

11   

2,365   

(782)   

(260)   

(1,042)   

3   

(250)   

(59)   

—   

31 December 2022

365   

2,394   

(466)   

(1,276)   

1,017   

(i) See note S4 for further details of the share buyback programme

The notes on pages 126 to 224 form part of these Financial Statements.

425   

(37)   

(3)   

(40)   

—   

385   

146   

5   

151   

—   

—   

—   

(273)   

263   

Total 
equity
£m

1,382 

1,173 

184 

1,357 

11 

2,750 

(636) 

(255) 

(891) 

3 

(250) 

(59) 

(273) 

1,280 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
124

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Group Balance Sheet

Non-current assets

Property, plant and equipment

Interests in joint ventures and associates

Other intangible assets

Goodwill

Deferred tax assets

Trade and other receivables, and contract-related assets

Derivative financial instruments

Retirement benefit assets

Securities

Current assets

Trade and other receivables, and contract-related assets

Inventories

Derivative financial instruments

Current tax assets

Cash and cash equivalents

Assets of disposal groups classified as held for sale

Total assets

Current liabilities

Derivative financial instruments

Trade and other payables, and contract-related liabilities

Current tax liabilities

Provisions for other liabilities and charges

Bank overdrafts, loans and other borrowings

Liabilities of disposal groups classified as held for sale

Non-current liabilities

Deferred tax liabilities

Derivative financial instruments

Trade and other payables, and contract-related liabilities

Provisions for other liabilities and charges

Retirement benefit obligations

Bank loans and other borrowings

Total liabilities

Net assets

Share capital

Share premium

Retained earnings

Other equity

Total shareholders’ equity

Non-controlling interests

Total shareholders’ equity and non-controlling interests

31 December 
2022
£m

31 December 
2021
£m

Notes

13  

14  

15  

15  

16  

17  

19  

22  

24  

17  

18  

19  

1,748   

1,580   

707   

409   

1,709   

129   

1,985 

1,628 

760 

401 

823 

233 

1,393   

1,005 

150   

525   

231 

135 

8,350   

7,201 

8,450   

1,269   

6,034   

93   

5,881 

644 

6,545 

83 

24  

4,842   

5,060 

20,688   

18,213 

—   

20,688   

29,038   

1,672 

19,885 

27,086 

(8,841)   

(10,176)   

(472)   

(1,213)   

(1,009)   

(4,929) 

(7,513) 

(333) 

(2,769) 

(1,204) 

(21,711)   

(16,748) 

—   

(1,228) 

(21,711)   

(17,976) 

(8)   

(36) 

(1,310)   

(1,080) 

(165)   

(120) 

(1,446)   

(1,454) 

(110)   

(3,008)   

(6,047)   

(231) 

(3,439) 

(6,360) 

(27,758)   

(24,336) 

19  

20  

21  

24  

16  

19  

20  

21  

22  

24  

25  

1,280   

365   

2,394   

(466)   

S4  

(1,276)   

S11  

1,017   

263   

1,280   

2,750 

363 

2,377 

377 

(752) 

2,365 

385 

2,750 

The Financial Statements on pages 121 to 224, of which the notes on pages 126 to 224 form part, were approved and authorised for 
issue by the Board of Directors on 15 February 2023 and were signed below on its behalf by:

Chris O’Shea 
Group Chief Executive 

Kate Ringrose
Group Chief Financial Officer

Centrica plc Registered No: 03033654

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Group Cash Flow Statement

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

125

Year ended 31 December 

Notes

Group operating (loss)/profit including share of results of joint ventures and associates

(Deduct)/add back share of (profits)/losses of joint ventures and associates, net of interest and taxation

6  

Group operating (loss)/profit before share of results of joint ventures and associates

Add back/(deduct):

Depreciation and amortisation

Write-downs, impairments and write-backs

Loss on disposals

(Decrease)/increase in provisions

Cash contributions to defined benefit schemes in excess of service cost income statement charge
Employee share scheme costs

Unrealised losses/(gains) arising from re-measurement of energy contracts

Exceptional charges reflected directly in operating profit

Operating cash flows before movements in working capital relating to business performance and payments 
relating to taxes and exceptional charges

Increase in inventories

Increase in trade and other receivables and contract-related assets relating to business performance

Increase in trade and other payables and contract-related liabilities relating to business performance

Operating cash flows before payments relating to taxes and exceptional charges

Taxes paid

Operating interest paid

Payments relating to exceptional charges in operating costs

Net cash flow from operating activities

Continuing operations:

Purchase of businesses, net of cash acquired

Sale of businesses

Purchase of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets

Sale of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets

(Investments in)/disposal of joint ventures and associates

Dividends received from joint ventures and associates

Interest received

Settlement of securities

Purchase of securities

Net cash flow from continuing investing activities

Net cash flow from discontinued investing activities

Net cash flow from investing activities

Payments for own shares

Share buyback programme

Cash inflow from short-term borrowings

Proceeds from sale of forfeited share capital
Distributions to non-controlling interests

Financing interest paid

Repayment of borrowings and capital element of leases

Equity dividends paid

Net cash flow from financing activities

Net (decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents including overdrafts, and cash classified as held for sale at 1 January

Effect of foreign exchange rate changes

Cash and cash equivalents including overdrafts at 31 December

Included in the following line of the Group Balance Sheet:

Cash and cash equivalents
Overdrafts included within current bank overdrafts, loans and other borrowings

Assets of disposal groups classified as held for sale

The notes on pages 126 to 224 form part of these Financial Statements.

13,15  

4,7  

12  

9  

8  

7  

12  

12  

4  

14  

14  

24  

24  

S4  

S4  

24  

12  

24  

24  

11  

24  

24  

24  
24  

2022
£m

(240)   

(93)   

(333)   

669   

(99)   

343   

(1,903)   

(184)   
10   

2021
£m

954 

103 

1,057 

768 

(1,183) 

28 

2,434 

(388) 
12 

4,095   

(1,159) 

—   

12 

2,598   

1,581 

(593)   

(2,302)   

2,239   

1,942   

(574)   

(30)   

(24)   

(361) 

(3,358) 

3,965 

1,827 

(140) 

— 

(76) 

1,314   

1,611 

12   

92   

(371)   

11   

(18)   

60   

46   

150   

(548)   

(566)   

—   

(566)   

(5)   

(43)   

1,220   

—   
(273)   

(172)   

(1,585)   

(59)   

(917)   

(169)   

4,328   

83   

(14) 

70 

(420) 

36 

2 

2 

2 

— 

(3) 

(325) 

2,588 

2,263 

— 

— 

— 

1 
— 

(233) 

(706) 

— 

(938) 

2,936 

1,393 

(1) 

4,242   

4,328 

4,842   
(600)   

—   

5,060 
(750) 

18 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
126

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Notes to the Financial Statements

impact of significant adverse weather events, increased bad debt 
charges due to the cost of living crisis, the risk of financial loss due 
to counterparty default and production falls in the Group’s 
upstream business. Due to the elevated and more volatile 
commodity prices in 2022, the Group has established enhanced 
processes in the trading business and in respect of Upstream to 
plan for and manage possible increases in margin cash 
requirements. The largest margin outflow modelled in the going 
concern scenarios is significantly in excess of actual margin 
requirements experienced in 2021 and 2022. Following this work, 
the level of undrawn committed bank facilities and available cash 
resources has enabled the Directors to conclude that there are no 
material uncertainties relating to going concern. As a result, the 
Group continues to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in 
preparing the financial statements. Further information on the 
Group’s strong liquidity position, including its indebtedness and 
available committed facilities is provided in note 24.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with IFRS 
requires the use of certain critical accounting estimates. It requires 
management to exercise its judgement in the process of applying 
the Group’s accounting policies. The areas involving a higher 
degree of judgement or complexity and areas where assumptions 
and estimates are significant to the consolidated Financial 
Statements are described in notes 2 and 3.
(b) New accounting policies, standards, amendments 
and interpretations effective or adopted in 2022
From 1 January 2022, the following standards and amendments 
are effective in the Group’s consolidated Financial Statements:

• Amendments to IAS 37 ‘Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and 

Contingent Assets’, costs of fulfilling a contract;

• Amendments to IAS 16: ‘Property, Plant and Equipment’, sale 

proceeds before intended use; 

• Amendments to IFRS 3 ‘Business Combinations’, reference to 

the Conceptual Framework; and

• Annual improvements to IFRS 2018-2020.

These changes and other amendments effective during the year did 
not materially impact the consolidated Financial Statements.

Customer Support Schemes
During the year the UK Government announced three new support 
schemes to provide support for customers during the cost-of-living 
crisis.

The Energy Bill Support Scheme (EBSS) requires energy suppliers 
to provide electricity customers with a £400 benefit spread over the 
six-month winter period. The Group is providing this support to 
customers as either a cash benefit, or a credit to their energy 
account depending on their payment type. Energy suppliers are 
receiving funding monthly in advance from the Government. Cash 
is restricted until the payment, or account credit, is applied to 
customers’ accounts. Since the beginning of the EBSS scheme on 
1 October 2022, the Group has received funding of £1,565 million 
from the Government. £440 million of this balance primarily relates 
to funding received in December and is disclosed as restricted 
cash. A corresponding liability is recognised on the Group’s 
balance sheet until the EBSS support is applied to customer 
accounts in January 2023, see note 24 for further details.

Notes to the Financial Statements provide additional 
information required by statute, accounting standards or 
Listing Rules to explain a particular feature of the 
consolidated Financial Statements.

The notes to these Financial Statements focus on areas 
that are key to understanding our business. Additional 
information that we are required to disclose by 
accounting standards or regulation is disclosed in the 
Supplementary Information (notes S1 to S11).

In addition, for clarity, notes begin with a simple 
introduction outlining its purpose.

1. Basis of preparation and summary of 

significant new accounting policies and 
reporting changes

This section details new accounting standards, 
amendments to standards and interpretations, whether 
these are effective in 2022 or later years, and if and how 
these are expected to impact the financial position and 
performance of the Group.

The principal accounting policies applied in the preparation of these 
consolidated Financial Statements are set out below and in the 
Supplementary Information (note S2). Unless otherwise stated, 
these policies have been consistently applied to the years 
presented.
(a) Basis of preparation
The consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in 
accordance with the United Kingdom adopted International 
Accounting Standards, with International Financial Reporting 
Standards as issued by the IASB and in conformity with the 
requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

The consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared on the 
historical cost basis except for: certain gas inventory, derivative 
financial instruments, financial instruments required to be measured 
at fair value through profit or loss or other comprehensive income, 
and those financial instruments so designated at initial recognition, 
and the assets of the Group’s defined benefit pension schemes 
that have been measured at fair value; the liabilities of the Group’s 
defined benefit pension schemes that have been measured using 
the projected unit credit valuation method; and the carrying values 
of recognised assets and liabilities qualifying as hedged items in fair 
value hedges that have been adjusted from cost by the changes in 
the fair values attributable to the risks that are being hedged.

The Directors have, at the time of approving the financial 
statements, a reasonable expectation that the Company and 
Group have adequate resources to continue in operational 
existence for the foreseeable future, which reflects a period of 
twelve months from the date of approval of the accounts, with 
modelled analysis extending to 31 December 2024. The scenarios 
considered as part of the going concern assessment are consistent 
with those used in the longer-term viability statement. In particular, 
cash forecasts for the Group have been stress-tested for different 
scenarios including reasonably possible increases/decreases in 
commodity prices and the risk scenarios described in the viability 
statement, assessing reasonably possible combinations of risks, 
the largest of which is the increased margin outflows in our trading 
and upstream businesses.  Risks considered also include the 

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

127

The Group has recognised the loan as a financial asset under 
IFRS 9 ‘Financial Instruments’ measured at amortised cost and 
classified the receivable within securities on the Group’s balance 
sheet. Correspondingly, the loan liability has been deducted from 
plan assets on the basis that the loan does not relate to employee 
benefits (scheme liabilities) in accordance with IAS 19.
(c) Standards and amendments that are issued but 

not yet applied by the Group

At the date of authorisation of these consolidated Financial 
Statements, the Group has not applied the following new and 
revised standards and amendments that have been issued but are 
not yet effective:

The following standard has been issued, endorsed and will be 
applied to the Group in future periods:

• IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts’, effective from 1 January 2023.

The following standards and amendments have been issued, 
endorsed and will be applied to the Group in future periods, subject 
to UK endorsement:

• Amendments to IAS 1 ‘Presentation of Financial Statements’:

– Disclosure of accounting policies and materiality judgements, 

effective 1 January 2023;

– Classification of liabilities as current or non-current, effective 

1 January 2024; and

– Non-current liabilities with covenants, effective 1 January 

2024.

• Amendments to IAS 8 ‘Accounting policies, Changes in 

Accounting Estimates and Errors’; effective from 1 January 2023;
• Amendments to IAS 12 ‘Income Taxes’; effective from 1 January 

2023; and

• Amendments to IFRS 16 ‘Leases’; effective from 1 January 

2024.

IFRS 17 will be effective from 1 January 2023. The Group currently 
has fixed-fee service contracts that it accounts for as insurance 
contracts under IFRS 4 ‘Insurance Contracts’. The Group has 
completed its assessment of IFRS 17 and expects these contracts 
to fall within the scope of IFRS 17 where the Group reflects an 
assessment of the risk associated with an individual customer in 
setting the price of the contract. The Group will apply the simplified 
‘Premium Allocation Approach’ to its contracts on the basis that 
the coverage period of the Group’s insurance contracts is not 
greater than one year. The Group does not expect a material 
impact from the application of this standard.

Management does not expect other issued but not effective 
amendments or standards, or standards not discussed above to 
have a material impact on the consolidated Financial Statements.

1. Basis of preparation and summary of 

significant new accounting policies and 
reporting changes

The Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) scheme sets a government 
supported unit price for both gas and electricity for domestic 
customers at a level below the quarterly-calculated price cap. 
The EPG tariff rates are expected to reduce the average annual 
domestic household bill for the period from 1 October 2022 to 
31 March 2023 to approximately £2,500 per annum. EPG rates will 
increase to approximately £3,000 per annum from 1 April 2023 and 
are expected to remain in place until 31 March 2024. The 
Government is compensating energy suppliers for the difference 
between the previously expected price cap and the reduced EPG 
rates with payments made in arrears. Since the start of the EPG 
scheme in October, the Group has recognised £706 million of 
revenue relating to the supply of electricity and £833 million relating 
to the supply of gas from the Government, of which a total of 
£153 million is recognised as a trade receivable on the balance 
sheet at the year-end date. The Group estimates and recognises 
revenue in accordance with existing Group policy and then applies 
the EPG discounts. Charges are recoverable from customers 
based on the net figure, with the EPG discount recoverable from 
the Government. 

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) scheme has been introduced 
for non-domestic customers, providing government supported unit 
rates at £211/MWh for electricity and £75/MWh for gas. EBRS 
support is calculated on the differential between the EBRS rate, 
and the wholesale price of electricity or gas at either the inception 
of a customer’s fixed price contract, or the date of delivery for 
variable, deemed and all other contracts, subject to a maximum 
discount. Since the EBRS scheme became effective from October 
2022, the Group has recognised £219 million of revenue from the 
Government of which £131 million is recognised as a trade 
receivable on the balance sheet at the year-end date. The EBRS 
scheme is expected to end on 31 March 2023. Similar to the EPG, 
the Group recognises revenue based on existing estimation and 
measurement processes with the EBRS discount applied and 
subsequently recovered from the Government.

The Group has determined that it is appropriate to apply the 
requirements of IFRS 15 ‘Revenue from Contracts with Customers’ 
where the Government is effectively settling a portion of customers’ 
energy bills. This is on the basis that the Group remains entitled to 
receive consideration for the supply of electricity and gas based on 
either the existing price cap structure or customers’ fixed or 
variable priced contracts and the transaction price is unchanged. 
The trade receivable arising from the supply of energy is settled 
both by the customer, and the Government. The Group observes 
that the alternative application of IAS 20 ‘Government Grants’ 
would have resulted in a similar accounting outcome. 

Pension Scheme Loan Arrangement
As a result of the turbulence in longer-dated UK Government debt 
markets during the second half of the year, the Group provided a 
loan facility to the Group’s three defined benefit pension schemes. 
The facility amounted to £550 million, of which £400 million 
remained outstanding at the reporting date. Interest on the loan is 
calculated based on the Bank of England base rate plus 1%; 
interest accrues over the two-year term of the loan and is paid by 
the pension schemes at maturity. See note 22 for further details.

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2. Centrica specific accounting measures

This section sets out the Group’s specific accounting 
measures applied in the preparation of the consolidated 
Financial Statements. These measures enable the users 
of the accounts to understand the Group’s underlying 
and statutory business performance separately.

(a) Use of adjusted performance measures
The Directors believe that reporting adjusted measures (revenue, 
margin, profit, earnings per share and cash flow) provides 
additional useful information on business performance and 
underlying trends. These measures are used for internal 
performance purposes, are not defined terms under IFRS and may 
not be comparable with similarly titled measures reported by other 
companies.

Management uses adjusted revenue, adjusted gross margin and 
adjusted operating profit to evaluate segment performance. They 
are defined as revenue/gross margin/operating profit before:

• exceptional items; and

• certain re-measurements.

Exceptional items and certain re-measurements are excluded 
because these items are considered by the Directors to distort the 
Group’s underlying business performance. See section (b) of this 
note for further details. Similarly, for Segmental adjusted operating 
profit, the impact of the Group’s profit share is excluded because 
management considers it unrelated to Segmental business 
performance.

Adjusted earnings is defined as earnings before:

• exceptional items net of taxation; and

• certain re-measurements net of taxation.

A reconciliation of adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per 
share is provided in note 10.

Free cash flow is used by management to assess the cash 
generating performance of each segment. Segmental free cash 
flow is defined as net cash flow from operating and investing 
activities before:

• deficit reduction payments made to the UK defined benefit 

pension schemes;

• movements in variation margin and collateral;

• interest received;

• sale, settlement and purchase of securities; and

• taxes paid and refunded.

Segmental free cash flow as assessed by management excludes 
cash flows relating to tax. This is because the effect of Group relief 
and similar reliefs could distort the measure of segment 
performance. As a Group-wide measure, free cash flow includes 
taxes paid and refunded.

Free cash flow gives a measure of the cash generation 
performance of the business after taking account of the need to 
maintain its capital asset base. By excluding deficit reduction 
payments and movements in variation margin and collateral, which 
are predominantly triggered by wider market factors and, in the 
case of collateral and margin movements, represent timing 
differences, free cash flow gives a measure of the underlying 
performance of the Group.

Interest received and cash flows from the sale, settlement and 
purchase of securities are excluded from free cash flow as these 
items are included in the Group’s adjusted net cash/debt measure 
and are therefore viewed by the Directors as related to the manner 
in which the Group finances its operations.

Adjusted net cash/(debt) is used by management to assess the 
underlying indebtedness of the business. Adjusted net cash/(debt) 
is defined as cash and cash equivalents, net of bank overdrafts, 
borrowings, leases, interest accruals and related derivatives. This is 
adjusted for:

• securities; and
• sub-lease assets.

(b) Exceptional items and certain re-measurements

The Group reflects its underlying financial results in the business 
performance column of the Group Income Statement. To be able 
to provide users with this clear and consistent presentation, the 
effects of ‘certain re-measurements’ of financial instruments, and 
‘exceptional items’, are reported in a different column in the Group 
Income Statement.

The Group is an integrated energy business. This means that it 
utilises its knowledge and experience across the gas and power 
(and related commodity) value chains to make profits across the 
core markets in which it operates. As part of this strategy, the 
Group enters into a number of forward energy trades to protect 
and optimise the value of its underlying production, generation, 
storage and transportation assets and contracts (and similar 
capacity or off-take arrangements), as well as to meet the future 
needs of its customers (downstream demand). These trades are 
designed to reduce the risk of holding such assets, contracts or 
downstream demand and are subject to strict risk limits and 
controls.

Primarily because some of these trades include terms that permit 
net settlement, they are prohibited from being designated as ‘own 
use’ and so IFRS 9 ‘Financial Instruments’ requires them to be 
individually fair valued.

Fair value movements on these commodity derivative trades do not 
reflect the underlying performance of the business because they 
are economically related to our upstream assets, capacity/off-take 
contracts or downstream demand, which are typically not fair 
valued. Similarly, where our downstream customer supply 
contracts have become onerous as a result of significant market 
price movements (and the fact any associated commodity hedges 
have separately been recognised at fair value under IFRS 9 and 
therefore the onerous supply contract assessment must reflect the 
reversal of those gains in subsequent periods), movements in the 
required provision are also reflected as a certain re-measurement in 
the ‘Cost of sales’ line item and separately disclosed in note 7.

Movements in this provision do not reflect the underlying 
performance of the business because they are economically related 
to both the hedges and forecast future profitability of the supply 
contracts. Therefore, these certain re-measurements are reported 
separately and are subsequently reflected in business performance 
when the underlying transaction or asset impacts profit or loss.

The effects of these certain re-measurements are presented within 
either revenue or cost of sales when recognised in business 
performance depending on the nature of the contract. They are 
managed separately from proprietary energy trading activities 
where trades are entered into speculatively for the purpose of 
making profits in their own right. These proprietary trades are 
included in revenue in the business performance column of the 
Group Income Statement.

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129

2. Centrica specific accounting measures
The Group’s result for the year presents both realised and 
unrealised fair value movements on all derivative energy contracts 
within the ‘Re-measurement and settlement of derivative energy 
contracts’ line item. The Group’s result for the year presents the 
unrealised onerous supply contract provision movements within the 
‘Cost of sales’ line item.

Exceptional items are those items that, in the judgement of the 
Directors, need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their nature, 
size or incidence. Again, to ensure the business performance 
column reflects the underlying results of the Group, these 
exceptional items are also reported in the separate column in the 
Group Income Statement. Items that may be considered 
exceptional in nature include disposals of businesses or significant 
assets, business restructurings, debt repurchase costs, certain 
pension past service credits/costs, asset impairments/write-backs, 
the tax effects of these items and the effect of changes in UK 
upstream tax rates.

The Group distinguishes between business performance asset 
impairments/write-backs and exceptional impairments/write-backs 
on the basis of the underlying driver of the impairment, as well as 
the magnitude of the impairment. Drivers that are deemed to be 
outside of the control of the Group (e.g. commodity price changes) 
give rise to exceptional impairments. Additionally, impairment 
charges that are of a one-off nature (e.g. reserve downgrades or 
one-time change in intended use of an asset) and significant 
enough value to distort the underlying results of the business are 
considered to be exceptional. Other impairments that would be 
expected in the normal course of business, such as unsuccessful 
exploration activity (dry holes), are reflected in business 
performance.

 
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3. Critical accounting judgements and key 

sources of estimation uncertainty

This section sets out the key areas of judgement and 
estimation that have the most significant effect on the 
amounts recognised in the consolidated Financial 
Statements.

(a) Critical judgements in applying the Group’s 

accounting policies

In addition to the judgements described above, management has 
made the following key judgements in applying the Group’s 
accounting policies that have the most significant effect on the 
consolidated Group Financial Statements.

Spirit Energy consolidation
During 2017, the Group acquired Bayerngas Norge’s exploration 
and production business and combined this with the Group’s 
existing exploration and production business to form the Spirit 
Energy business (SE). The Group, through its Board majority, can 
control decisions that represent Board Reserved Matters and the 
Directors consider that these rights provide control over the 
relevant activities that most significantly influence the variable 
returns of the SE business. The Group has concluded that it 
controls SE and consequently SE is fully consolidated with a non- 
controlling interest of 31%.

Metering contracts
As part of the ongoing smart meter roll-out, the Group periodically 
renews meter rental arrangements with third parties. The last 
renegotiation took place in 2021. The Group assessed that these 
were not leases under IAS 17 and IFRIC 4 because at inception of 
the contract there were no specified assets, the Group did not have 
the right to physically or operationally control the smart meters and 
other parties took more than an insignificant amount of the output 
from the assets. This assessment was grandfathered on adoption 
of IFRS 16.

A reassessment of the contracts was performed in accordance 
with IFRS 16, following renegotiations of the meter rental 
arrangements. On the basis that the asset has a predetermined use 
and the Group neither has the right to operate the asset, nor was 
involved in its design, the conclusion that these arrangements are 
not leases continues to be appropriate.

LNG contracts
The Group is active in the liquified natural gas (LNG) market, both 
procuring long-term LNG supply arrangements and transacting in 
shorter-term LNG cargoes. As part of its operations in the market, 
the Group optimises its contractual positions in order to meet 
customer demand for physical commodity. In response to the 
continuing development of the global LNG market which, 
consistent with prior years, is not considered to be active, the 
Group has reviewed its portfolio of LNG transactions and contracts. 
It has judged that its activities are carried out for the purpose of 
receipt or delivery of physical commodity in accordance with its 
expected purchase and sale requirements. As a result, the Group’s 
contracts to buy and sell LNG are outside the scope of IFRS 9 and 
are accounted for on an accruals basis.

Assets held for sale and discontinued operations
On 8 December 2021 the Group announced that it had agreed to 
sell Spirit Energy’s entire Norwegian portfolio plus the Statfjord field 
to Sval Energi and Equinor. The transaction completed in the first 
half of 2022. See note 12.

The disposal group did not represent a separate major line of 
business or geographical operations, because the Upstream 
segment retains other European producing fields, and hence the 
Group concluded that the disposal group did not constitute a 
discontinued operation.

Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR)
During 2021, the Group was appointed as the Supplier of Last 
Resort (SoLR) to eight suppliers who ceased trading during the 
year and one further appointment was made in January 2022. 
Under Ofgem’s licence conditions, the Group was entitled to make 
a Last Resort Supplier Payment (LRSP) claim for the shortfall 
between costs reasonably incurred in supplying gas and electricity 
to premises under the Last Resort Supply Direction, and the 
charges recovered from customers. 

The Group submitted an initial claim in 2021, covering a six-month 
period from the date of appointment, and received confirmation of 
Ofgem’s acceptance in December 2021. The claim primarily 
covered estimated incremental commodity costs, incurred as a 
result of procuring gas and electricity to supply affected customers. 
The initial claim is currently being settled in 12 monthly instalments 
ending in April 2023 and a total of £258 million has been received 
during 2022. The Group submitted a second claim to Ofgem in 
Autumn 2022, recognising both actual commodity costs incurred, 
and additional costs which were not included in the initial claim. 
This includes the recovery of customer credit balances, where the 
Group had not waived the right to do so. The second claim was 
accepted by Ofgem in December 2022 and will be settled between 
April 2023 and April 2024. The value recognised for the SoLR 
receivable at 31 December 2022 is £275 million (31 December 
2021: £234 million). In 2022, the Group incurred a further £241 
million of incremental costs (31 December 2021: £185 million) and 
an additional £58 million of cost relating to customer credit 
balances (31 December 2021: £49 million).

The Group has concluded that the LRSP process represents an 
Ofgem support mechanism, enabling energy suppliers to provide 
stability to the customers of failed suppliers. The Group determines 
that the LRSP is within the scope of IAS 20 ‘Government Grants’ 
and amounts receivable under the mechanism are recognised as 
a credit within cost of sales and operating costs, as the related 
expenses are incurred.

Share buyback
On 10th November 2022, the Group announced an intention to 
undertake a share buyback of £250 million, expected to complete 
by 31 May 2023. The Group entered into contracts with third 
parties to undertake this repurchase programme and, as at 
31 December 2022, £43 million of shares had been purchased. 
The Group judges that the terms and conditions of the contracts 
meant that, at the 31 December 2022, it was unable to cancel the 
remaining obligation. Accordingly, the Group has recorded a 
financial liability of £207 million for this remaining obligation, in 
accordance with IFRS 9: ‘Financial Instruments’. See note S4.  

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131

3. Critical accounting judgements and key 

sources of estimation uncertainty
(b) Key sources of estimation uncertainty
The sections below detail the assumptions the Group makes about 
the future and other major sources of estimation uncertainty when 
measuring its assets and liabilities at the reporting date. The 
information given relates to the sources of estimation uncertainty 
that have a significant risk of resulting in a material adjustment to 
those assets and liabilities in the next financial year.

Estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical 
experience and various other factors that are believed to be 
reasonable under the circumstances, including current and 
expected economic conditions, and, in some cases, actuarial 
techniques. Although these estimates and associated assumptions 
are based on management’s best knowledge of current events and 
circumstances, actual results may differ.

British Gas Energy and Centrica Business Solutions Onerous 
Supply Contracts
The Group operates and manages a hedging strategy to ensure 
that the future costs of supplying customers of the British Gas 
Energy and Centrica Business Solutions portfolios are appropriately 
managed.

Hedges are measured at fair value under IFRS 9 and are 
recognised as certain re-measurements in the Group’s income 
statement until the point at which the related costs to purchase 
electricity and gas are incurred. Fair value movements on energy 
purchase contracts entered to meet the future needs of customers 
are economically related to customer demand; the supply contracts 
for which are measured on an accrual basis.

Gains and losses arising from hedges have been recognised in the 
income statement (within certain re-measurements) in accordance 
with the requirements of IFRS 9. Because of this hedge value 
recognition, the assessment of whether the supply contracts are 
onerous must include the contracted energy purchase costs and 
those mark-to-market reversals. In 2021, the Group determined 
that at the reporting date, the future costs to fulfil customer 
contracts, including those mark-to-market reversals, exceeded the 
charges recoverable from customers because the associated 
hedging gains had already been recognised in the income 
statement. As a result the Group recognised an onerous supply 
contract provision.

Throughout 2022, commodity prices have been elevated and 
volatile and the reversal of gains and losses arising from hedges 
has had a significant impact on the Group’s onerous contract 
supply provision. Commodity prices have declined at year end and 
the overall provision has similarly reduced. If commodity prices 
increase, a further provision may be required in the future. 
Commodity price movements typically affect the Group’s residential 
portfolio more immediately than non-domestic customers, because 
the residential hedging strategy reflects the more variable nature of 
the portfolio’s pricing structure compared to Centrica Business 
Solutions customers who are typically on longer-term fixed 
contracts. The decrease in the onerous supply contract provision is 
partially offset by the corresponding losses on the related 
derivatives recognised in certain re-measurements. Further 
disclosures relating to movements in certain re-measurements are 
provided in note 7.

Due to the sharp decline in commodity prices at the end of 2022, 
fair value movements on energy purchase contracts entered to 
meet the future needs of British Gas Energy residential customers 
resulted in losses rather than gains being recognised as certain re-
measurements in the Group’s income statement. As a result, the 

Group determined that at the reporting date, the future costs to 
fulfil British Gas residential customer contracts fell below charges 
recoverable from customers and the onerous supply contract 
provision previously recognised in relation to the fulfilment of British 
Gas Energy customer contracts has been reversed in full.

Fair value movements on energy purchase contracts in relation to 
the Group’s non-domestic customers have similarly resulted in the 
recognition of losses as a result of declining wholesale prices 
during December 2022. The hedging strategy for this portfolio 
differs from the residential portfolio, and the Group has determined 
that at the reporting date, the reversal of the cumulative fair value 
movements on this portfolio still results in future costs which 
exceed charges recoverable from customers. As a result, the 
Group continues to recognise an onerous supply contract provision 
for the Group’s non-domestic customers.

The total onerous contract supply provision recognised by the 
Group is £999 million (31 December 2021: £2,530 million). This has 
been calculated by estimating the expected margins from energy 
supply customers, and deducting from this margin the expected 
costs to fulfil those arrangements, including energy purchase costs 
reflecting the mark-to-market gains, and directly attributable 
overhead costs. 

In the prior year, key sources of estimation uncertainty related to 
the expected future tenure of the Group’s customer portfolio, and 
the estimated gross margin attributable to them. Estimations were 
based on historic experience, adjusted to reflect non-recurring 
costs. The British Gas Energy residential element of the provision 
was particularly sensitive to movements in tenure and gross margin 
assumptions. 

At 31 December 2022, the onerous supply contract provision only 
relates to non-domestic customers and is much less sensitive to 
the assumptions made.

Credit provisions for trade and other receivables
The economic effects of the significant increase in wholesale gas 
and electricity costs, and resultant increase in consumer tariffs 
alongside wider inflationary and cost-of-living pressures may 
impact the ability of the Group’s customers to pay amounts due. 
Gas and electricity customers are benefitting from customer 
support schemes implemented by the Government, but prices are 
still significantly higher than in previous years and the level of 
estimation uncertainty in determining the credit provisions required 
for customers is heightened.

The methodology for determining provisions for credit losses on 
trade and other receivables and the level of such provision, along 
with associated sensitivities, is set out in note 17. Although the 
provisions recognised are considered appropriate, the use of 
different assumptions or changes in economic conditions could 
lead to movements in the provisions and therefore impact the 
Group Income Statement.

Impairment and impairment reversals of long-lived assets
The Group makes judgements in considering whether the carrying 
amounts of its long-lived assets (principally Upstream gas assets, 
Nuclear investment (20% economic interest accounted for as an 
investment in associate) and goodwill) or cash-generating units 
(CGUs) are recoverable and estimates their recoverable amounts.

2021 and 2022 have seen significant year-on-year increases in 
forward commodity prices, both in terms of observable market 
prices and forecast forward prices. As a result impairment reversals 
were booked in 2021 related to our retained assets. During 2022, 
the announcement of the Energy Profits Levy and Electricity 
Generator Levy has also impacted the recoverable amounts of 
our assets.

 
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3. Critical accounting judgements and key 

sources of estimation uncertainty

Upstream gas assets
Forward prices for gas are a key input in the determination of the 
recoverable amount of the Group’s gas assets. 2022 has seen 
continued increases in the prices for this commodity, both in terms 
of observable market prices and forecast forward prices. This 
increase, primarily due to higher commodity prices, has been 
partially offset by the implementation of the Energy Profits Levy. 
At 31 December 2022, impairment headroom remains for all 
significant fields. The recoverable amounts of the Group’s gas 
assets are capped at depreciated historic cost; accordingly no 
material impairment reversals have been recorded during the 
period. As at 31 December 2022, this remains a key source of 
estimation uncertainty due to potential future price decreases. 
Sensitivities are provided in note 7.

Further details of the assumptions used in determining the 
recoverable amounts and sensitivities to the assumptions are 
provided in note 7.

Nuclear investment
The recoverable amount of the Nuclear investment is based on 
the value of the existing UK nuclear fleet operated by EDF. The 
existing fleet value is calculated by discounting pre-tax cash flows 
derived from the stations based on forecast power generation and 
power prices, whilst taking account of outages and the likely 
operational lives of the stations. During the period, the recoverable 
amount has improved as a result of increases in commodity prices 
more than offsetting the effect of the announcement of the 
Electricity Generator Levy. This, coupled with the impact of the 
actuarial loss from the associate’s pension scheme, has resulted in 
an impairment reversal of £195 million.

The key source of estimation uncertain is commodity price 
forecasts, other input assumptions include production levels and 
station lives. Further details of these uncertainties, together with the 
methodology, assumptions and impairment reversal booked during 
the year are provided in note 7, together with related sensitivities.

Revenue recognition – unread gas and electricity meters 
Revenue for energy supply activities includes an assessment of 
energy supplied to customers between the date of the last meter 
reading and the year-end (known as unread revenue). Unread gas 
and electricity comprises both billed and unbilled revenue. It is 
estimated through the billing systems, using historical consumption 
patterns, on a customer-by-customer basis, taking into account 
weather patterns, load forecasts and the differences between 
actual meter readings being returned and system estimates. 
Actual meter readings continue to be compared to system 
estimates between the balance sheet date and the finalisation 
of the accounts.

An assessment is also made of any factors that are likely to 
materially affect the ultimate economic benefits that will flow to 
the Group, including bill cancellation and re-bill rates. Estimated 
revenue is restricted to the amount the Group expects to be 
entitled to in exchange for energy supplied. The judgements 
applied, and the assumptions underpinning these judgements, 
are considered to be appropriate. However, a change in these 
assumptions would have an impact on the amount of revenue 
recognised. The primary source of estimation uncertainty relating 
to unread revenue arises in the respect of gas and electricity sales 
to UK downstream customers in British Gas Energy and Centrica 
Business Solutions, including where changes in customer 
behaviour in response to elevated prices, affects estimated 
consumption. At 31 December 2022 unread revenue arising from 
these customers amounted to £2,893 million (2021: £1,740 million). 

A change in these assumptions of 2% would impact revenue and 
profit by £58 million.

Decommissioning costs
The estimated cost of decommissioning at the end of the 
producing lives of gas fields is reviewed periodically and is based 
on reserves, price levels and technology at the balance sheet date. 
Provision is made for the estimated cost of decommissioning at the 
balance sheet date. The payment dates of total expected future 
decommissioning costs are uncertain and dependent on the lives 
of the facilities, but are currently anticipated to be predominantly 
incurred by 2030.

The level of provision held is also sensitive to the discount rate used 
to discount the estimated decommissioning costs. The real 
discount rate used to discount the decommissioning liabilities at 
31 December 2022 is 1% (2021: 0%). There are a number of 
variable inputs into the calculation of discount rates including risk-
free interest rates and debt and equity risk premium. As a result of 
changes in yields on government gilts appropriate to the forecast 
profile of the decommissioning expenditure, it has been deemed 
appropriate to increase the decommissioning rate. A 1% change in 
this discount rate would change the decommissioning liability by 
approximately £75 million. 

Gas and liquids reserves
The volume of proven and probable (2P) gas and liquids reserves is 
an estimate that affects the unit of production method of 
depreciating producing gas and liquids property, plant and 
equipment (PP&E) as well as being a significant estimate affecting 
decommissioning and impairment calculations.

The impact of a change in estimated 2P reserves is dealt with 
prospectively by depreciating the remaining book value of 
producing assets over the expected future production. If 2P 
reserves estimates are revised downwards, earnings could be 
affected by higher depreciation expense or an immediate write- 
down (impairment) of the asset’s book value. A change in reserves 
estimates could also change the timing of decommissioning 
activity, which could change the carrying value of the Group’s 
provisions. The complex interaction of field-specific factors means 
that it is not possible to give a meaningful sensitivity of the Group’s 
financial position or performance to gas and liquids reserves 
estimates. The factors impacting gas and liquids estimates, the 
process for estimating reserve quantities and reserve recognition 
and details of the Group’s 2P reserves are given on page 237. 
Details of impairments of exploration and production fields and 
goodwill, along with associated sensitivities, are given in note 7.

Determination of fair values – energy derivatives
The fair values of energy derivatives classified as Level 3 in 
accordance with IFRS 13 ‘Fair Value Measurement’ are determined 
to be a key source of estimation uncertainty as they are not actively 
traded and their values are estimated by reference in part to 
published price quotations in active markets and in part by using 
complex valuation techniques. The key source of estimation 
uncertainty is future commodity prices and their inclusion in the 
reliable estimation of the unobservable components of the Group’s 
Level 3 derivatives in an elevated and volatile commodity price 
environment. More detail on the assumptions used in determining 
fair valuations of energy derivatives is provided in note S6 and on 
the sensitivities to these assumptions in note S3.

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133

3. Critical accounting judgements and key 

sources of estimation uncertainty

Climate change
In preparing the financial statements, the Directors have considered 
the impact of climate change in the context of the risks and 
opportunities identified in the TCFD disclosures on pages 46 to 54. 
There has been no material impact identified on the financial 
reporting judgements and estimates. The Directors specifically 
considered the impact of climate change in the following areas:

• cash flow forecasts used in the impairment assessment of non-

current assets, including goodwill;

• carrying value and useful economic lives of property, plant and 

equipment;

• recoverability of deferred tax assets; and
• going concern and viability of the Group over the next 

three years.

Whilst there is no short-term impact expected from climate change, 
the Directors are aware of the risks and regularly assess these risks 
against judgements and estimates made in preparation of the 
Group’s financial statements.

Further detail is provided in the Climate change note below.

 
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3. Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty
(c) Climate change
The Group’s assessment of how climate-related issues might affect the business has been integrated into its annual strategic and financial 
planning process. At the same time, the Group reviews the potential impact of the material risks and opportunities and its Climate 
Transition Plan on both the current balance sheet position and its accounting policies (including the useful economic lives of its assets). 

Summary of our most material risks & opportunities

TCFD category

Climate-related trend

Potential impact

Transition: Policy, Markets and 
Technology

Transition away from fossil fuelled 
heating

Transition: Policy, Markets and 
Technology

Transition: Policy, Markets and 
Technology

Growth in low carbon heating market

Risk: Reduced gross margin (GM) from the sale and servicing of 
natural gas residential boilers and commercial Combined Heat and 
Power (CHP) 

Opportunity: Increased sales and servicing of electric and hydrogen 
fuelled heating systems

Transition away from natural gas

Risk: Reduced GM from the sale of natural gas and energy efficiency

Transition: Policy, Markets and 
Technology

Growth in low carbon heating market

Opportunity: Increased sales of electricity and green/low carbon 
hydrogen

Transition: Markets

Growth of EV transport market

Opportunity: Access to new and growing value pools related to EV 
charging installs, operation and maintenance (O&M), and energy supply

Transition: Energy Source

Growth in demand for renewable energy Opportunity: Strong growth in the market for low carbon and transition 

assets driven by decarbonisation

Physical: Chronic

Rising mean temperatures

Risk: Reduced sales of natural gas and electricity for heat 

IFRS dictates how each asset or liability should be accounted for (e.g. cost, fair value or other measurement criteria) and accordingly, 
there is a fundamental difference between the holistic forward-looking risk and opportunities business analysis (see TCFD disclosure on 
pages 46 to 54), and the possible sensitivity of current accounting carrying values to these risks and opportunities.

For example, whilst the activity of supplying gas to customers or servicing/installing gas boilers is clearly subject to climate-related risks 
(and opportunities), the balance sheet does not reflect an overall value of those businesses (aside from an element of goodwill). Instead, 
accounting balances related to these businesses generally manifest themselves in short-term working capital assets and liabilities 
associated with procuring and selling gas or servicing/installing boilers; with those balances generally settled within six months and so 
specifically less exposed to climate risks. 

In a similar vein, Upstream assets are tested for impairment in accordance with relevant IFRS accounting standards. These generally 
require the recoverable amount of the asset to be calculated based on a best estimate of long-term forecast commodity prices, which 
the Group estimates based on current market prices and the consensus of reputable commodity pricing consultants forecasts. However, 
these estimates are not consistent with net zero scenarios from the consultants (as they do not factor in any prospective, yet to be 
announced legislative or market changes that would be required to meet temperature targets) and hence impairment reviews are not 
based on net zero scenario forward prices. The Group instead discloses the impact on the carrying value of Upstream assets by way of 
sensitivity analysis (see note 7(c)).

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

135

3. Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty
Accordingly, the Group is mindful of these dynamics when it considers which areas of the balance sheet are exposed to key estimation 
uncertainty from climate-related issues. The Group considers which assets are most exposed to impairment from climate risks and 
similarly whether there are any liabilities that are either currently unrecognised or might increase as a result of those risks. 

The Group’s assets/liabilities have been segmented into three tranches, grading each balance’s exposure to climate risks/opportunities:

(i) Higher risk – As the consumption of gas and power is intrinsically linked to carbon emissions, their pricing is consequently exposed to 
climate and legislative risk. Accordingly, where assets or contract values have a key dependency on commodity price assumptions, 
those assets (or contracts) are deemed higher risk. 

(ii) Medium risk – Gross margin energy transition considerations and their potential impact on forward-looking balances (e.g. Supply and 

Services and Energy Trading goodwill) and decommissioning balances in E&P.

(iii) Lower risk – No significant risk identified on the basis that positions are short-term in nature or are specifically linked to the energy 

transition or are immaterial. 

The key non-current asset (and decommissioning provision) balance sheet items have been presented in more granular detail below, 
together with the groupings into the above risks and with rationale set out below the table:

As at 31 December 2022 related to (£m):

Goodwill

Intangibles

Investment in 
associates 

Property, plant & 
equipment

Deferred tax 
assets

Decommissioning 
provision

Energy Supply

Customer relationships

Emission certificates

Application software

Energy Services

Customer relationships

Brand (mainly Dyno)

Application software

Battery storage

Electric vehicles (vans/cars)

Non-electric vehicles (vans/cars)

Energy Trading

Customer relationships

Emission certificates

Application software

LNG vessel leases

Gas Assets (E&P and Storage)

E&P fields (Spirit)

E&P tax losses (Spirit)

Gas storage facility (Rough)

Power Generation

Nuclear investment

Gas-fired power stations/engines

Combined heat and power (CHP)/fuel cell

Solar

Group/Other

Application software
Land & buildings (i)
Derivatives deferred tax (i)
Other (i)

Total (notes 13-16 and 21)

197 

63 

149 

— 

— 

— 

16 

271 

146 

6 

57 

128 

18 

9 

29 

27 

1,560 

409   

707   

20   

1,580   

40 

45 

22 

124 

1,124   

71   

95 

45 

14 

104 

64   

1,748   

(256)   

214 

131   

(1,175) 

(324) 

(15) 

1,713 

(93) 

1,709   

(1,514) 

(i) Land & buildings, Derivatives deferred tax and Other property, plant & equipment/Associates/Deferred tax have not been allocated out across business type.

Higher

Medium

Lower

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
136

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

3. Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty
All items noted above may be impacted by climate-related risks but are not currently considered to be key areas of judgement or sources 
of estimation uncertainty in the current financial year.

Higher risk
E&P field valuations are dependent on forecast commodity prices. Climate change risk means that there is uncertainty over gas demand 
and forecast prices. This is not currently a key source of estimation uncertainty because current liquid commodity prices mean that there 
is significant impairment headroom over current carrying values. Nonetheless, valuation sensitivity information based on a net zero price 
forecast has been provided in note 7(c) to show field values can move significantly. (Note that the Group’s intention is to run-off remaining 
fields with most production forecast in the next five years. Decommissioning obligations will be substantively met by the early 2030s, whilst 
further investment in exploring for new gas fields has ceased.) Recoverability of E&P deferred tax assets associated with historic losses is 
dependent on future field profitability and so is subject to climate change risk. 

The valuation of the investment in Nuclear is also highly dependent on forecast commodity prices. Climate change risks and opportunities 
means there is uncertainty over electricity demand and forecast prices. The underlying Nuclear stations, which produce electricity with no 
carbon emissions, have different useful economic lives, with the last station forecast to cease operating in 2055. Valuation sensitivity 
information based on a net zero price forecast has been provided in note 7(c).

Medium risk
The Group’s small number of gas-fired power stations and engines are exposed to climate change risk, with valuations dependent on 
forecast gas and electricity prices and electricity demand. However, they are deemed medium risk as they do not have a significant 
carrying value in the context of the Group.

Similarly the Group’s investment in CHP and Fuel Cell assets are also exposed to climate risk. They have useful economic lives of up to 
15 years but they do not, individually or in total, have material carrying values. 

LNG Vessels on the balance sheet are exposed to risk from climate change, but as they are leased assets with the current term remaining 
less than five years, this risk is reduced to medium.

The Group is in the process of transitioning to an electrified vehicle fleet. Non-electric vehicles are deemed medium risk because their 
remaining useful economic lives are generally quite short.

Decommissioning provisions are generally longer-term but this could be brought forward for E&P assets if the energy transition 
accelerates. However, as the decommissioning discount rate is only 1% (real) the balance sheet and income statement impact of earlier 
decommissioning would not be material.

Deferred tax associated with field accelerated capital allowances and decommissioning in E&P and Storage is not considered high risk 
due to the length of carry-back rules for decommissioning and the mechanical unwind of other temporary differences. Deferred tax assets 
associated with derivatives are considered medium risk as the derivatives generally realise within 2 years. 

Energy Supply, Energy Services and Energy Trading Goodwill, Customer Relationships and Application Software are categorised as 
medium risk because the businesses are exposed to energy transition risk as a result of climate change. However, there are also 
significant opportunities for these businesses and the carrying values are not material. 

Lower risk
All other assets denoted in the table above are considered lower risk because they are either specifically related to the energy transition 
(e.g. electric vehicles, battery storage, emission certificates) or are immaterial.

Other contracts
The Group also has long-term LNG supply contracts with Cheniere and Mozambique. These are not reflected on the balance sheet but 
the Group has certain purchase commitments (see note 23). The contracts currently have significant value because of gas price locational 
spreads but are exposed to climate-change risk and therefore could ultimately become onerous in net zero scenarios. The commitments 
note provides detail of the length of the contracts and commodity purchase commitments. 

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

137

4. Segmental analysis

The Group’s reporting segments are those used internally by management to run the business and make decisions. The 
Group’s segments are based on products and services as well as the major factors that influence the performance of 
these products and services across the geographical locations in which the Group operates.

(a)  Segmental structure

The types of products and services from which each reportable segment derived its income during the year are detailed below. Income 
sources are reflected in Group revenue unless otherwise stated:

Segment

Description

British Gas Services & 
Solutions

British Gas Energy

Bord Gáis Energy

Centrica Business Solutions

Energy Marketing & Trading

(i) The installation, repair and maintenance of domestic central heating and related appliances, and the provision 

of fixed-fee maintenance/breakdown service and insurance contracts in the UK; and
the supply of new technologies and energy efficiency solutions in the UK.

(ii)

(i) The supply of gas and electricity to residential and small business customers in the UK.

(i) The supply of gas and electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers in the Republic of Ireland; 
the installation, repair and maintenance of domestic central heating and related appliances in the Republic of 
(ii)
Ireland; and

(iii) power generation in the Republic of Ireland (i).
(i) The supply of gas and electricity to business customers in the UK (i); and
(ii)

the supply of energy services and solutions to large organisations in all geographies in which the Group 
operates, and the development and operation of large-scale power assets in the UK.

(i) The procurement, trading and optimisation of energy in the UK and Europe (i);
(ii)
(iii) the generation of power from the Spalding combined cycle gas turbine tolling contract (the contract ended 

the global procurement and sale of LNG; and 

in 2021). 

Upstream

(i) The production and processing of oil and gas principally within Spirit Energy (i); and
(ii)

the sale of power generated from nuclear assets in the UK.

(i) Where income is generated from contracts in the scope of IFRS 9, this is included in re-measurement and settlement of derivative energy contracts.

 
138

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

4. Segmental analysis
(b) Revenue

Gross segment revenue includes revenue generated from the sale of products and services to other reportable 
segments of the Group. Group revenue reflects only the sale of products and services to third parties. Sales between 
reportable segments are conducted on an arm’s length basis.

Year ended 31 December 

British Gas Services & Solutions

British Gas Energy

Bord Gáis Energy

Centrica Business Solutions

Energy Marketing & Trading

Upstream

Group revenue included in business performance

Less: revenue arising on contracts in scope of IFRS 9 
included in business performance

Group Revenue

Gross 
segment 
revenue
£m 

1,527   

13,096   

1,771   

3,000   

14,441   

3,351   

37,186   

2022

Less inter-
segment 
revenue
£m

(50)   

—   

—   

(19)   

(219)   

(3,261)   

(3,549)   

2021

Less inter-
segment 
revenue
£m

(53)   

—   

—   

(28)   

(214)   

(1,887)   

(2,182)   

Group 
revenue
£m

1,477 

13,096 

1,771 

2,981 

14,222 

90 

Gross 
segment 
revenue
£m 

1,513   

7,513   

1,111   

1,981   

6,082   

2,282   

33,637 

20,482   

(9,896) 

23,741 

Group 
revenue
£m

1,460 

7,513 

1,111 

1,953 

5,868 

395 

18,300 

(3,556) 

14,744 

The table below shows the Group revenue arising from contracts with customers, and therefore in the scope of IFRS 15, and revenue 
arising from contracts in the scope of other standards. The key economic factors impacting the nature, timing and uncertainty of revenue 
and cash flows are considered to be driven by the type and broad geographical location of the customer. The analysis of IFRS 15 revenue 
below reflects these factors.

Year ended 31 December 

Energy services and solutions

British Gas Services & Solutions

Energy supply – UK

British Gas Energy

Energy supply – Republic of Ireland

Bord Gáis Energy

Energy supply – UK

Energy services

Centrica Business Solutions

Energy sales to trading and energy procurement counterparties  

Energy Marketing & Trading

Gas and liquid production

Upstream

2022

Revenue from 
fixed-fee service 
and insurance 
contracts in 
scope of IFRS 4, 
and leasing 
contracts in 
scope of IFRS 16
£m

Revenue from 
contracts with 
customers in 
scope of IFRS 15 (i)
£m

Revenue in 
business 
performance 
arising from 
contracts in 
scope of IFRS 9
£m

Group revenue 
included in 
business 
performance
£m

Group revenue
£m

625 

625   

13,096 

13,096   

1,323 

1,323   

1,465 

249 

1,714   

5,639 

5,639   

462 

462   

22,859   

852   

1,477   

—   

1,477 

—   

13,096   

—   

13,096 

—   

1,323   

448   

1,771 

14   

1,728   

1,253   

2,981 

16   

5,655   

8,567   

14,222 

—   

882   

462   

23,741   

(372)   

9,896   

90 

33,637 

(i) The Group has recognised £1,539 million of revenue from the Government in relation to the Energy Price Guarantee scheme for domestic customers in the British Gas 

Energy segment. A further £219 million of revenue has been recognised in respect of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. £175 million of this total relates to Centrica Business 
Solutions customers and £44 million relates to non-domestic customers in the British Gas Energy segment. A further £1,125 million was received, and provided to 
customers of the British Gas Energy segment in respect of the Government’s Energy Bill Support Scheme resulting in a net £nil presentation in the Group’s income 
statement, see note 1.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

139

4. Segmental analysis

Year ended 31 December

Energy services and solutions

British Gas Services & Solutions

Energy supply – UK

British Gas Energy

Energy supply – Republic of Ireland

Bord Gáis Energy

Energy supply – UK

Energy services

Centrica Business Solutions

Energy sales to trading and energy procurement counterparties

Energy Marketing & Trading

Gas and liquid production

Upstream

2021

Revenue from 
fixed-fee service 
and insurance 
contracts in 
scope of IFRS 4, 
and leasing 
contracts in 
scope of IFRS 16
£m

Revenue from 
contracts with 
customers in 
scope of IFRS 15
£m

Revenue in 
business 
performance 
arising from 
contracts in 
scope of IFRS 9
£m

Group revenue 
included in 
business 
performance
£m

Group revenue
£m

554 

554   

7,513 

7,513   

903 

903   

944 

297 

1,241   

2,825 

2,825   

760 

760   

13,796   

906   

1,460   

—   

1,460 

—   

7,513   

—   

7,513 

—   

903   

208   

1,111 

7   

1,248   

705   

1,953 

35   

2,860   

3,008   

5,868 

—   

948   

760   

14,744   

(365)   

3,556   

395 

18,300 

Geographical analysis of revenue and non-current assets
The Group monitors and manages performance by reference to its operating segments and not solely on a geographical basis. However, 
provided below is an analysis of revenue and certain non-current assets by geography.

Year ended 31 December 

Continuing operations

UK

Republic of Ireland

Scandinavia (including Denmark)

North America

Rest of the world

Group revenue
(based on location of customer)

Non-current assets
(based on location of assets) (i)

2022
£m

2021
£m

2022
£m

2021
£m

17,480   

10,891 

3,827   

4,203 

1,323   

1,473   

867   

903 

894 

413 

2,598   

1,643 

152   

181   

14   

353   

139 

173 

25 

332 

23,741   

14,744 

4,527   

4,872 

(i) Non-current assets comprise goodwill, other intangible assets, PP&E, interests in joint ventures and associates and non-financial assets within trade and other 

receivables, and contract-related assets. Assets of disposal groups held for sale are not included.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
140

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

4. Segmental analysis
(c) Adjusted gross margin and adjusted operating profit

The measure of profit used by the Group is adjusted operating profit. Adjusted operating profit is operating profit 
before exceptional items and certain re-measurements. This includes business performance results of equity-
accounted interests.

This note also details adjusted gross margin. Both measures are reconciled to their statutory equivalents.

Year ended 31 December 

British Gas Services & Solutions

British Gas Energy

Bord Gáis Energy

Centrica Business Solutions

Energy Marketing & Trading

Upstream

Segmental adjusted gross margin/adjusted operating profit

Reconciling items to Group Income Statement:

Profit share (i)

Total Group adjusted gross margin/adjusted operating profit

Certain re-measurements:

Onerous energy supply contract provision movement

Derivative contracts

Share of re-measurement of certain associates’ energy contracts (net of taxation)

Gross profit

Exceptional items in operating profit

Operating (loss)/profit after exceptional items and certain re-measurements

Adjusted gross margin

Adjusted operating profit

2022
£m

504   

1,114   

160   

238   

1,558   

1,874   

5,448   

2021
£m

574   

849   

136   

143   

242   

926   

2,870   

2022
£m

(9)   

72   

31   

44   

1,400   

1,793   

3,331   

(9)   

—   

(23)   

5,439   

2,870   

3,308   

1,766   

(5,160) 

—   

(2,530)   

1,289  

—   

2,045   

1,629 

1,766   

(5,160) 

1   

(155)   

(240) 

2021
£m

121 

118 

28 

(52) 

70 

663 

948 

— 

948 

(2,530) 

1,289

— 

1,247 

954

(i) The impact of the Group’s profit share is excluded because management considers it unrelated to segmental business performance.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

141

4.  Segmental analysis
(d) 

Included within adjusted operating profit

Presented below are certain items included within adjusted operating profit, including a summary of impairments of 
property, plant and equipment and write-downs relating to exploration and evaluation assets.

Year ended 31 December 

British Gas Services & Solutions

British Gas Energy

Bord Gáis Energy

Centrica Business Solutions

Energy Marketing & Trading

Upstream
Other (i)

Depreciation and impairments of 
property, plant and equipment

Amortisation, write-downs and 
impairments of intangibles

2022
£m

(31)   

(3)   

(8)   

(13)   

(31)   

(481)   

(31)   

(598)   

2021
£m

(29) 

(5) 

(5) 

(14) 

(38) 

(461) 

(31) 

(583) 

2022
£m

(16)   

(79)   

(13)   

(32)   

(15)   

—   

(24)   

2021
£m

(14) 

(91) 

(13) 

(34) 

(11) 

(25) 

(28) 

(179)   

(216) 

(i) The Other segment includes corporate functions, subsequently recharged.

Impairments and write-downs of PP&E
During 2022, £88 million of impairments of PP&E (2021: £3 million) were recognised within business performance – £84 million in the 
Upstream segment and £4 million in the Other segment. Included in the Upstream segment write-down was £64 million related to an infill 
well that was dry, and a £20 million impairment associated with a producing field whose recoverable amounts reduced during the year due 
to worsening economics.

Write-downs and impairments of intangible assets
During 2022, there were no write-downs relating to exploration and evaluation asset dry holes (2021: £25 million) recognised in the 
Upstream segment. All such prior year write-downs were recognised within business performance as they were not deemed exceptional in 
nature. During 2022, £20 million of other intangible assets were impaired within business performance (2021: £3 million).

The recoverable amount of these assets was £nil.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
142

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

4. Segmental analysis
(e)  Capital expenditure

Capital expenditure represents additions, other than assets acquired as part of business combinations, to property, 
plant and equipment and intangible assets. Capital expenditure has been reconciled to the related cash outflow.

Year ended 31 December 

British Gas Services & Solutions

British Gas Energy

Bord Gáis Energy

Centrica Business Solutions

Energy Marketing & Trading

Upstream

Other

Capital expenditure

Capitalised borrowing costs

Inception of new leases and movements in payables and prepayments related to 
capital expenditure

Capital expenditure cash outflow subsequent to transfer to held for sale
Purchases of emissions allowances and renewable obligation certificates (note 15) (i)

Net cash outflow

Capital expenditure on property, 
plant and equipment

Capital expenditure on intangible 
assets other than goodwill

2022
£m

52   

—   

3   

47   

—   

124   

26   

252   

—   

(49)   

109   

—   

312   

2021
£m

32 

— 

40 

17 

— 

238 

8 

335 

(8) 

(49) 

21 

— 

299 

2022
£m

25   

582   

4   

205   

14   

13   

—   

843   

—   

5   

10   

(799)   

59   

2021
£m

20 

474 

6 

166 

34 

51 

— 

751 

— 

24 

— 

(654) 

121 

(i) Purchases of emissions allowances and renewable obligation certificates of £578 million (2021: £472 million) in British Gas Energy, £203 million (2021: £155 million) in 

Centrica Business Solutions, £13 million (2021: £nil) in Upstream, and £5 million (2021: £27 million) in Energy Marketing & Trading.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

143

4. Segmental analysis
(f)  Free cash flow

Free cash flow is used by management to assess the cash generating performance of each segment, after taking 
account of the need to maintain its capital asset base. By excluding deficit reduction payments and movements in 
collateral and margin cash, which are predominantly triggered by wider market factors, and in the case of collateral and 
margin movements, represent timing movements, free cash flow is used by management as an adjusted measure of the 
cash generation of the business. Free cash flow excludes investing cash flows that are related to adjusted net debt/
cash. This measure is reconciled to the net cash flow from operating and investing activities.

Year ended 31 December 

Continuing operations

British Gas Services & Solutions
British Gas Energy (i)

Bord Gáis Energy

Centrica Business Solutions
Energy Marketing & Trading (ii)
Upstream (iii)
Other (iv)

Segmental free cash flow excluding tax

Discontinued operations

Direct Energy

Group total segmental free cash flow excluding tax

Taxes paid from continuing operations (iii)

Taxes paid from discontinued operations

Group total free cash flow

Less Discontinued operations free cash flow (including tax)

Free cash flow from continuing operations

UK Pension deficit payments (note 22)

Movements in variation margin and collateral (note 24)

Interest received
Purchase and settlement of securities (v)

Net cash flow from continuing operating activities

Net cash flow used in continuing investing activities

Total cash flow from continuing operating and investing activities

2022
£m

(19) 

1,283 

81 

(48) 

199 

1,539 

26 

3,061 

— 

3,061 

(574) 

— 

2,487 

— 

2,487 

(214) 

(1,173) 

46 

(398) 

748 

1,314 

(566) 

748

2021
£m

170 

16 

3 

22 

206 

835 

62 

1,314 

2,597 

3,911 

(140) 

(9) 

3,762 

(2,588) 

1,174 

(368) 

481 

2 

(3) 

1,286 

1,611 

(325) 

1,286 

(i) The Group has received £440 million under the Energy Bill Support Scheme during December 2022, which is disclosed as restricted cash (see note 1), and accelerated 

cash flows of approximately £700 million under the Energy Price Guarantee, when compared to the normal payment profile. 

(ii) Energy Marketing & Trading free cash flow in 2022 includes cash outflows associated with increased gas in storage, and working capital movements of approximately 

£500 million. Energy Marketing & Trading adjusted operating profit includes a significant portion of unrealised derivative positions.

(iii) Upstream free cash flow in 2022 includes inflows of £630 million relating to the Norwegian disposal groups, including its disposal cash flows. Realised hedge cash 

outflows of £161 million (including £88 million realising post completion) have been incurred relating to the Norwegian assets but were held outside the disposal groups. 
£300 million of taxes paid relate to the Norwegian disposal groups.

(iv) The Other segment includes corporate functions.
(v) Purchase and settlement of securities includes outflows of £400 million of loans to the pension schemes. See note 22 for further details on pensions loans.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
144

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

5.  Costs 

This section details the types of costs the Group incurs and the number of employees in each of our operations.

(a) Analysis of costs by nature

Year ended 31 December 

Transportation, distribution, capacity market and metering 
costs
Commodity costs (i)

Depreciation, amortisation, impairments and write-downs

Employee costs
Other direct costs (i)

Costs included within business performance before 
credit losses on financial assets

Credit losses on financial assets (net of recovered amounts) 
(note 17) 

2022

2021

 Cost of sales 
and settlement 
of certain 
energy 
contracts
£m

 Operating 
costs
£m

 Total 
costs
£m

Cost of sales 
and settlement 
of certain 
energy 
contracts
£m

(4,694)   

(20,748)   

(441)   

(704)   

(1,611)   

—   

—   

(336)   

(753)   

(783)   

(4,694) 

(20,748) 

(777) 

(1,457) 

(2,394) 

(3,702)   

(9,302)   

(497)   

(464)   

(1,465)   

Operating 
costs
£m

—   

—   

(302)   

(749)   

(652)   

Total 
costs
£m

(3,702) 

(9,302) 

(799) 

(1,213) 

(2,117) 

(28,198)   

(1,872)   

(30,070) 

(15,430)   

(1,703)   

(17,133) 

—   

(351)   

(351) 

—   

(116)   

(116) 

Total costs included within business performance

(28,198)   

(2,223)   

(30,421) 

(15,430)   

(1,819)   

(17,249) 

Adjustment for gross cost of settled energy contracts in the 
scope of IFRS 9 and onerous energy supply contract 
provision

Exceptional items and re-measurement and settlement of 
derivative energy contracts (note 7)

14,986   

—   

14,986 

2,749   

—   

2,749 

(8,484)   

(155)   

(8,639) 

(434)   

1,247   

813 

Total costs within Group operating profit

(21,696)   

(2,378)   

(24,074) 

(13,115)   

(572)   

(13,687) 

(i) Commodity costs include a credit of £241 million recoverable under the Last Resort Supplier Payment claim (2021: £182 million), a further credit of £nil is included in other 
direct operating costs (2021: £3 million). These credits offset costs incurred as a result of the Group’s appointment as Supplier of Last Resort to customers of energy 
suppliers who ceased trading during the year. See note 3.

(b) Employee costs

The below employee costs exclude the costs of redundancy and similar termination benefits.

Year ended 31 December 

Wages and salaries

Social security costs

Pension and other post-employment benefits costs

Share scheme costs (note S4)

Capitalised employee costs

Employee costs included in exceptional items

Repayment of Coronavirus government support programmes

2022
£m

(1,159) 

(100) 

(171) 

(10) 

2021
£m

(965) 

(104) 

(166) 

(12) 

(1,440) 

(1,247) 

10 

— 

(27) 

19 

15 

— 

Employee costs recognised in business performance in the Group Income Statement

(1,457) 

(1,213) 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

145

5.  Costs 
(c) Average number of employees during the year

Year ended 31 December 

British Gas Services & Solutions

British Gas Energy

Bord Gáis Energy

Centrica Business Solutions

Energy Marketing & Trading

Upstream

Group Functions

2022
Number
12,470   

3,257   

320   

1,444   

573   

670   

1,220   

19,954   

2021
Number
12,178 

3,006 

323 

1,706 

478 

863 

1,150 

19,704 

6.  Share of results of joint ventures and associates

Share of results of joint ventures and associates represents the results of businesses where we exercise joint control or 
significant influence and generally have an equity holding of up to 50%.

Share of results of joint ventures and associates
The Group’s share of results of joint ventures and associates principally arises from its interest in Nuclear – Lake Acquisitions Limited, an 
associate, reported in the Upstream segment.

Year ended 31 December 

Income

Expenses before exceptional items and certain re-
measurements

Exceptional items and re-measurement of certain contracts

Operating profit/(loss)

Financing income

Taxation on profit/(loss)

Share of post-taxation results of joint ventures and 
associates

2022

Share of 
exceptional 
items and 
certain re-
measurements
£m

Share of 
business 
performance
£m

592   

(472)   

—   

120   

3   

(31)   

92   

—   

—   

1   

1   

—   

—   

1   

Share of 
results for the 
year
£m

Share of 
business 
performance
£m

592 

334   

(472) 

1 

121 

3 

(31) 

(459)   

—   

(125)   

1   

21   

2021

Share of 
exceptional 
items and 
certain re-
measurements
£m

Share of  
results for the 
year
£m

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

334 

(459) 

— 

(125) 

1 

21 

93 

(103)   

—   

(103) 

Further information on the Group’s investments in joint ventures and associates is provided in notes 14 and S10.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
146

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

7. Exceptional items and certain re-measurements
(a)  Certain re-measurements

Certain re-measurements are the fair value movements on energy contracts entered into to meet the future needs of 
our customers or to sell the energy produced from our upstream assets. These contracts are economically related to 
our upstream assets, capacity/off-take contracts or downstream demand, which are typically not fair valued, and are 
therefore separately identified in the current period and reflected in business performance in future periods when the 
underlying transaction or asset impacts the Group Income Statement.

If the future costs to fulfil customer supply contracts, including the mark-to-market reversal of any energy hedging 
contracts entered into to meet this demand, exceed the charges recoverable from customers, an onerous contract 
provision will be recognised. Because the associated hedging gains or losses will be recognised in certain 
re-measurements, the movements in the onerous provision will also be recognised in certain re-measurements.

Year ended 31 December 

Certain re-measurements recognised in relation to energy contracts:

Net losses arising on delivery of contracts

Net (losses)/gains arising on market price movements and new contracts

Net re-measurements included within gross profit before onerous supply contract provision
Onerous energy supply contract provision movement (i)

Net re-measurements included within gross profit

Net gain arising on re-measurement of certain associates’ contracts (net of taxation)

Net re-measurements included within Group operating profit
Taxation on certain re-measurements (note 9) (ii)

Certain re-measurements after taxation 

2022
£m

2021
£m

(1,403)   

(3,757)   

(5,160)   

1,766   

(3,394)   

1   

(3,393)   

1,000   

(2,393)   

(259) 

1,548 

1,289 

(2,530) 

(1,241) 

— 

(1,241) 

486 

(755) 

(i) The onerous supply contract provision represents the future costs to fulfil customer contracts on a current market price basis. The associated hedging gains or losses 

are separately recognised within the losses/gains arising on market price movements and new contracts. The movement in the onerous provision is detailed in note 3(b). 
(ii) Taxation on onerous energy supply contracts amounted to a £(295) million debit (2021: £481 million credit) and taxation on other certain re-measurements amounted to 
£1,295 million credit (2021: £5 million credit), including £473 million associated with re-basing deferred tax on certain relevant derivatives for the Energy Profits Levy.

Year ended 31 December 

Total re-measurement and settlement of derivative energy contracts excluding:

IFRS 9 business performance revenue

IFRS 9 business performance cost of sales

Unrealised certain re-measurements recognised in relation to energy contracts included in gross profit

Onerous contract provision movement (cost of sales)

Total certain re-measurements

The table below reflects the certain re-measurement derivative movements by business segment:

Year ended 31 December 

UK Energy Supply (British Gas Energy and Centrica Business Solutions)

Upstream/Energy Marketing & Trading/Bord Gáis

Unrealised certain re-measurements recognised in relation to energy contracts included in gross profit

2022
£m

(8,484)   

(9,896)   

13,220   

(5,160)   

1,766   

(3,394)   

2022
£m

(6,364)   

1,204   

(5,160)   

2021
£m

(434) 

(3,556) 

5,279 

1,289 

(2,530) 

(1,241) 

2021
£m

3,917 

(2,628) 

1,289 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

147

7. Exceptional items and certain re-measurements
(b)

 Exceptional items

Exceptional items are those items that, in the judgement of the Directors, need to be disclosed separately by virtue of 
their nature, size or incidence. Items which may be considered exceptional in nature include disposals of businesses or 
significant assets, business restructurings, pension change costs or credits, significant debt repurchase costs and 
asset write-downs/impairments and write-backs.

Year ended 31 December 

Exceptional items recognised in continuing operations

Loss on disposal of E&P Norway (i)

Impairment of E&P Norway disposal group assets (including disposal related costs) and related asset write-downs
Write-back of other exploration and production assets (including completed field disposals) (ii)
Write-back of power assets (iii)

Impairment of Centrica Business Solutions goodwill and other assets

Fair value uplift on minority investment prior to transfer to asset held for sale 

Restructuring credit

Exceptional items included within Group operating profit (iv)
Net exceptional item taxation (note 9) (v)

Net exceptional items recognised in continuing operations after taxation

Net exceptional items recognised in discontinued operations after taxation

Total exceptional items recognised after taxation

Exceptional items recognised in discontinued operations

Profit on disposal of Direct Energy (including disposal related costs) 

Exceptional items before taxation

Net exceptional item taxation

Net exceptional items recognised in discontinued operations after taxation

2022
£m

(362)   

—   

—   

207   

—   

—   

—   

(155)   

(207)   

(362)   

—   

(362)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

2021
£m

— 

(244) 

838 

747 

(123) 

15 

14 

1,247 

(250) 

997 

624 

1,621 

613 

613 

11 

624 

(i) The disposal of E&P Norway completed on 31 May 2022. See note 12 for further details.
(ii) Despite the increase in near-term liquid commodity prices (offset by the Energy Profit Levy implementation) no material impairment write-backs have been recorded for 
exploration and production assets because field carrying values have now reached depreciated historic cost. In 2021, impairment write-backs of £829 million (post-tax 
£476 million) were booked, alongside a field disposal and decommissioning provision reduction of £9 million (post-tax £2 million).
In the Upstream segment, a write-back of the nuclear investment of £195 million (post-tax £195 million) has been recorded predominantly as a result of the improvement 
in forecast commodity prices and changes to the associate’s pension position (offset by the announcement of the Electricity Generator Levy, applicable from 1 January 
2023). In the Centrica Business Solutions segment, a write-back of £12 million (post-tax £9 million) has been recorded, predominantly related to a gas engine, also 
following improvements in forecast commodity prices. See note 7(c).

(iii)

(iv) Exceptional items for 2022 are non-cash, except for the disposal consideration received for E&P Norway (see note 12) which is reflected in the Sale of businesses line 

item in the Group Cash Flow Statement. The cash flows recorded as payments relating to exceptional charges of £24 million in the Group Cash Flow Statement relate to 
previous year exceptional restructuring costs. 

(v) Exceptional item taxation includes a credit of £121 million associated with net deferred tax asset recognition related to exploration and production tax losses, investment 
allowance and decommissioning carrying back, due to the increase in forecast commodity prices. Also included is a debit of £325 million from the recognition of higher 
deferred tax liability balances associated with exploration and production accelerated capital allowances, due to the implementation of the Energy Profits Levy. These two 
items are unrelated to the other exceptional items. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
148

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

7. Exceptional items and certain re-measurements
(c)

Impairment accounting policy, process and sensitivities

The information provided below relates to the assets and CGUs (or groups of CGUs) that have been subject to impairment write-backs 
during the year.
Exceptional impairments/write-back assessments of assets measured on a Value-in-use (VIU) basis

Segment

Upstream

Asset/CGU 

Nuclear

Basis for write-back assessment

The year-on-year increase in short-term baseload power prices, together 
with the actuarial changes to the associate's pension position has more 
than offset the announcement of the implementation of the Electricity 
Generator Levy from 1 January 2023  

Recoverable 
amount
£m 

Write-back
£m

1,560   

195 

Nuclear
A VIU calculation has been used to determine the recoverable amount of the Group’s investment in Nuclear. The cash flows incorporated 
in the valuation are based on detailed business forecasts in the short term, extrapolated to future years to account for the expected 
generation profile of the fleet for its remaining life. Assumptions include forward commodity prices, capacity rates, fuel and network costs, 
and operating and capital expenditure requirements. Price assumptions are based on liquid market prices for 2023 to 2026 which are then 
blended over a one-year period to long-term price forecasts. Long-term price assumptions derived from third-party market comparator 
median curves are used due to alignment with pricing that a reasonable market participant would use.

The recently announced Electricity Generator Levy, applying a 45% tax rate to revenues generated over £75/MWh from 1 January 2023 to 
31 March 2028, based on the above price assumptions, has also been included in the assessment. 

The VIU calculation assumes that the Sizewell plant operates until 2055, reflecting a 20-year extension beyond its original design life. In the 
absence of this extension, the carrying value of the Group’s investment in Nuclear would be reduced by £178 million. All other stations’ life 
assumptions are aligned to lifetime closure dates announced by the operator (being between March 2024 and March 2028). 

The VIU calculation is also sensitive to changes in outage assumptions, and the base level generation volumes assumed for the fleet were 
increased during the period based on a review of outage levels in recent years. A reduction of 5% in the unplanned outage rate applied to 
volumes across the nuclear fleet would lead to a write-back movement of £141 million.

The future pre-tax cash flows generated by the investment in the associate are discounted using a pre-tax nominal discount rate of 24.8% 
(2021: 14.7%). This equated to a post-tax rate of 8.0% (2021: 5.75%). The post-tax discount rate is initially derived from the Group 
weighted average cost of capital as adjusted for the risks associated with the asset and with reference to comparator companies. The 
pre-tax rate is then back-calculated by removing tax cash flows and assessing the rate that would give the same result as the post-tax 
rate. Due to the elevated near-term power prices which results in significantly elevated cash flows in the near-term, the pre-tax discount 
rate has significantly increased. A 2% increase in the post-tax discount rate would lead to an impairment of £113 million (when compared 
with the closing year-end carrying value). Similarly, a 2% reduction in the post-tax discount rate would lead to an increased write-back of 
£150 million.
The asset is particularly sensitive to changes in commodity price and the table below details average prices for the first 5- and 10-year 
periods and associated sensitivities. Note that the asset is valued for its entire economic life and not just this 15-year period.

Five-year liquid and blended-
period price (i)

10-year long-term 
average price (i)

2023-2027

2022-2026

2028-2037

2027-2036

Change in pre/post-tax write-back/(impairment) (ii)

+10%

-10%

31 December 
2022

31 December 
2021

31 December 
2022

31 December 
2021

31 December 
2022

31 December 
2021

31 December 
2022

31 December 
2021

Baseload power

150   

93 

63   

49   

£/MWh

£/MWh

£/MWh

£/MWh

£m

198   

£m

319   

£m

(198)   

£m

(317) 

-50%
Five-year 
liquid and 
blended-
period only

(565) 

(i) Prices are shown in 2021 real terms.
(ii) A 10% change was historically deemed to represent a reasonably possible variation across the entire period covered by the liquid market and comparator curves used in 
the nuclear impairment test. Given the increases in commodity prices during 2021 and 2022, a further sensitivity has been included based on a 50% fall in liquid and 
blend-period commodity prices only. 

Furthermore, there is also uncertainty due to climate change and international governmental intervention to reduce CO2 emissions and the 
likely impact this will have on both power demand and forecast prices. As a result, a further sensitivity is disclosed below based on 
forecast prices aligned to the net zero price curve issued by Aurora (a power analytics provider), which assumes governmental policies are 
put in place to achieve the temperature and net zero goals by 2050. This sensitivity retains the prices for the liquid period (four years) but 
replaces the longer term thereafter with Aurora’s forecast prices for net zero.

 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

149

7. Exceptional items and certain re-measurements

Baseload power (£/MWh)

(i) Prices shown in 2021 real terms.
(ii) Change would lead to an impairment of the carrying value.

10-year
long-term 
average price (i)

Change in
 pre/post-tax 
impairment (ii)

2028-2037

2022

59  

£m
(93) 

Exceptional impairments/write-back of assets measured on a FVLCD basis
Fair value less costs of disposal (FVLCD) is determined by discounting the post-tax cash flows expected to be generated by the assets 
or CGU, net of associated selling costs, taking into account those assumptions that market participants would use in estimating fair value. 
Post-tax cash flows used in the FVLCD calculation are based on the Group’s Board-approved business plans and strategic shape 
assumptions, together with, where relevant, long-term production and cash flow forecasts.

No exceptional impairments or write-backs have been recorded in 2022 for assets measured on a FVLCD basis. Nonetheless, the 
Upstream gas assets still have a significant carrying value on the balance sheet and accordingly further sensitivities are provided in the 
paragraph below:

Upstream gas assets
For Upstream gas assets post-tax cash flows are derived from projected production profiles of each field, taking into account forward 
prices for gas and liquids over the relevant period. Where forward market prices are not available (i.e. outside the active period for each 
commodity), prices are determined based on the median of third-party market comparator curves. The date of cessation of production 
depends on the interaction of a number of variables, such as the recoverable quantities of hydrocarbons, production costs, the 
contractual duration of the licence area and the selling price of the gas and liquids produced. As each field has specific reservoir 
characteristics and economic circumstances, the post-tax cash flows for each field are computed using individual economic models. 
Price assumptions are critical and use liquid market prices for 2023 to 2026, blended over a one-year period to long-term price forecasts. 
Long-term price assumptions derived from third-party market comparator median curves are deemed best aligned with pricing that a 
reasonable market participant would use. Following the implementation of the Energy Profits Levy, the increased tax rates have been 
included in the FVLCD calculations until the sunset date of 31 March 2028. 

The future post-tax cash flows are discounted using a post-tax nominal discount rate of 10.5% (2021: 10.0%).

As forward commodity prices are a key assumption in these valuations, average prices and associated impairment sensitivities for the 
Group’s upstream gas assets are shown below. Note that the fields are valued over their respective economic lives and the 5- and 
10-year pricing information shown below is just to provide context. Note also that following the disposal of the Norwegian and Statfjord 
fields (see note 12), the asset portfolio reserves are predominantly gas (rather than liquids) and therefore only NBP figures have been 
shown below.

Five-year liquid and blended-
period price (i)

10-year long-term 
average price (i)

2023-2027

2022-2026

2028-2037

2027-2036

Change in post-tax write-back/(impairment) (ii) 

+10%

-10%

31 December 
2022

31 December 
2021

31 December 
2022

31 December 
2021

31 December 
2022

31 December 
2021

31 December 
2022

31 December 
2021

NBP (p/th)

142   

83 

69   

44   

£m
—   

£m

8   

£m
—   

£m

(7) 

(i) Prices are shown in 2021 real terms.
(ii) Sensitivity relates to Upstream exploration and production assets and CGUs. A 10% change was historically deemed to represent a reasonably possible variation across 
the entire period covered by both the liquid market and longer-term comparator curves used in upstream gas impairment tests. Given the increases in commodity prices 
during 2021 and 2022, a further sensitivity has been included based on a 50% fall in liquid and blend-period commodity prices only. The changes shown relate to further 
write-backs or impairments and are restricted because the most material fields have already been written back to their depreciated historic cost and have excess 
impairment headroom. The post-tax net present value (NPV) movements of the fields in +/-10% scenario are £150 million/£(144) million and in the -50% liquid price 
period scenario are £(711) million. 

-50% 
Five-year liquid 
and blended-
period only

(130) 

 
 
 
 
150

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

7. Exceptional items and certain re-measurements

Furthermore, there is also uncertainty due to climate change and international governmental intervention to reduce CO2 emissions and the 
likely impact this will have on gas demand and forecast prices. As a result, a further sensitivity is disclosed below based on forecast prices 
aligned to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero Emissions by 2050, which assumes governmental policies are put in place to 
achieve the temperature and net zero goals by 2050. This sensitivity retains the prices for the liquid period (four years) but replaces the 
longer term thereafter with the IEA’s forecast prices for Net Zero Emissions by 2050.

NBP (p/th)

10-year
long-term 
average price (i)

2028-2037

Change in
 post-tax 
write-back/
(impairment) (ii)

Change in
 post-tax 
NPV (iii)

2022

38   

£m

—   

£m

(72) 

(i) Prices shown in 2021 real terms.
(ii) Change in impairment restricted due to the most material fields having already been written back to their depreciated historic cost and having excess impairment 

headroom. 

(iii) Despite no change to the carrying value of the assets, the net present value (NPV) of the fields would reduce under net zero scenarios.

8. Net finance cost

Financing costs mainly comprise interest on bonds and bank debt, the results of hedging activities used to manage 
foreign exchange and interest rate movements on the Group’s borrowings and notional interest arising from the 
discounting of decommissioning provisions and pensions. An element of financing cost is capitalised on qualifying 
projects. 

Investment income predominantly includes interest received from short-term investments in money market funds, bank 
deposits and government bonds.

Continuing operations

Year ended 31 December 

Cost of servicing net debt:

Interest income

Interest cost on bonds, bank loans and 
overdrafts

Interest cost on lease liabilities

Net gains on revaluation

Notional interest arising from discounting 

Other interest charges (i)
Capitalised borrowing costs (ii)

Financing (cost)/income

Financing 
costs
£m

2022

Investment 
income
£m

— 

(184) 

(6) 

(190) 

— 

(3) 

(193) 

(31) 

4 

(220) 

52 

— 

— 

52 

22 

3 

77 

— 

— 

77 

Financing 
costs
£m

2021

Investment 
income
£m

— 

(189) 

(6) 

(195) 

— 

(7) 

(202) 

(2) 

8 

(196) 

5 

— 

— 

5 

4 

— 

9 

— 

— 

9 

Total
£m

52 

(184) 

(6) 

(138) 

22 

— 

(116) 

(31) 

4 

(143) 

Total
£m

5 

(189) 

(6) 

(190) 

4 

(7) 

(193) 

(2) 

8 

(187) 

(i) Other interest charges includes interest charged on cash collateral, and fees for letters of credit. The cash flow associated is £30 million.
(ii) Borrowing costs have been capitalised using an average rate of 5.57% (2021: 4.49%). The capitalised borrowing costs in 2022 relate entirely to the Norwegian assets 

held for sale, and subsequently disposed of.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

151

9. Taxation

The taxation note details the different tax charges and rates, including current and deferred tax arising in the Group. 
The current tax charge is the tax payable on this year’s taxable profits together with amendments in respect of tax 
provisions made in earlier years. This tax charge excludes the Group’s share of taxation on the results of joint ventures 
and associates. Deferred tax represents the tax on differences between the accounting carrying values of assets and 
liabilities and their tax bases. These differences are temporary and are expected to unwind in the future.

(a)  Analysis of tax charge

Year ended 31 December 

Continuing operations:

Current tax

UK corporation tax

UK petroleum revenue tax

Non-UK tax

Adjustments in respect of prior years – UK 

Adjustments in respect of prior years – non-UK 

Total current tax

Deferred tax

Origination and reversal of temporary differences – UK

UK petroleum revenue tax

Origination and reversal of temporary differences – non-UK

Change in UK tax rate

Adjustments in respect of prior years – UK 

Adjustments in respect of prior years – non-UK

2022

Exceptional 
items and 
certain re-
measurements
£m

Business 
performance
£m

Results for 
the year
£m

Business 
performance
£m

2021

Exceptional
 items and 
certain re-
measurements
£m

Results for
the year
£m

(385)   

2   

(477)   

(47)   

(8)   

(915)   

(105)   

6   

(89)   

(7)   

49   

15   

(241)   

(626) 

—   

32   

24   

—   

2 

(445) 

(23) 

(8) 

(7)   

24   

(386)   

(1)   

6   

(185)   

(1,100) 

(364)   

755   

(19)   

32   

242   

(27)   

(5)   

978   

793   

—   

—   

650 

(13) 

(57) 

235 

22 

10 

847 

(253) 

— 

— 

(63)   

(9)   

(63)   

6   

36   

3   

(90)   

(454)   

—   

—   

(454)   

(80)   

—   

(21)   

18   

—   

(83)   

520   

(129)   

(45)   

(9)   

(18)   

—   

319   

236   

11   

11   

247   

(87) 

24 

(407) 

17 

6 

(447) 

457 

(138) 

(108) 

(3) 

18 

3 

229 

(218) 

11 

11 

(207) 

Total deferred tax
Total taxation on profit/(loss) from continuing operations (i)

(131)   

(1,046)   

Discontinued operations:

Current tax – non-UK

Total taxation on profit from discontinued operations

—   

—   

Total taxation on profit/(loss) for the year

(1,046)   

793   

(253) 

(i) Total taxation on profit/(loss) excludes taxation on the Group’s share of profits of joint ventures and associates.

UK tax rates
Most activities in the UK are subject to the standard rate for UK corporation tax of 19% (2021: 19%). Upstream gas production activities 
are taxed at a rate of 30% (2021: 30%), a supplementary charge of 10% (2021: 10%), plus, with effect from 26 May 2022, the Energy 
Profits Levy of 25% to give an overall tax rate of 65% (2021: 40%). Certain upstream gas production assets in the UK are subject to the 
UK petroleum revenue tax (PRT) regime at the current tax rate of 0% (2021: 0%).

The rate of Energy Profits Levy will increase to 35% from 25% with effect from 1 January 2023. The increase in rate was substantively 
enacted on 30 November 2022 and therefore the upstream gas deferred tax balances included in these financial statements at 
31 December 2022 have been re-measured at the higher rate.

The UK corporation tax rate will increase to 25% with effect from 1 April 2023. At 31 December 2022, the relevant UK deferred tax assets 
and liabilities included in these consolidated Group Financial Statements were based on the increased rate having regard to their reversal 
profiles.

Non-UK tax rates
Norwegian upstream profits are taxed at the standard rate of 22% (2021: 22%) plus a special tax of 56% (2021: 56%) resulting in an 
aggregate tax rate of 78% (2021: 78%). 

Taxation in other jurisdictions, where the Group has a substantial presence, is calculated at the rate prevailing in those respective 
jurisdictions. Jurisdictions and rates include the Republic of Ireland 12.5%, and Denmark 22%. 

Prior year adjustments reflect changes made to estimates or to judgements when further information becomes available.

Movements in deferred tax liabilities and assets are disclosed in note 16. Tax on items taken directly to equity is disclosed in note S4.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
152

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

9. Taxation
(b) Factors affecting the tax charge

The Group is expected to continue carrying out most of its business activities in the UK and accordingly considers the standard UK rate to 
be the appropriate reference rate. 

The differences between the total taxation shown above and the amount calculated by applying the standard rate of UK corporation tax to 
the profit/(loss) before taxation are as follows:

Year ended 31 December 

2022

Exceptional 
items 
and certain 
re-measurements
£m

Business 
performance
£m

Results for 
the year
£m

Business 
performance
£m

2021

Exceptional 
items 
and certain 
re-measurements
£m

Results for 
the year
£m

Profit/(loss) before taxation from continuing operations

3,165   

(3,548)   

(383) 

761   

6   

767 

(Deduct)/add back share of (profits)/losses of joint ventures 
and associates, net of interest and taxation

Tax on profit/(loss) at standard UK corporation tax rate of 
19% (2021: 19%)

Effects of:

Depreciation/impairment on non-qualifying assets

Higher rates applicable to Upstream profits/losses

Energy profits levy charge for the year

Energy profits levy re-measurement of deferred tax 
balances

Non-UK tax rates (excluding Upstream)

Upstream investment incentives

Movements in uncertain tax provisions

Disposal of Norway business

Changes in UK tax rate

(Impairment)/write-back of deferred tax assets relating to 
Upstream losses and decommissioning (note 7)

Petroleum revenue tax

Prior year adjustment 

Other

Taxation on profit/(loss) from continuing operations

Less: movement in deferred tax

Total current tax from continuing operations

Current tax from discontinued operations

Total current tax on profit/(loss) for the year

(92)   

3,073   

(1)   

(3,549)   

(93) 

(476) 

103   

864   

—   

6   

103 

870 

(584)   

674   

90 

(164)   

(1)   

(165) 

1   

(429)   

(31)   

—   

(28)   

32   

(13)   

—   

(7)   

(1)   

1   

9   

4   

(1,046)   

131   

(915)   

—   

(915)   

37   

(112)   

(212)   

148   

(32)   

—   

—   

(69)   

242   

38 

(541) 

(243) 

148 

(60) 

32 

(13) 

(69) 

235 

121   

120 

—   

(8)   

4   

793   

(978)   

(185)   

—   

1 

1 

8 

(253) 

(847) 

(1,100) 

— 

(185)   

(1,100) 

(20)   

(347)   

—   

—   

(14)   

30   

1   

—   

6   

(8)   

11   

44   

7   

(454)   

90   

(364)   

—   

(364)   

39   

98   

—   

—   

8   

—   

—   

—   

(9)   

178   

(77)   

—   

—   

236   

(319)   

(83)   

11   

(72)   

19 

(249) 

— 

— 

(6) 

30 

1 

— 

(3) 

170 

(66) 

44 

7 

(218) 

(229) 

(447) 

11 

(436) 

The Group is subject to taxation in a number of jurisdictions. The complexity of applicable rules may result in legitimate differences of 
interpretation between the Group and taxing authorities (or between different taxing authorities) especially where an economic judgement 
or valuation is involved. Resolution of these differences typically takes many years. The uncertain tax provisions represent multiple layers of 
estimation for different time periods and different jurisdictions. 

The Group has applied IFRIC 23: ‘Uncertainty over Income Tax Treatments’. The interpretation requires consideration of the likelihood that 
the relevant taxing authority will accept an uncertain tax treatment in order to determine the measurement basis. The value is calculated in 
accordance with the rules of the relevant tax authority when acceptance is deemed probable. 

The Group’s uncertain tax provision relates to differences in the interpretation of tax legislation in the UK and Canada. Due to the 
uncertainty associated with such tax items, there is a possibility that, on conclusion of open tax matters at a future date, the final outcome 
may differ. The uncertain tax provision represents management’s assessment of the likely outcome of each issue.

As at 31 December 2022 the provision for uncertain tax items was £42 million (2021: £157 million). The reduction in the Group’s uncertain 
tax provision in the period predominantly relates to the sale of Spirit Energy’s Norwegian business and transfer of the legal liabilities in 
respect of the open tax disputes to the buyer, Sval Energi. The Group has provided an indemnity to Sval Energi in respect of open tax 
disputes, currently valued at £129 million. See note 12.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

153

9.  Taxation
(c) Factors that may affect future tax charges

The Group’s effective tax rates are impacted by changes to the mix of activities and profitability across the territories in which it operates. 

Effective tax rates may also fluctuate where profits and losses cannot be offset for tax purposes. For example, losses arising in one 
territory cannot be offset against profits in another. 

The headline rate of tax on the ring fence profits from gas production in the UK was 40% (consisting of ring fence corporation tax of 30% 
and supplementary charge of 10%) versus 19% UK statutory corporation tax rate. On 26 May 2022, the UK Government introduced with 
immediate effect an Energy Profits Levy, which is an additional 25% tax on UK gas production profits on top of the existing 40% headline 
rate of tax. As such, the Energy Profits Levy increases the headline rate of tax from 40% to 65% on the UK gas production profits from 
26 May 2022.

In the Autumn Statement published on 22 November 2022, the UK Government further increased the Energy Profits Levy from 25% 
to 35%, increasing the headline rate of tax from 65% to 75% on gas production profits with effect from 1 January 2023.

The Energy Profits Levy is intended to be a temporary measure and applies to gas production profits during the period from 26 May 2022 
to 31 March 2028. The rate of 25% applies from 26 May until 31 December 2022 and the rate of 35% applies from 1 January 2023 until 
31 March 2028.

PRT is set at 0% but may still give rise to historic refunds from the carry-back of excess reliefs (for example, from decommissioning). 

The UK Government also announced in the Autumn Statement its intention to introduce an Electricity Generator Levy applicable to the 
revenues generated from renewable and nuclear sources. If enacted, the Electricity Generator Levy will apply at the tax rate of 45% to 
electricity generation revenues, which will be determined by reference to revenue from sales exceeding a benchmark price of £75/MWh. 
The Electricity Generator Levy once enacted will apply from 1 January 2023 to 31 March 2028. 

The Group’s effective tax rate is dependent on the proportion of Group profits and losses arising from its UK upstream and nuclear 
activities relative to lower taxed UK and other jurisdictions profits and losses. 

The Group monitors income tax developments in all the jurisdictions in which the Group operates, including the OECD Base Erosion and 
Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative, which may affect the Group’s tax liabilities. On 8 October 2021, more than 135 countries of the OECD 
Inclusive Framework on BEPS committed to fundamental changes to the international corporate tax system. This includes a proposed 
global minimum corporation tax rate set at 15% for financial years beginning in 2023 and 2024. Steps to introduce a global minimum 
corporation tax have either been enacted or are under serious consideration in the jurisdictions in which the Group operates. The Group 
does not expect its tax liabilities to be materially increased as a result of the minimum corporate tax.

(d) Relationship between current tax charge and taxes paid

Year ended 31 December 

Current tax charge/(credit): (continuing and discontinuing activities)

Corporation tax

Petroleum revenue tax

Total tax on results for the year (per note 9(b))
Current tax included in other comprehensive income (i)

Total tax charge

Taxes paid/(refunded):

Corporation tax

Petroleum revenue tax

Included in the following lines of the Group Cash Flow Statement:

Taxes paid in net cash flows from continuing operating activities

Net cash flow from discontinued investing activities

2022

2021

UK
£m 

Non-UK
£m 

Total 
£m

UK
£m 

Non-UK
£m 

Total
£m 

649   

(2)   

647   

(29)   

618   

261   

(18)   

243   

453   

—   

453   

—   

453   

331   

—   

331   

1,102 

(2) 

1,100 

(29) 

1,071 

592 

(18) 

574 

574 

— 

70   

(24)   

46   

(16)   

30   

113   

(49)   

64   

390   

—   

390   

—   

390   

85   

—   

85   

460 

(24) 

436 

(16) 

420 

198 

(49) 

149 

140 

9 

(i) Current tax movements relating to pension deficit payments are reported in other comprehensive income. See note 1 for further details.

Differences between current tax charged and taxes paid arose principally due to the following factors:

• Corporation tax payments are generally made by instalment, based on estimated taxable profits, or the prior period’s profits. 

Fluctuations in profits from year to year, one-off items and mark-to-market movements within the year may therefore give rise to 
divergence between the charge for the year and the taxes paid. In certain jurisdictions advance tax payments are required (based on 
estimated tax liabilities) which can result in overpayments. These are included as tax assets, to be refunded in a subsequent period; and

• PRT refunds are based on results in the preceding six-monthly PRT period, therefore PRT cash movements will reflect refunds on a 

six-month delay.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
154

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

10. Earnings per ordinary share

Earnings per share (EPS) is the amount of profit or loss attributable to each share. Basic EPS is the amount of profit or 
loss for the year divided by the weighted average number of shares in issue during the year. Diluted EPS includes the 
impact of outstanding share options.

Basic earnings per ordinary share has been calculated by dividing the loss attributable to equity holders of the Company for the year of 
£782 million (2021: profit of £1,210 million) by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the year of 5,869 million 
(2021: 5,836 million). The number of shares excludes 32 million ordinary shares (2021: 35 million), being the weighted average number of 
the Company’s own shares held in the employee share trust and treasury shares repurchased during the year by the Group as part of the 
share repurchase programme. These 32 million shares do not include shares expected to be repurchased as part of the Group’s share 
buyback scheme during 2023. See note S4.

The Directors believe that the presentation of adjusted basic earnings per ordinary share, being the basic earnings per ordinary share 
adjusted for certain re-measurements and exceptional items, assists with understanding the underlying performance of the Group, as 
explained in note 2. 

Information presented for diluted and adjusted diluted earnings per ordinary share uses the weighted average number of shares as 
adjusted for 68 million (2021: 69 million) potentially dilutive ordinary shares as the denominator, unless it has the effect of increasing the 
profit or decreasing the loss attributable to each share. 

Continuing and discontinued operations

Year ended 31 December 

Earnings – basic
Net exceptional items after taxation (notes 2 and 7) (i)
Certain re-measurement losses after taxation (notes 2 and 7) (i)

Earnings – adjusted basic

Earnings – diluted (ii)

Earnings – adjusted diluted

Continuing operations

Year ended 31 December 

Earnings – basic
Net exceptional items after taxation (notes 2 and 7) (i)
Certain re-measurement losses after taxation (notes 2 and 7) (i)

Earnings – adjusted basic

Earnings – diluted (ii)

Earnings – adjusted diluted

Discontinued operations

Year ended 31 December 

Earnings – basic

Net exceptional items after taxation (notes 2 and 7)

Earnings – adjusted basic

Earnings – diluted

Earnings – adjusted diluted

2022

£m

(782)   

279   

2,553   

2,050   

Pence per 
ordinary share

(13.3) 

4.8 

43.4 

34.9 

2021

£m

1,210 

(1,521)   

548

237

Pence per
 ordinary share

20.7

(26.0) 

9.4

4.1

(782)   

(13.3) 

1,210 

20.5

2,050   

34.5 

237  

4.0 

2022

£m

(782)   

279   

2,553   

2,050   

Pence per 
ordinary share

(13.3) 

4.8 

43.4 

34.9 

(782)   

(13.3) 

2021

£m

586  

(897)   

548

237

586

Pence per
 ordinary share

10.0 

(15.3) 

9.4

4.1

9.9

2,050   

34.5 

237  

4.0 

2022

£m

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

Pence per 
ordinary share

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

2021

£m

624

(624)   

—   

Pence per
 ordinary share

10.7

(10.7) 

— 

624

10.6

—   

— 

(i) Net exceptional items after taxation and certain re-measurement losses after taxation are adjusted to reflect the share attributable to non-controlling interests. 
(ii) Potential ordinary shares are not treated as dilutive when they would decrease a loss per share. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

155

10. Earnings per ordinary share

The Group’s May and November 2022 trading updates mentioned that the 2022 adjusted basic earnings per ordinary share would be 
towards the top end of the range of sell-side analyst expectations, which at the time were 6.7 pence to 10.8 pence in May and 15.1 pence 
to 26.0 pence in November. In the July interim results it was confirmed that the interim period adjusted basic earnings per ordinary share 
was 11.0 pence and in the Group’s January 2023 trading update, it was noted that the 2022 full year adjusted basic earnings per ordinary 
share was expected to be above 30.0 pence. For the purposes of Listing Rules LR 9.2.18(c), it is noted that the increase in reported 
adjusted basic earnings per ordinary share was predominantly due to the continued impact of elevated and volatile commodity prices 
throughout the year leading to greater than forecast profits in the Energy Marketing & Trading and Upstream businesses.

11. Dividends

Dividends represent the return of profits to shareholders. Dividends are paid as an amount per ordinary share held. The 
Group retains part of the profits generated to meet future investment plans or to fund share repurchase programmes.

Prior year final dividend

Interim dividend

2022

Pence per 
share

—   

Date of 
payment

— 

1.00  17 Nov 2022

£m

—   

59   

59 

2021

Pence per
 share

—   

—   

Date of 
payment

— 

— 

£m

—   

—   

— 

The Directors propose a final dividend of 2.00 pence per ordinary share (totalling £118 million) for the year ended 31 December 2022. 

The Company has sufficient distributable reserves to pay dividends to its ultimate shareholders. Distributable reserves are calculated on an 
individual legal entity basis and the ultimate parent company, Centrica plc, currently has adequate levels of realised profits within its 
retained earnings to support dividend payments. Refer to the Centrica plc Company Balance Sheet on page 226. At 31 December 2022, 
Centrica plc’s company-only distributable reserves were c.£2.9 billion (2021: c.£2.5 billion). On an annual basis, the distributable reserve 
levels of the Group’s subsidiary undertakings are reviewed and dividends paid up to Centrica plc as appropriate to replenish its reserves.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
156

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

12.  Acquisitions, disposals and disposal groups classified as held for sale

This section details business combinations, asset acquisitions and disposals made by the Group. 

(a) Business combinations and asset acquisitions

On 1 October 2022 the Group acquired the UK B2B customer book and associated assets of AvantiGas ON Limited (‘Avanti’) including 
the hedging book in respect of the customers acquired. On acquisition, an onerous contract provision of £284 million and a derivative 
asset of £254 million have been separately recognised representing the expected losses and associated hedges of acquired customers 
who are expected to remain on their existing fixed price tariffs before anticipated renewals onto a standard variable tariff. The derivative 
asset reflects the increase in prices since contracts to purchase commodity for the acquired customers were entered into. Based on 
a small unhedged element and movement in forward prices the acquisition resulted in a net consideration received of £16 million. 
The transaction has been accounted for as an asset acquisition on the basis that the assets and liabilities acquired did not constitute 
a business.

Provisional fair value of the identifiable assets and liabilities

Balance Sheet items

Intangible assets

Derivative asset 

Trade and other receivables

Onerous contract provision 

Net identifiable liabilities acquired

Total cash consideration received

Income Statement items

Revenue recognised since the acquisition date in the Group Income Statement

Profit since the acquisition date in the Group Income Statement

AvantiGas 
ON Limited
£m

11 

254 

3 

(284) 

(16) 

16 

9 

1 

Pro forma information
The pro forma consolidated results of the Group, assuming the acquisitions had been made at the beginning of the year, would show 
revenue of £23,801 million (compared to reported revenue of £23,741 million) and loss after taxation of £632 million (compared to 
reported loss after taxation of £636 million).

During the year, the Group was appointed by Ofgem as the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) to one energy company who had ceased 
trading. This was in addition to the eight appointments that were made in 2021. These have not been accounted for as business 
combinations or asset acquisitions as the incremental costs associated with supplying the affected customers will be recoverable through 
the established Last Resort Supplier Payment (LRSP) claim mechanism under Ofgem supplier licence conditions. Cash outflows of 
£4 million were incurred in respect of prior year SoLR appointments. A customer relationship intangible asset of £10 million was 
recognised in 2021 in respect of certain customer credit balances that the Group did not include in their LRSP claims.

(b) Disposals

On 8 December 2021 the Group announced that it had agreed to sell Spirit Energy’s entire Norwegian portfolio excluding the Statfjord 
fields to Sval Energi for a headline consideration of $1,026 million (£758 million), and the Statfjord fields to Equinor for a headline 
consideration of $50 million (£37 million).

The sales had a commercial effective date of 1 January 2021, and the consideration receivable at legal completion of 31 May 2022 has 
been reduced by the net cash flows generated by the business being disposed and interest since 1 January 2021. Net consideration 
receivable (including costs to dispose) reduced to £195 million from Sval Energi, with a net consideration payable to Equinor of 
£(126) million. This includes a deferred commodity price linked receivable, and a tax indemnity provided by Spirit Energy Norway. The 
deferred commodity price linked receivable is currently valued at £33 million from Sval Energi and £26 million from Equinor. The tax 
indemnity provided to Sval Energi is currently valued at £(129) million. Distribution of the net consideration and net cash flows generated 
will be pro-rata to the ownership share, with 31% attributable to the non-controlling interests. In the year ended 31 December 2022, 
£273 million (2021: £nil) was distributed to SWM Bayerische E&P Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH upon completion of the Spirit Energy 
Norway sale.

In applying IFRS 5 ‘Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations’, the Group has judged that there are two separate 
disposal groups, being the Statfjord fields and the remainder of the Norwegian portfolio. The assets and liabilities comprising the disposal 
groups were classified as held for sale as at 8 December 2021. This is on the basis that at that point, the disposal groups were available 
for immediate sale, subject only to terms that are customary for sales of such assets, and the sale was highly probable. However, the 
disposal groups do not represent a separate major line of business of geographical operations and hence the Group has concluded that 
they do not constitute discontinued operations.

Details of the assets and liabilities of the disposal group at 31 May 2022 are shown below.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

157

12.  Acquisitions, disposals and disposal groups classified as held for sale

Non-current assets

Property, plant and equipment

Other intangible assets
Goodwill (i)
Deferred tax assets (ii)

Other non-current financial assets

Current assets

Trade and other receivables, and contract-related assets

Inventories

Cash and cash equivalents

Assets of disposal groups classified as held for sale

Current liabilities

Trade and other payables, and contract-related liabilities

Current tax liabilities

Provisions for other liabilities and charges

Lease liabilities

Non-current liabilities
Deferred tax liabilities (ii)

Provisions for other liabilities and charges

Lease liabilities

Liabilities of disposal groups classified as held for sale

Net (liabilities)/assets of disposal groups classified as held for sale

Consideration (payable)/receivable (net of transaction costs of £16 million)

Loss on disposal before recycling of foreign currency translation reserve

Recycling of foreign currency translation reserve on disposal

Loss on disposal before and after taxation

Norway 
portfolio 
excluding 
Statfjord
£m

975   

69   

191   

—   

8   

Statfjord
£m

315   

—   

19   

71   

—   

Total
£m

1,290 

69 

210 

71 

8 

405   

1,243   

1,648 

5   

17   

—   

22   

427   

(61)   

(60)   

(3)   

—   

149   

14   

30   

193   

1,436   

(129)   

(393)   

(1)   

(3)   

154 

31 

30 

215 

1,863 

(190) 

(453) 

(4) 

(3) 

(124)   

(526)   

(650) 

140   

(527)   

—   

(387)   

(511)   

(84)   

(126)   

(42)   

(425)   

(239)   

(3)   

(667)   

(1,193)   

243   

195   

(48)   

(285) 

(766) 

(3) 

(1,054) 

(1,704) 

159 

69 

(90) 

(272) 

(362) 

(i) The proposed divestment of the entire Norwegian portfolio, and attributing exploration and production goodwill of £408 million, resulted in an impairment of £198 million 

in 2021, before transfer of the remaining balance of £210 million to assets of disposal groups classified as held for sale.

(ii) Deferred tax assets of £71 million represents tax attributable to Statfjord UK, part of a UK tax group. Deferred tax liabilities are categorised between Statfjord Norway and 

the portfolio excluding Statfjord purely for presentation purposes. 

The results of the disposal groups during 2022 reported in business performance are as follows:

Operating profit

Taxation on profit

Profit after taxation

Norway 
portfolio 
excluding 
Statfjord
£m

416   

(351)   

65   

Statfjord
£m

142   

(87)   

55   

Total
£m

558 

(438) 

120 

Commodity derivatives previously entered into outside of the disposal group to hedge the future production of the disposal group assets 
have been volumetrically closed prior to the completion date. These derivatives have previously been recognised as a loss of £121 million 
within certain re-measurements. In accordance with the Group’s policy, these losses will not be subsequently reflected in the business 
performance column of the income statement because the underlying performance to which they relate (i.e. the asset production disposal 
group) will no longer occur. Cash flows associated with these derivatives will occur through to September 2023.

In the period to legal completion of 31 May 2022, £73 million pre-tax (£48 million post-tax) realised losses were recognised in business 
performance.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
158

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

12.  Acquisitions, disposals and disposal groups classified as held for sale

Breakdown of consideration:

December 2021 payment

May 2022 completion payment

2022 contingent consideration (including tax indemnity)

Total consideration

Less cost to dispose

Statfjord
£m

—   

(156)   

30   

(126)   

—   

(126)   

A reconciliation of the completion amounts received in 2022 to the cash flow statement is presented below:

May 2022 completion payment

2022 contingent consideration paid

Cash and cash equivalents included with disposal group

Disposal fees incurred

Cash flow statement

Statfjord
£m

(156)   

4   

—   

—   

(152)   

Norway 
portfolio 
excluding 
Statfjord
£m

39   

278   

(106)   

211   

(16)   

195   

Norway 
portfolio 
excluding 
Statfjord
£m

278   

(10)   

(30)   

(16)   

222   

Total
£m

39 

122 

(76) 

85 

(16) 

69 

Total
£m

122 

(6) 

(30) 

(16) 

70 

Additionally, within the Other segment the disposal of a minority investment made by the former Centrica Innovations business unit in 
Driivz (an electric vehicle charging software provider) has completed, with cash flow of £20 million received in the second half of the year.

All other disposals undertaken by the Group were immaterial, both individually and in aggregate. These amounted to a gain on disposal of 
£19 million, and cash inflow of £2 million. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

159

13.  Property, plant and equipment 

PP&E includes significant investment in power stations, storage assets and gas and liquid production assets. Once 
operational, all assets are depreciated over their useful lives.

(a)  Carrying amounts

Cost

1 January 

Additions and capitalised 
borrowing costs

Disposals/retirements 

Write-downs

Transfers

Transfers to disposal groups held 
for sale

Decommissioning liability and 
dilapidations revisions and 
additions (note 21)

Lease modifications and 
re-measurements

Exchange adjustments

31 December 

Accumulated depreciation and 
impairment

1 January 

Charge for the year

Impairments/(write-backs)

Disposals/retirements 

Transfers to disposal groups held 
for sale

Exchange adjustments

31 December 

NBV at 31 December

2022

Plant, 
equipment 
and 
vehicles
£m

Land and 
buildings
£m

Gas 
production 
and 
storage
£m

Power 
generation
£m

Plant, 
equipment 
and 
vehicles
£m

2021

Power 
generation
£m

Gas 
production 
and 
storage
£m

Total
£m

Total
£m

Land and 
buildings
£m

259   

575   

205    11,339    12,378 

303   

576   

843    15,296    17,018 

—   

117   

12   

123   

252 

3   

42   

53   

237   

335 

(33)   

—   

—   

(21)   

—   

—   

(27)   

—   

—   

(29)   

(64)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(110) 

(64) 

— 

— 

(28)   

—   

—   

(11)   

(37)   

(687)   

—   

—   

(6)   

—   

—   

(7)   

—   

10   

(759) 

— 

10 

—   

(4,017)   

(4,034) 

1   

—   

—   

67   

68 

2   

—   

—   

(12)   

(10) 

—   

(7)   

8   

235   

27   

691   

—   

9   

—   

(7) 

81   

125 

(8)   

(2)   

1   

(1)   

—   

(2)   

(9) 

(4)   

(166)   

(173) 

199    11,517    12,642 

259   

575   

205    11,339    12,378 

9,870    10,393 

113   

257   

707    13,298    14,375 

131   

329   

22   

4   

(28)   

81   

(2)   

(19)   

—   

—   

2   

131   

104   

7   

396   

295   

63   

15   

(10)   

(25)   

—   

2   

392   

20   

(29)   

—   

69   

510 

12 

(101) 

— 

80 

45    10,322    10,894 

154   

1,195   

1,748 

27   

8   

(9)   

(5)   

(3)   

131   

128   

83   

1   

(23)   

18   

8   

(666)   

452   

(829)   

(5)   

580 

(812) 

(703) 

(6)   

—   

(2,903)   

(2,914) 

17   

329   

246   

(4)   

63   

(143)   

(133) 

9,870    10,393 

142   

1,469   

1,985 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
160

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

13.  Property, plant and equipment 

(b)  Assets in the course of construction included in above carrying amounts

31 December 

Plant, equipment and vehicles

Gas production and storage

Power generation

2022
£m

33   

61   

27   

(c)  Additional information relating to right-of-use assets included in the above

2022

2021

Plant,
equipment 
and 
vehicles
£m

Land and 
buildings
£m

Power
generation
£m 

Gas 
production
and 
storage
£m 

—   

(21)   

86   

54   

(66)   

207   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(12)   

16   

Plant,
equipment 
and 
vehicles
£m

Land and 
buildings
£m

Power
generation
£m 

Gas 
production
and 
storage
£m 

3   

(25)   

106   

31   

(62)   

208   

—   

(8)   

—   

6   

(21)   

28   

Total
£m

54 

(99) 

309 

Additions

Depreciation charge for the year
NBV at 31 December (i)

(i)

In 2022 £nil (2021: £5 million) of transfers to held for sale have taken place, in addition to other movements relating to right-of-use assets not disclosed individually.

Further information on the Group’s leasing arrangements is provided in note 23. 

2021
£m

8 

26 

11 

Total
£m

40 

(116) 

342 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

161

14. Interests in joint ventures and associates

Investments in joint ventures and associates represent businesses where we exercise joint control or significant 
influence and generally have an equity holding of up to 50%. These include the investment in Lake Acquisitions Limited, 
which owns the existing EDF UK nuclear power station fleet.

(a)

Interests in joint ventures and associates

1 January 
Additions (i)
Write-backs (ii)

Share of profit/(loss) for the year
Share of other comprehensive (loss)/income (iii)

Dividends
Disposals (iv)

Other movements

31 December 

2022

2021

Investments in 
joint ventures 
and associates
£m 

Investments in 
joint ventures 
and associates 
£m

1,628 

18 

195 

93 

(293) 

(60) 

— 

(1) 

843

— 

747

(103) 

152

(2) 

(2) 

(7) 

1,580 

1,628 

(i) The £18 million in 2022 relates to cash injections into Greener Ideas Limited.
(ii) The £195 million in 2022 relates to nuclear investment write-back (2021: £747 million). See note 7 for further details.
(iii) Share of other comprehensive (loss)/income mainly relates to actuarial changes on pension schemes within the nuclear investment.
(iv) In 2021, the Group sold its 50% equity stake in Barrow Shipping Limited.

(b) Share of joint ventures’ and associates’ assets and liabilities

31 December 

Share of non-current assets

Share of current assets

Share of current liabilities

Share of non-current liabilities

Cumulative impairment

Interests in joint ventures and associates

Associates
Nuclear
£m

2022

Other
£m

4,175   

842   

5,017   

(348)   

(2,612)   

(2,960)   

(497)   

1,560   

21   

—   

21   

—   

(1)   

(1)   

—   

20   

Total
£m

4,196 

842 

5,038 

(348) 

(2,613) 

(2,961) 

(497) 

1,580 

2021

Total
£m

5,113 

706 

5,819 

(359) 

(3,140) 

(3,499) 

(692) 

1,628 

Net cash included in share of net assets

112   

—   

112 

50 

Further information on the Group’s investments in joint ventures and associates is provided in notes 6 and S10.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
162

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

15. Other intangible assets and goodwill

The Group Balance Sheet contains significant intangible assets. Goodwill, customer relationships and brands usually 
arise when we acquire a business. Goodwill is attributable to enhanced geographical presence, cost savings, synergies, 
growth opportunities, the assembled workforce and also arises from items such as deferred tax. Goodwill is not 
amortised but is assessed for recoverability each year.

The Group uses European Union Allowances (EUAs) and Renewable Obligation Certificates/Renewable Energy 
Certificates (ROCs/RECs) to satisfy its related obligations.

Upstream exploration and evaluation expenditure is capitalised as an intangible asset until development of the asset 
commences, at which point it is transferred to PP&E or is deemed not commercially viable and is written down.

(a) Carrying amounts

Customer 
relationships 
and brands
£m

Application 
software(i)(ii)
£m

2022

Exploration 
and 
evaluation 
expenditure
£m

EUA/
ROC/
REC
£m

Goodwill
£m

Total
£m

Customer 
relationships 
and brands
£m

Application 
software(i)(ii)
£m

2021

Exploration 
and 
evaluation 
expenditure
£m

EUA/
ROC/
REC
£m

Goodwill
£m

Total
£m

Cost

1 January 

Additions and capitalised 
borrowing costs

Acquisitions

Disposals/retirements 
and surrenders

Write-downs

Transfers

Transfers to disposal 
groups held for sale

Exchange adjustments

201   

1,584   

213   

121   

665    2,784 

203   

1,752   

208   

352    1,651    4,166 

—   

11   

44   

799   

—   

—    843 

—    —   

—   

—   

11 

—   

13   

46   

654   

51    —   

751 

—   

—   

—    —   

13 

(9)   

(129)   

(732)   

—   

—   

(870) 

(9)   

(215)   

(648)   

(26)    —   

(898) 

—   

—   

—   

5   

—    —   

—    —   

—   

—   

—    — 

—    — 

—    —   

—   

—    — 

11    —   

—   

15   

31 

—   

—   

—   

(6)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(58)    —   

(10)    —   

(58) 

(10) 

—   

—   

(187)   

(968)    (1,155) 

1   

(1)   

(1)   

(18)   

(25) 

31 December 

208   

1,510   

280   

121   

680    2,799 

201   

1,584   

213   

121   

665    2,784 

Accumulated 
amortisation

1 January 
Amortisation (iii)

Disposals/retirements 
and surrenders

Impairments

Transfers to disposal 
groups held for sale

Exchange adjustments

95   

17   

1,143    —   

121   

264    1,623 

142    —   

—   

—    159 

91   

13   

1,166   

175   

—   

—   

247   

722    2,226 

—    —   

188 

(9)   

(129)    —   

—   

—   

(138) 

(9)   

(211)   

—   

—    —   

(220) 

5   

—   

3   

15    —   

—   

—   

20 

—    —   

—   

—    — 

9    —   

—   

7   

19 

—   

—   

—   

17   

—   

—   

301   

318 

—   

—   

(124)   

(758)   

(882) 

(4)   

—   

—   

(2)   

(1)   

(7) 

121   

264    1,623 

31 December 

111   

1,180    —   

121   

271    1,683 

95   

1,143   

NBV at 31 December 

97   

330   

280   

—   

409    1,116 

106   

441   

213   

—   

401    1,161 

(i) Application software includes assets under construction with a cost of £83 million (2021: £71 million).
(ii) The remaining amortisation period of individually material application software assets, which had a carrying value of £100 million (2021: £171 million), is between 0 and 

4 years. Additionally, there is £61 million (2021: £43 million) of individually material software assets under construction.

(iii) Amortisation of £159 million (2021: £188 million) has been recognised in operating costs from continuing operations before exceptional items.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

163

15. Other intangible assets and goodwill
(b) Carrying amount of goodwill and intangible assets with indefinite useful lives allocated to CGUs

Goodwill acquired through business combinations, and indefinite-lived intangible assets, have been allocated for impairment testing 
purposes to individual CGUs or groups of CGUs, each representing the lowest level within the Group at which the goodwill or indefinite-
lived intangible asset is monitored for internal management purposes. 

Principal acquisitions to which 
goodwill and intangibles with 
indefinite useful lives relate

Carrying 
amount of 
goodwill
£m

Carrying amount of 
indefinite-lived
 intangible assets (i)
£m

Carrying 
amount of 
goodwill
£m

Carrying amount of 
indefinite-lived 
intangible assets (i)
£m

Total
£m

2022

2021

31 December 

CGUs

British Gas Services & Solutions AlertMe/Dyno-Rod

British Gas Energy

Enron Direct/Electricity Direct

Centrica Business Solutions

   – Energy solutions

   – Energy supply

Bord Gáis Energy

ENER-G/Panoramic Power/
REstore/SmartWatt

Enron Direct/Electricity Direct

Bord Gáis Energy

Energy Marketing & Trading

Neas Energy

Upstream

Newfield/Heimdal/Venture/
Bayerngas

(i) The indefinite-lived intangible assets relate mainly to the Dyno-Rod brand.

63   

121   

—   

60   

16   

149   

—   

409   

57   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

120   

121   

63   

121   

—   

60   

16   

—   

60   

15   

149   

142   

—   

—   

57   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

57   

466   

401   

57   

458 

Total
£m

120 

121 

— 

60 

15 

142 

— 

The Group has considered the impact of climate change on the carrying value of goodwill, including the impact of the risks and 
opportunities. See note 3(c).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
164

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

16. Deferred tax liabilities and assets

Deferred tax is an accounting adjustment to provide for tax that is expected to arise in the future as a result of 
differences in the accounting and tax bases of assets and liabilities. The principal deferred tax assets and liabilities 
recognised by the Group relate to capital investments, decommissioning assets and provisions, tax losses, fair value 
movements on derivative financial instruments, PRT and pensions.

Accelerated tax 
depreciation 
(corporation tax)
£m

Net 
decommissioning (i)
£m

Losses 
carried 
forward (ii)
£m

Other timing 
differences
£m

Marked to
market 
positions
£m

Net deferred  
PRT (iii) 
£m

Retirement 
benefit
 obligation and 
other 
provisions
£m

1 January 2021

(Charge)/credit to income

Credit/(charge) to equity

Transferred to held for sale

Exchange and other adjustments

31 December 2021
(Charge)/credit to income (iv)

Credit/(charge) to equity

Transferred within held for sale

Exchange and other adjustments

31 December 2022

(662)   

(383)   

—   

582   

5   

(458)   

(136)   

—   

—   

(1)   

876   

109   

—   

(428)   

(1)   

556   

(101)   

—   

—   

—   

136   

51   

—   

—   

—   

187   

29   

—   

—   

—   

(595)   

455   

216   

72   

(36)   

—   

(6)   

1   

31   

(93)   

—   

70   

(4)   

4   

(64)   

601   

8   

—   

—   

545   

1,160   

8   

—   

—   

1,713   

125   

(83)   

—   

—   

—   

42   

(13)   

—   

—   

—   

29   

4   

(30)   

(90)   

—   

—   

(116)   

1   

(6)   

—   

—   

Total 
£m

487 

229 

(82) 

148 

5 

787 

847 

2 

70 

(5) 

(121)   

1,701 

(i) Net decommissioning includes deferred tax assets of £596 million (2021: £638 million) in respect of decommissioning provisions.
(ii) The losses arise principally from accelerated allowances for upstream investment expenditure, for which equivalent deferred tax liabilities are included under accelerated 

tax depreciation.

(iii) The deferred PRT amounts include the effect of deferred corporation tax as PRT is chargeable to corporation tax.
(iv) The increase in forecast commodity prices has enabled previously unrecognised exploration and production deferred assets to be recognised, and reduced recognised 

deferred tax assets. As a result a net credit of £121 million has been made to exceptional items and certain re-measurements (see note 7).

Certain deferred tax assets and liabilities have been offset where there is a legally enforceable right to offset current tax assets against 
current tax liabilities and when the deferred income taxes relate to the same fiscal authority. 

31 December 

Gross deferred tax balances

Offsetting deferred tax balances

Net deferred tax balances (after offsetting for financial reporting purposes)

2022

Assets 
£m

2,481   

(772)   

1,709   

Liabilities 
£m

(780) 

772 

(8) 

2021

Assets 
£m

1,404   

(581)   

823   

Liabilities 
£m

(617) 

581 

(36) 

Deferred tax assets arise typically on decommissioning provisions, trading losses carried forward, retirement benefit obligations and 
marked to market positions. Forecasts indicate that there will be suitable taxable profits to utilise those deferred tax assets not offset 
against deferred tax liabilities. Specific legislative provisions applicable to gas production provide assurance that deferred tax assets 
relating to decommissioning costs and certain trading losses will be utilised.

The UK upstream deferred tax assets and liabilities were measured at the headline rate of tax of 40% applicable to the UK gas profits, 
consisting of 30% ring fence corporation tax and 10% supplementary charge. Following the introduction of the additional 25% Energy 
Profits Levy on top of the existing 40% headline rate of tax on 26 May 2022, the UK upstream deferred tax assets and liabilities were 
re-measured at the rate of 65%.

In the Autumn Statement published on 22 November 2022, the UK Government increased the Energy Profits Levy from 25% to 35% 
with effect from 1 January 2023. Following substantive enactment on 30 November 2022, the UK upstream deferred tax balances at 
31 December 2022 were re-measured at the rate of 75%. A net credit of £148 million has been recognised in exceptional items and 
certain re-measurements (see note 7) on the re-measurement of deferred tax balances as at 26 May 2022 and 31 December 2022. 
The net credit comprises a £325 million tax charge in respect of accelerated capital allowances and other timing differences offset 
by a tax credit of £473 million in respect of derivatives.

At the balance sheet date, the Group had certain £802 million (2021: £1,762 million) unrecognised deductible temporary differences 
related to carried forward tax losses available for utilisation against future taxable profits.

At the balance sheet date, no taxable temporary differences existed in respect of the Group’s overseas investments (2021: £nil).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

165

17. Trade and other receivables and contract-related assets

Trade and other receivables include accrued income, and are amounts owed by our customers for goods we have 
delivered or services we have provided. These balances are valued net of expected credit losses. Other receivables 
include payments made in advance to our suppliers. Contract-related assets are balances arising as a result of the 
Group’s contracts with customers in the scope of IFRS 15.

31 December 

Financial assets:

Trade receivables 

Unbilled downstream energy income
Trading and energy procurement accrued income (i)

Other accrued energy income

Other accrued income

Cash collateral posted

Supplier of Last Resort receivables

Government scheme receivables

Other receivables (including contract assets)

Less: provision for credit losses

Non-financial assets: prepayments, other receivables and costs to obtain or fulfil a contract 
with a customer

2022

2021

Current
£m

Non-current
£m

Current
£m

Non-current
£m

2,207   

1,281   

3,179   

234   

90   

1,154   

253   

284   

346   

9,028   

(872)   

8,156   

294   

8,450   

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

22 

— 

24 

46 

— 

46 

83 

129 

1,546  

726  

2,546   

175   

108  

888  

124  

—   

209

6,322

(633)   

5,689

192

5,881

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

110 

— 

25

135

— 

135

98

233

(i) Trading and energy procurement counterparty receivables are typically with customers with external, published credit ratings. Such receivables have typically much lower 

credit risk than downstream counterparties, are settled in a short period of time and expected credit losses are not significant.

The amounts above include gross amounts receivable arising from the Group’s IFRS 15 contracts with customers of £2,325 million 
(2021: £1,419 million). Additionally, accrued income of £1,371 million (2021: £797 million) arising under IFRS 15 contracts is included.

Trade and other receivables include financial assets representing the contractual right to receive cash or other financial assets from 
residential customers, business customers and treasury, trading and energy procurement counterparties as follows: 

31 December 

Financial assets by business type:

Residential customers (i)

Business customers

Treasury, trading and energy procurement counterparties

Less: provision for credit losses

2022

2021

Current
£m

Non-current 
£m

Current
£m

Non-current 
£m

2,755   

1,750   

4,523   

9,028   

(872)   

8,156   

22 

22 

2 

46 

— 

46 

1,664   

1,019   

3,639   

6,322   

(633)   

5,689   

110 

21 

4 

135 

— 

135 

(i) Residential customers include current other receivables of £253 million (2021: £124 million) and non-current other receivables of £22 million (2021: £110 million) in relation 

to SoLR claims, see note 3(a) for further details.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
166

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

17. Trade and other receivables and contract-related assets

Credit loss charge for trade and other receivables
The impairment charge in trade receivables is stated net of credits for the release of specific provisions made in previous years, which are 
no longer required. These relate primarily to residential and business customers in the UK. Movements in the provision for credit losses by 
business type are as follows: 

2022

2021

Residential
customers
£m

Business
customers
£m

Treasury, 
trading
and energy
procurement
counterparties
£m

Total
£m

Residential
customers
£m

Business
customers
£m

Treasury, 
trading
and energy
procurement
counterparties
£m

Total
£m

1 January 

(426)   

(207)   

—   

(633) 

(400)   

(187)   

(4)   

(591) 

Increase in impairment of trade receivables 
(predominantly related to credit impaired trade 
receivables) (i) (ii) (iii)
Receivables written off (iv)

31 December 

(234)   

(124)   

—   

(358) 

93   

26 

119 

(84)   

58   

(39)   

19   

(567)   

(305)   

—   

(872) 

(426)   

(207)   

—   

4   

—   

(123) 

81 

(633) 

Includes £348 million (2021: £107 million) of credit losses related to trade receivables resulting from contracts in the scope of IFRS 15.

(i)
(ii) All loss allowances reflect the lifetime expected credit losses on trade receivables and contract assets.
(iii) Excludes recovery of previously written-off receivables of £7 million (2021: £7 million). Due to the large number of individual receivables and the matrix approach 

employed, any reduction in provision is reflected in a reduced charge for the relevant period, rather than in separately identifiable reversals of previous provisions. 
(iv) Materially all write-offs relate to trade receivables where enforcement activity is ongoing. The gross carrying value of write-offs related to trade receivables where 

enforcement activity is ongoing was £105 million (2021: £88 million).

Year ended 31 December 

Increase in impairment provision for trade receivables (per above)

Less recovery of previously written-off receivables

Credit losses on financial assets (per Group Income Statement)

2022
£m

(358)   

7   

(351)   

2021
£m

(123) 

7 

(116) 

Enforcement activity continues in respect of balances that have been written off unless there are specific known circumstances (such as 
bankruptcy) that render further action futile. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

167

17. Trade and other receivables and contract-related assets

Credit loss charge for trade and other receivables
Receivables from residential and business customers are generally considered to be credit impaired when the payment is past the 
contractual due date. The Group applies different definitions of default for different groups of customers, ranging from sixty days past 
the due date to six to twelve months from the issuance of a final bill. Receivables are generally written off only once a period of time has 
elapsed since the final bill. Contractual due dates range from falling due upon receipt to falling due in thirty days from receipt. 

The table below shows credit impaired balances in gross receivables (those that are past due) and those that are not yet due and 
therefore not considered to be credit impaired.

Gross trade and other receivables

31 December 

Balances that are not past due
Balances that are past due (i)

2022
£m

7,414   

1,614   

9,028   

2021
£m (ii)

5,155 

1,167 

6,322 

(i) The majority of balances that are past due relate to residential and business customers, ageing of these receivables is included in the credit risk tables in the 

sections below.

(ii) The prior year has been re-presented to reclassify £123 million of balances that are past due to balances that are not past due.

The IFRS 9 impairment model is applicable to the Group’s financial assets including trade receivables, contract assets and other financial 
assets using the simplified approach as described in note S3. As the majority of the relevant balances are trade receivables and contract 
assets to which the simplified model applies, this disclosure focuses on these balances. 

The provision for credit losses for trade receivables and contract assets is based on an expected credit loss model that calculates the 
expected loss applicable to the receivable balance over its lifetime. Expected credit losses on receivables due from treasury, trading and 
energy procurement counterparties are not significant (see note S3 for further analysis of this determination). For residential and business 
customers default rates are calculated initially by considering historical loss experience and applied to trade receivables within a provision 
matrix. The matrix approach allows application of different default rates to different groups of customers with similar characteristics. These 
groups are determined by a number of factors including; the nature of the customer, the payment method selected and, where relevant, 
the sector in which they operate. The characteristics used to determine the groupings of receivables are the factors that have the greatest 
impact on the likelihood of default. The rate of default increases once the balance is thirty days past due. 

Concentration of credit risk in trade and other receivables
Treasury, trading and energy procurement counterparty receivables are typically with customers with external, published credit ratings. 
Such receivables have typically much lower credit risk than downstream counterparties, and that risk is assessed primarily by reference to 
the credit ratings rather than to the ageing of the relevant balance. Counterparty credit rating information is given in note S3.

In 2021, the Group was appointed as a Supplier of Last Resort to a number of energy suppliers who have ceased to trade and one further 
appointment was made in January 2022. Under Ofgem licence conditions, the Group is entitled to make a Last Resort Supplier Payment 
claim for incremental costs reasonably incurred to supply affected customers; a total of £275 million (2021: £234 million) has been 
recognised in other receivables at 31 December 2022. This is being recovered as part of a two-step claim process. An initial levy claim, 
based on expected commodity costs, was submitted and approved by Ofgem in 2021, and is being settled in twelve monthly instalments 
ending in April 2023. A second claim, truing up the initial claim to reflect both actual costs incurred and customer credit balances was 
submitted to Ofgem and approved in December 2022. The second claim will be recovered between April 2023 and April 2024. The claims 
are settled by network operators, to whom the Group separately pays transmission and distribution charges. The risk of default is 
considered low. In addition, Ofgem has the power under licensing conditions to take enforcement action against default in accordance 
with its statutory duties and its enforcement guidelines.

The Group’s cash collateral balance has increased to £1,154 million in 2022 (2021: £888 million) as a result of higher commodity prices. 
Collateral counterparties typically have strong credit ratings and accordingly have low credit risk; the Group does not expect credit losses 
to arise on these balances. See note S3.

The majority of the Group’s credit exposure arises in the British Gas Energy and Centrica Business Solutions segments and relates to 
residential and business energy customers. The credit risk associated with these customers is assessed as described above, using a 
combination of the age of the receivable in question, internal ratings based on a customer’s payment history, and external data from credit 
rating agencies and wider macroeconomic information. The disclosures below reflect the information that is reported internally for credit 
risk management purposes in these segments.

 
 
 
 
168

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

17. Trade and other receivables and contract-related assets

British Gas Energy credit risk
Of the Group total of £2,207 million (2021: £1,546 million) billed trade receivables, the British Gas Energy reporting segment contributes 
£1,531 million (2021: £1,033 million). British Gas Energy now includes small business customers on the basis that their profile closely 
matches those of residential customers. As described above, credit risk is concentrated in receivables from energy customers who pay 
in arrears. Gross receivables from British Gas Energy residential customers amount to £992 million (2021: £601 million) and are 
analysed below.

Trade receivables due 
from British Gas 
residential energy 
customers as at 
31 December (i)

Days beyond invoice date (ii)

Risk profile
Direct debits (iii)

Gross receivables

Provision

Net

Payment on receipt of bill (iii)

Gross receivables

Provision

Net
Final bills (iv)

Gross receivables

Provision

Net

Total net British Gas 
residential energy 
customers trade 
receivables

<30 days 
£m

30-90 days
£m

2022

>90 days
£m

Total
£m

Percentage 
of credit risk

<30 days 
£m

30-90 days
£m

2021

>90 days
£m

Total
£m

Percentage 
of credit risk

216   

—   

216   

118   

(4)   

114   

12   

(3)   

9   

51   

—   

51   

54   

(7)   

47   

13   

(6)   

7   

66   

(23)   

43   

286   

(180)   

106   

176   

(140)   

36   

333 

(23) 

310 

458 

(191) 

267 

201 

(149) 

52 

 7% 

 42% 

 74% 

55   

—   

55   

87   

(3)   

84   

7   

(2)   

5   

28   

—   

28   

22   

(4)   

18   

8   

(4)   

4   

53   

(2)   

51   

194   

(102)   

92   

147   

(122)   

25   

136 

(2) 

134 

303 

(109) 

194 

162 

(128) 

34 

 1% 

 36% 

 79% 

339   

105   

185   

629 

 37% 

144   

50   

168   

362 

 40% 

(i) The receivables information presented in this table relates to downstream customers who pay energy bills using the methods presented. It excludes low residual credit 
risk amounts, such as balances in the process of recovery through pay-as-you-go energy (PAYGE) arrangements and amounts receivable from PAYGE energy vendors. 
Gross amounts in the process of recovery through PAYGE arrangements at 31 December 2022 are £203 million (2021: £201 million), against which a provision of 
£138 million is held (2021: £136 million). 

(ii) This ageing analysis is presented relative to invoicing date and presents receivables according to the oldest invoice outstanding with the customer. There are a range of 
payment terms extended to residential energy customers. Amounts paid on receipt of a bill (PORB), which are settled using bank transfers, cash or cheques are typically 
due within fourteen days of invoicing. Direct debit customers typically pay in equal instalments over a twelve-month period.

(iii) Receivables settled by direct debit are deemed to present a lower credit risk than PORB amounts. This is reflected in the relative level of provision held for these types of 

receivables. 

(iv) Final bill customers are those who are no longer customers of the Group and have switched energy supplier. These balances are deemed to have the highest credit risk.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

169

17. Trade and other receivables and contract-related assets

Gross receivables from British Gas Energy small business customers amount to £336 million (2021: £232 million) and are analysed below. 

Trade receivables due 
from British Gas small 
business energy 
customers as at 
31 December

Days beyond invoice date (i)

Risk profile

Small businesses

Gross receivables

Provision

Total net British Gas 
small business energy 
customers trade 
receivables

<30 days
£m

30-90 days
£m

2022

>90 days
£m

Total
£m

Percentage 
of credit risk

<30 days
£m

30-90 days
£m

2021

>90 days
£m

Total
£m

Percentage 
of credit risk

64

(1)   

21

251

(2)   

(191)   

336

(194) 

48

—   

18

166

(1)   

(128)   

232

(129) 

63

19

60

142

 58% 

48

17

38

103

 56% 

(i) This ageing analysis is presented relative to invoicing date and presents receivables according to the oldest invoice outstanding with the customer. There are a range of 

payment terms extended to business energy customers. Average credit terms for small business customers are ten working days.

Unbilled downstream energy income at 31 December 2022 includes gross balances of £880 million in respect of British Gas energy 
customers (2021: £535 million), against which a provision of £36 million is held (2021: £21 million).

Centrica Business Solutions energy credit risk
Of the Group total of £2,207 million (2021: £1,546 million) billed trade receivables, the Centrica Business Solutions reporting segment 
contributes £390 million (2021: £299 million). As described above, credit risk is concentrated in receivables from business energy 
customers who pay in arrears, the remaining balances being immaterial in disaggregation. Gross receivables from these customers 
amount to £346 million (2021: £251 million) and are analysed below.

Trade receivables due 
from Centrica Business 
Solutions business energy 
customers as at 
31 December

Days beyond invoice date (i)

Risk profile
Commercial and industrial (ii)

Gross receivables

Provision

Net

Medium-sized entities (ME)

Gross receivables

Provision

Net

Total net Centrica 
Business Solutions 
business energy 
customers trade 
receivables

<30 days
£m

30-90 days
£m

2022

>90 days
£m

Total
£m

Percentage 
of credit risk

<30 days
£m

30-90 days
£m

2021

>90 days
£m

Total
£m

Percentage 
of credit risk

170

—   

170

47

—   

47

9

—   

9

15

—   

15

31

(15)   

16

74

(49)   

25

210

(15) 

195

136

(49) 

87

 7% 

 36% 

116

—   

116

22

—   

22

3

—   

3

7

—   

7

47

(18)   

29

56

(36)   

20

166

(18) 

148

85

(36) 

49

 11% 

 42% 

217

24

41

282

 18% 

138

10

49

197

 22% 

(i) This ageing analysis is presented relative to invoicing date and presents receivables according to the oldest invoice outstanding with the customer. There are a range of 
payment terms extended to business energy customers. Average credit terms for ME customers are ten working days. Credit terms for Commercial and Industrial 
customers are bespoke and are set based on the commercial agreement with each customer.

(ii) This category includes low credit risk receivables, including those from public sector and customers with high turnover (greater than £100 million).

Unbilled downstream energy income at 31 December 2022 includes gross balances of £349 million in respect of Centrica Business 
Solutions business energy customers (2021: £193 million), against which a provision of £14 million is held (2021: £5 million).

The remaining reporting segments which are not shown above are not considered to have material credit risk.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
170

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

17. Trade and other receivables and contract-related assets

Sensitivity to changes in assumptions
Typically, the most significant assumption included within the expected credit loss provisioning model that gives rise to estimation 
uncertainty is that future performance will be reflective of past performance and that there will be no significant change in the payment 
profile or recovery rates within each identified group of receivables. To address this risk, the Group reviews and updates default rates, 
by group, on a regular basis to ensure they incorporate the most up to date assumptions along with forward-looking information where 
available and relevant. The Group also considers regulatory changes and customer segment specific factors that may have an impact, 
now or in the future, on the recoverability of the balance. 

The specific consideration of forward-looking information in the impairment model does not usually give rise to significant changes in the 
levels of credit losses. However, inflationary pressures and increasing wholesale gas and electricity costs continue to cause uncertainty in 
economic outlook. The economic recovery remains vulnerable and there remains a level of estimation uncertainty inherent in determining 
credit loss provisions for the Group’s trade receivables. 

Where customers experience difficulties in settling balances, the increased ageing of these amounts results in an increase in provisions 
held in respect of them under the provision matrix approach employed. The Group has also considered changes in customer payment 
patterns, the specific circumstances of the customers and the economic impacts of the factors identified above, on the sectors in which 
they operate. Whilst economic recovery is expected, a level of unpredictability remains apparent. 

Customers are facing increases in their cost of living, including increased energy bills, higher inflation and higher interest rates. The Group 
has considered macroeconomic forecasts and sensitivities, as well as disposable income analysis from a credit rating agency, to model 
and determine the level of provisions for credit losses. 

During 2022 the Group recognised impairment charges of £351 million (2021: £116 million) in respect of financial assets, representing 
1.5% of Group revenue (2021: 0.8%) and 1.0% of Group revenue from business performance (2021: 0.6%). As described above, the 
majority of the Group’s credit exposure arises in respect of downstream energy receivables in British Gas Energy and Centrica Business 
Services. Credit losses in respect of these assets amounted to £331 million (2021: £104 million). This represents 2.1% (2021: 1.1%) 
of total UK downstream energy supply revenue from these segments of £15,814 million (2021: £9,162 million). Further details of 
segmental revenue are provided in note 4. 

Due to the different level of risks presented by billed and unbilled receivables, these asset groups are considered separately in the 
analysis below.

Billed trade receivables

Trade receivables (i)

Provision

Net balance

Provision coverage

Sensitivity
Impact on billed receivables/operating profit from 1 percentage point (increase)/decrease in provision coverage (ii)

31 December 
2022
£m

31 December 
2021
£m

2,207   

(822)   

1,385 

1,546 

(607) 

939

31 December 
2022
%

31 December 
2021
%

37

£m

39

£m

(22)/22

(16)/16

(i) Excludes the Government receivables under the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) and Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) schemes of £284 million (2021: £nil) which are not 

provided for.

(ii) Credit risk in the Group is impacted by a large number of interacting factors.

 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

171

17. Trade and other receivables and contract-related assets

Cash collection relative to billing has marginally deteriorated throughout the second half of 2022, driven by higher customer billings and 
credit terms having a lagged impact on conversion. Despite overall billed debt levels increasing significantly, the recovery rates are not 
showing significant decline and provision rates for customers in the Group’s downstream operations have fallen slightly. The drop in 
provision rates is driven by the mix of customer debt, including a higher proportion of direct debit debt and payment on receipt of bills 
debt in residential which are considered lower risk and attract a lower rate of bad debt provision.

The macroeconomic environment, however, remains challenging with higher inflation, higher interest rates, lower growth projections and 
more limited government support measures. There remains significant uncertainty around the possible increase in bad debt as a result of 
these factors. Also leading debt indicators including the number of new customers going into debt, insolvency volumes in business and 
direct debit cancellation rates in residential have deteriorated during 2022. High commodity prices and the delayed impact on customer 
payments (including the recent changes in the residential price cap levels), have not yet been fully reflected in the underlying matrix 
output model used to record provision coverage. Therefore, as part of management’s assessment of adequacy of bad debt provisions, 
a £95 million increase to the macroeconomic provision has been recorded, the provision now totals £125 million across billed and unbilled 
debt and is included in the tables both above and below (2021: £30 million). Management considers the impact of specific cohorts of 
customers when making this assessment, recognising the different credit terms and different risk profiles that exist. This assessment also 
utilises a range of factors, both internal and external, historic and forward-looking, and considers the sensitivities of these to help 
management estimate the likely recovery of debt.

It remains uncertain as to when and how these factors will reduce the collectability of debt and at what scale. The impact of future 
changes in commodity prices and government intervention, including for the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) and the Energy Bill Relief 
Scheme (EBRS), may also impact this. The table above and the unbilled section below provide details of the sensitivity of moving the 
debt provision by a further 1%.

The Group’s services, upstream and trading operations are less susceptible to credit risk. No significant deterioration of credit risk has 
been experienced or is expected in the relevant segments in respect of billed trade receivables recognised at 31 December 2022, taking 
into account cash collection cycles in those areas of the Group and credit rating information (see note S3).
Unbilled downstream energy income
The table below shows the IFRS 15 unbilled downstream energy income for the Group as a whole. 

Gross unbilled receivables

Provision

Net balance

Provision coverage

Sensitivity
Impact on unbilled receivables/operating profit from 1 percentage point (increase)/decrease in provision coverage (i) 

(i) Credit risk in the Group is impacted by a large number of interacting factors.

31 December 
2022
£m

31 December 
2021
£m

1,281 

(50)   

1,231 

726

(26) 

700

31 December 
2022
%

31 December 
2021
%

4

£m

(13)/13

4

£m

(7)/7

Unbilled downstream energy income is typically provided at a significantly lower rate than billed debt. This is because a large proportion of 
this debt once billed will be subject to the very short cash collection cycles of the Group’s downstream energy supply businesses.

18. Inventories

Inventories represent assets that we intend to use in future periods, either by selling the asset itself (for example gas in 
storage) or by using it to provide a service to a customer.

31 December 
Gas in storage and transportation (i)

Other raw materials and consumables

Finished goods and goods for resale

2022
£m

1,076   

114   

79   

1,269   

2021
£m

486 

99 

59 

644 

(i) Includes gas in storage held at fair value of £539 million (2021: £331 million).

The Group consumed £3,508 million of inventories (2021: £560 million) during the year. Write-downs amounting to £6 million 
(2021: £23 million) were charged to the Group Income Statement in the year. Reversals of write-downs amounted to £9 million (2021: £nil) 
during the year.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
172

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

19. Derivative financial instruments

The Group generally uses derivative financial instruments to manage the risk arising from fluctuations in the value of certain assets or liabilities 
associated with treasury management and energy sales and procurement, and for proprietary energy trading purposes. The Group also uses 
derivatives to hedge exchange risk.

For accounting purposes, derivatives are either classified as held for trading, in which case changes in their fair value are recognised in the Group 
Income Statement, or they are designated in hedging relationships. Where derivatives are in hedging relationships, the treatment of changes in 
their fair value depends on the nature of that relationship, and whether it represents a fair value hedge, a cash flow hedge, or a net investment 
hedge. Note S5 provides further detail on the Group’s hedge accounting. The table below gives a high-level summary of the Group’s accounting 
for its derivative contracts.

Purpose

Classification

Accounting treatment

Proprietary energy trading and 
treasury management.

Held for trading and fair 
value hedges.

Changes in fair value recognised in the Group’s business performance results for the 
year.

Treasury management and 
hedging of exchange risk on net 
assets of US dollar Direct 
Energy subsidiaries up to date 
of disposal in 2021.

Energy procurement and 
optimisation.

Cash flow and net 
investment hedges.

Effective portion of hedge initially recognised in the Group Statement of Other 
Comprehensive Income. Gains and losses are recycled to the Group Income Statement 
when the hedged item impacts profit or loss. Ineffective portions of the hedge are 
recognised immediately in the Group’s business performance results for the year.

Held for trading.

Changes in fair value recognised in the Group’s exceptional items and certain 
re-measurements results for the year.

The carrying values of derivative financial instruments by product type for accounting purposes are as follows:

31 December 

Derivative financial instruments – held for trading under IFRS 9:

Energy derivatives – for procurement/optimisation

Energy derivatives – for proprietary trading

Interest rate derivatives

Foreign exchange derivatives

Derivative financial instruments in hedge accounting relationships:

Interest rate derivatives

Foreign exchange derivatives

Total derivative financial instruments

Included within:

Derivative financial instruments – current

Derivative financial instruments – non-current

2022

2021

Assets
£m

Liabilities
£m

Assets
£m

Liabilities
£m

1,723   

5,355   

—   

275   

(5,400) 

(4,256) 

— 

(268) 

37   

37   

(221) 

(6) 

3,611   

3,775   

(2,203) 

(3,749) 

4  

60   

67   

33   

— 

(50) 

— 

(7) 

7,427   

(10,151) 

7,550   

(6,009) 

6,034   

1,393   

(8,841) 

(1,310) 

6,545   

1,005   

(4,929) 

(1,080) 

The contracts included within energy derivatives are subject to a wide range of detailed specific terms, but comprise the following general 
components, analysed on a net carrying value basis: 

31 December 

Short-term forward market purchases and sales of gas and electricity:

UK and Europe

Other derivative contracts including structured gas sale and purchase arrangements

Net total

Net (losses)/gains on derivative financial instruments due to re-measurement

31 December 

Financial assets and liabilities measured at fair value:

Derivative financial instruments – held for trading

Derivative financial instruments in hedge accounting relationships

2022

Income 
Statement
£m

(4,568)   

(228)   

(4,796)   

Equity
£m

— 

(10) 

(10) 

2022
£m

(214)   

(2,364)   

(2,578)   

2021

Income 
Statement
£m

1,263   

(95)   

1,168   

2021
£m

69 

1,365 

1,434 

Equity
£m

— 

(42) 

(42) 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

173

20. Trade and other payables and contract liabilities

Trade and other payables include accruals and are principally amounts we owe to our suppliers. Financial deferred 
income represents monies received from customers in advance of the delivery of goods or services that may be 
returned to the customer if future delivery does not occur. For example, downstream customers with a credit balance 
may request repayment of the outstanding amount in cash, rather than taking delivery of commodity. By contrast, 
contract liabilities and non-financial deferred income arise when the Group receives consideration from a customer in 
advance of performance, and has a non-financial liability to deliver future goods or services in return.

31 December 

Financial liabilities:

Trade payables
Deferred income (i)

Capital payables

Cash collateral received
Other payables (ii)

Accruals:

Commodity costs

Transportation, distribution and metering costs

Operating and other accruals

Non-financial liabilities:

Other payables and accruals

Contract liabilities
Deferred income (iii)

2022

2021

Current
£m

Non-current
£m

Current
£m

Non-current
£m

(561) 

(538) 

(158) 

(601) 

(479) 

(5,371) 

(377) 

(845) 

(6,593) 

(8,930) 

(701) 

(37) 

(508) 

(4) 

— 

— 

— 

(150) 

— 

— 

— 

— 

(154) 

(1) 

(7) 

(3) 

(542) 

(281) 

(85) 

(1,185) 

(164) 

(3,462) 

(258) 

(775) 

(4,495) 

(6,752) 

(661) 

(33) 

(67) 

(10,176) 

(165) 

(7,513) 

(2) 

— 

— 

— 

(100) 

— 

— 

— 

— 

(102) 

(3) 

(15) 

— 

(120) 

Includes downstream customer credit balances for amounts billed in advance of energy supply.

(i)
(ii) Other payables includes share buyback liability of £207 million (2021: £nil).
(iii) Deferred income includes £440 million from the Energy Bill Support Scheme, expected to be applied to customer accounts in January 2023.

Maturity profile of financial liabilities within current trade and other payables

31 December 

Less than 90 days

90 to 182 days

183 to 365 days

2022
£m

2021
£m

(8,543)   

(6,531) 

(217)   

(170)   

(134) 

(87) 

(8,930)   

(6,752) 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
174

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

21. Provisions for liabilities & charges

Provisions are recognised when an obligation exists that can be reliably measured, but where there is uncertainty over 
the timing and/or amount of the payment. The main provisions relate to decommissioning costs for upstream assets we 
own, or have owned, which require restoration or remediation, along with onerous supply contracts. Further provisions 
relate to restructuring costs, and legal and regulatory matters. 

Current

Restructuring costs

Decommissioning 
costs (i) (ii)

Onerous contracts 
provision (iii)
Other (iv)

Total

1 January 
2022
£m

Acquisitions 
and 
disposals
£m

Charged in 
the year 
£m

Notional 
interest
£m

Unused and 
reversed in
the year
£m

Revisions 
and
additions
£m

Utilised
£m

Transfers (v)
£m

Exchange
adjustments
£m

31 
December 
2022
£m

(29)   

—   

(3)   

—   

(149)   

—   

—   

—   

(2,535)   

(215)   

(56)   

—   

(2,769)   

(215)   

—   

(29)   

(32)   

—   

—   

—   

5   

1   

—   

9   

15   

20   

—   

(7)   

(1)   

(15) 

98   

(14)   

(151)   

(1)   

(216) 

1,815   

37   

1,970   

—   

2   

(12)   

(2)   

(8)   

(168)   

—   

—   

(2)   

(937) 

(45) 

(1,213) 

Non-current

Restructuring costs
Decommissioning costs (i) (ii)
Onerous contracts provision (iii)
Other (iv)

Total

1 January 
2022
£m

Acquisitions 
and disposals
£m

Charged in 
the year
£m

Notional 
interest
£m

Unused and 
reversed in
the year
£m

Revisions and
additions
£m

Transfers (v)
£m

Exchange
adjustments
£m

31 
December 
2022
£m

(12)   

(1,372)   

(24)   

(46)   

(1,454)   

—   

—   

(69)   

—   

(69)   

—   

(60)   

(8)   

(6)   

(74)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

42   

—   

1   

43   

—   

(53)   

—   

(3)   

(56)   

7   

151   

2   

8   

168   

—   

(6)   

—   

2   

(4)   

(5) 

(1,298) 

(99) 

(44) 

(1,446) 

Included within the above liabilities are the following financial liabilities:

31 December

Restructuring costs

Provisions other than restructuring costs

2022

2021

Current
£m

Non-current
£m

Current
£m

Non-current
£m

(15)   

(973)   

(988)   

(5) 

(132) 

(137) 

(29)   

(2,580)   

(2,609)   

(12) 

(57) 

(69) 

(i) Provision has been made for the estimated net present cost of decommissioning gas production facilities at the end of their useful lives. The estimate has been based on 

2P reserves, price levels and technology at the balance sheet date. The payment dates of decommissioning costs are dependent on the lives of the facilities, but 
utilisation of the provision is expected to occur until the 2040s. The maturity profile of total decommissioning provisions is analysed below:

Maturity profile of decommissioning provisions

31 December 

2023-2027

2028-2032

2033-2037

2038-2042

2043-2047

2022
£m

(559) 

(795) 

(146) 

(9) 

(5) 

(1,514) 

The rate used to discount decommissioning provisions is 1% (2021: 0%). See note 3.
(ii)

Included in the provision balance as at 31 December 2022 is £1,174 million held in Spirit Energy, £324 million in relation to the Rough field, and £16 million in the 
remainder of the business. 

(iii) Primarily includes the onerous supply contract provision of £999 million (2021: £2,530 million), including £284 million recognised upon acquisition of the AvantiGas 

customer book, see notes 3 and 12. 

(iv) Other provisions have been made for dilapidations, insurance, legal, warranty and various other claims.
(v) Relates to amounts transferred between current and non-current provisions.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

175

22. Post-retirement benefits

The Group manages a number of final salary and career average defined benefit pension schemes. It also has defined 
contribution schemes. The majority of these schemes are in the UK.

(a)  Summary of main post-retirement benefit schemes

Name of scheme

Centrica Engineers

Pension Scheme

Type of benefit

Status

Country

Defined benefit final salary pension

Closed to new members in 2006 UK

Defined benefit career average pension Closed to new members in 2022 UK

Centrica Pension Plan

Defined benefit final salary pension

Closed to new members in 2003 UK

Centrica Pension Scheme

Defined benefit final salary pension

Closed to new members in 2003 UK

Defined benefit career average pension Closed to new members in 2008 UK

Defined contribution pension

Open to new members

Bord Gáis Energy Company 
Defined Benefit Pension Scheme

Defined benefit final salary pension

Closed to new members in 2014

Bord Gáis Energy Company 
Defined Contribution Pension Plan Defined contribution pension

Open to new members

UK

Republic 
of Ireland

Republic 
of Ireland

Number of
active 
members
as at
31 December
2022

Total
membership
as at
31 December
2022

1,615   

3,198   

1,471   

8,433 

7,237 

8,441 

1   

10,197 

750   

4,191 

10,243   

20,789 

94   

170 

270   

392 

The Centrica Engineers Pension Scheme (CEPS), Centrica Pension Plan (CPP) and Centrica Pension Scheme (CPS) form the significant 
majority of the Group’s defined benefit obligation and are referred to below as the ‘Registered Pension Schemes’. The other schemes are 
individually, and in aggregate, immaterial.

Independent valuations
The Registered Pension Schemes are subject to independent valuations at least every three years, on the basis of which the qualified 
actuary certifies the rate of employer contributions, which together with the specified contributions payable by the employees and 
proceeds from the schemes’ assets, are expected to be sufficient to fund the benefits payable under the schemes.

The latest full actuarial valuations agreed and finalised with the Pension Trustees were carried out at the following dates: the Registered 
Pension Schemes at 31 March 2021 and the Bord Gáis Energy Company Defined Benefit Pension Scheme at 1 January 2020. For the 
Registered Pension Schemes, the full actuarial valuation as at 31 March 2021 was agreed during the year. These valuations have been 
updated to 31 December 2022 for the purpose of meeting the requirements of IAS 19. Investments held in all schemes have been valued 
for this purpose at market value.

Governance
The Registered Pension Schemes are managed by trustee companies whose boards consist of both company-nominated and member-
nominated Directors. Each scheme holds units in the Centrica Combined Common Investment Fund (CCCIF), which holds the majority of 
the combined assets of the Registered Pension Schemes. The board of the CCCIF is currently comprised of nine directors: three 
independent directors, three directors appointed by Centrica plc (including the Chairman) and one director appointed by each of the three 
Registered Pension Schemes. 

Under the terms of the Pensions Act 2004, Centrica plc and each trustee board must agree the funding rate for its defined benefit pension 
scheme and a recovery plan to fund any deficit against the scheme-specific statutory funding objective. This approach was first adopted 
for the triennial valuations completed at 31 March 2006, and has been reflected in subsequent valuations, including the 31 March 2021 
valuation.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
176

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

22. Post-retirement benefits
(b) Risks

The Registered Pension Schemes expose the Group to the following risks:

Asset volatility
The pension liabilities are calculated using a discount rate set with reference to AA corporate bond yields. If the growth in plan assets is 
lower than this, this will create an actuarial loss within other equity. The CCCIF is responsible for managing the assets of each scheme in 
line with the risk tolerances that have been set by the trustees of the schemes, and invests in a diversified portfolio of assets. The schemes 
are relatively young in nature (the schemes’ opened in 1997 on the formation of Centrica plc on demerger from BG plc (formerly British 
Gas plc)), and only took on past service liabilities in respect of active employees. 

The trustees significantly reduced their tolerance to scheme valuation risk in 2019, increasing inflation and interest rate hedges from one 
third to two thirds, and further de-risked thereafter such that there was an 85% hedge level (in relation to assets) at 2021 year-end. This 
de-risking included the use of collateralised gilt holdings in the Schemes’ Liability-Driven Investment (LDI) portfolio (shown in the Pension 
scheme asset table in section (f) of this note within Liability matching assets).

Throughout 2022 and in particular during September, there were significant increases and volatility in gilt yields. This led to a significant fall 
in the value of assets invested in the UK Registered Pension Schemes’ Liability-Driven Investment (LDI) funds, thereby driving collateral 
calls and temporarily reducing the hedge position. All liquid credit mandates were placed into redemption with proceeds directed to the 
LDI portfolio to increase collateral and reduce leverage.

In October 2022, the Group agreed to provide the Schemes with a £400 million two-year revolving, unsecured, interest bearing credit 
facility, and a short-term £150 million loan. This money was immediately drawn down to purchase physical gilts to reduce the extent of 
interest rate and inflation risk. The short-term loan was repaid in December 2022 and the remaining £400 million credit facility is scheduled 
for repayment in 2024. At the 2022 year-end, the £400 million loan (together with unpaid interest) is recorded in Securities from a Centrica 
plc Group perspective and as a reduction to scheme assets for the UK Registered Pension Schemes.

At the 2022 year-end, the inflation and interest rate hedge level in relation to assets is around 92%. This has resulted in a reduction of 
return-seeking assets within the portfolio, as well as a higher weighting to assets that better manage downside risk. 
Interest rate 
A decrease in bond interest rates will increase the net present value of the pension liabilities. The relative immaturity of the schemes means 
that the duration of the liabilities is longer than average for typical UK pension schemes, resulting in a relatively higher exposure to interest 
rate risk. This risk is reduced via the hedging referred to in the Asset volatility section.

Inflation
Pensions in deferment, pensions in payment and pensions accrued under the career average schemes increase in line with the Retail 
Prices Index (RPI) and the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). Therefore, scheme liabilities will increase if inflation is higher than assumed, 
although in some cases caps are in place to limit the impact of significant movements in inflation. Furthermore, a pension increase 
exchange (PIE) option implemented in 2015 is available to future retirees, which gives the choice to receive a higher initial pension in return 
for giving up certain future increases linked to RPI, again limiting the impact of significant movements in inflation. Inflation risk is reduced 
via the hedging referred to in the Asset volatility section.

Longevity
The majority of the schemes’ obligations are to provide benefits for the life of scheme members and their surviving spouses; therefore 
increases in life expectancy will result in an increase in the pension liabilities. The relative immaturity of the schemes means that there is 
comparatively little observable mortality data to assess the rates of mortality experienced by the schemes, and means that the schemes’ 
liabilities will be paid over a long period of time, making it particularly difficult to predict the life expectancy of the current membership. 
Furthermore, pension payments are subject to inflationary increases, resulting in a higher sensitivity to changes in life expectancy. 
Salary 
Pension liabilities are calculated by reference to the future salaries of active members, and hence salary rises in excess of assumed 
increases will increase scheme liabilities. During 2011, changes were introduced to the final salary sections of CEPS and CPP such that 
annual increases in pensionable pay are capped to 2%, resulting in a reduction in salary risk. During 2016, a salary cap on pensionable 
pay for the CPS career average and CPP schemes was implemented, and in 2019 a similar change took place for CEPS. All of the 2011, 
2016 and 2019 changes result in a reduction in salary risk. 
Foreign exchange 
Certain assets held by the CCCIF are denominated in foreign currencies, and hence their values are subject to exchange rate risk. 

The CCCIF has long-term hedging policies in place to manage interest rate, inflation and foreign exchange risks.

The table below analyses the total liabilities of the Registered Pension Schemes, calculated in accordance with accounting principles, 
by type of liability, as at 31 December 2022.

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

177

22. Post-retirement benefits

Total liabilities of the Registered Pension Schemes

31 December 

Actives – final salary – capped

Actives – final salary – uncapped and crystallised benefits

Actives – career average

Deferred pensioners

Pensioners

(c) Accounting assumptions

The accounting assumptions for the Registered Pension Schemes are given below:

Major assumptions used for the actuarial valuation 

31 December 

Rate of increase in employee earnings:

Subject to 2% cap

Other not subject to cap

Rate of increase in pensions in payment

Rate of increase in deferred pensions:

In line with CPI capped at 2.5%

In line with RPI

Discount rate

2022
%

 11 

 5 

 4 

 38 

 42 

 100 

2022
%

2021
%

1.5   

2.9   

3.3   

2.5   

3.0   

4.7   

1.8 

2.6 

3.1 

2.4 

3.1 

1.8 

The assumptions relating to longevity underlying the pension liabilities at the balance sheet date have been based on a combination of 
standard actuarial mortality tables, scheme experience and other relevant data, and include an allowance for future improvements in 
mortality. The longevity assumptions for members in normal health are as follows:

Life expectancy at age 65 for a member

31 December 

Currently aged 65

Currently aged 45

2022

Male
Years

22.4   

23.6   

Female
Years

23.9 

25.0 

2021

Male
Years

22.5   

23.8   

Female
Years

24.0 

25.1 

The other demographic assumptions have been set having regard to the latest trends in scheme experience and other relevant data. The 
assumptions are reviewed and updated as necessary as part of the periodic actuarial valuations of the pension schemes.

For the Registered Pension Schemes, marginal adjustments to the assumptions used to calculate the pension liability, or significant swings 
in bond yields or stock markets, can have a large impact in absolute terms on the net assets of the Group. Reasonably possible changes 
as at 31 December to one of the actuarial assumptions would have affected the scheme liabilities as set out below:

Impact of changing material assumptions

2022

2021

31 December 

Rate of increase in employee earnings subject to 2% cap

Rate of increase in pensions in payment and deferred pensions

Discount rate

Inflation assumption

Longevity assumption

Increase/ 
decrease in 
assumption (i)

 1.00% 

 1.00% 

 1.00% 

 1.00% 

1 year

Indicative 
effect on 
scheme 
liabilities %

+1/-2

+14/-12

-15/+19

+15/-12

+/-2

Increase/ 
decrease in 
assumption

 0.25% 

 0.25% 

 0.25% 

 0.25% 

1 year

Indicative 
effect on 
scheme 
liabilities %

+/-0

+/-4

-/+5

+/-5

+/-4

(i) 1% has been used for sensitivity analysis this year as opposed to 0.25% in the prior year, due to the quantum of market rate movements during the year which mean it is 

considered that 1% is a more appropriate measure for 2022.

The indicative effects on scheme liabilities have been calculated by changing each assumption in isolation and assessing the impact on 
the liabilities. For the reasonably possible change in the inflation assumption, it has been assumed that a change to the inflation 
assumption would lead to corresponding changes in the assumed rates of increase in uncapped pensionable pay, pensions in payment 
and deferred pensions.

The remaining disclosures in this note cover all of the Group’s defined benefit schemes.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
178

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

22. Post-retirement benefits

(d) Amounts included in the Group Balance Sheet

31 December 

Fair value of plan assets

Present value of defined benefit obligation

Recognised in the Group Balance Sheet

Presented in the Group Balance Sheet as:

Retirement benefit assets

Retirement benefit liabilities

2022
£m

2021
£m

6,312   

10,666 

(6,272)   

(10,666) 

40   

— 

150   

(110)   

231 

(231) 

The Trust Deed and Rules for the Registered Pension Schemes provide the Group with a right to a refund of surplus assets assuming the 
full settlement of scheme liabilities. No asset ceiling restrictions have been applied in the consolidated Financial Statements.

(e) Movements in the year

1 January 

Items included in the Group Income Statement:

Current service cost
Contributions by employer in respect of employee salary sacrifice arrangements (i)

Total current service cost

Past service credit

Interest (expense)/income

Termination benefit

Items included in the Group Statement of Comprehensive Income:

Returns on plan assets, excluding interest income

Actuarial gain/(loss) from changes to demographic assumptions

Actuarial gain from changes in financial assumptions

Actuarial loss from experience adjustments

Items included in the Group Cash Flow Statement:

Employer contributions

Contributions by employer in respect of employee salary sacrifice arrangements

Other movements:

Benefits paid from schemes

Other

31 December 

2022

Pension 
liabilities
£m

(10,666) 

Pension 
assets
£m

10,666 

2021

Pension 
liabilities
£m

Pension assets
£m

(10,671) 

10,070 

(84) 

(21) 

(105) 

— 

(193) 

4 

— 

34 

4,803 

(425) 

— 

— 

278 

(2) 

— 

— 

— 

— 

196 

— 

(4,559) 

— 

— 

— 

264 

21 

(278) 

2 

(85) 

(20) 

(105) 

1 

(155) 

52 

— 

(12) 

123 

(194) 

— 

— 

297 

(2) 

— 

— 

— 

— 

150 

— 

301 

— 

— 

— 

420 

20 

(297) 

2 

(6,272) 

6,312 

(10,666) 

10,666 

(i) A salary sacrifice arrangement was introduced on 1 April 2013 for pension scheme members. The contributions paid via the salary sacrifice arrangement have been 

treated as employer contributions and included within the current service cost, with a corresponding reduction in salary costs.

In addition to current service cost on the Group’s defined benefit pension schemes, the Group also charged £66 million (2021: £61 million) 
to operating profit in respect of defined contribution pension schemes. This included contributions of £20 million (2021: £15 million) paid 
via a salary sacrifice arrangement.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

179

22. Post-retirement benefits
(f)  Pension scheme assets

The market values of plan assets were: 

31 December 

Equities

Corporate bonds

High-yield debt

Liability matching assets

Property

Cash pending investment

Loan and interest

Quoted
£m

19   

24   

106   

2,835   

—   

205   

—   

2022

Unquoted
 £m

486   

—   

1,331   

1,343   

366   

—   

(403)   

3,189   

3,123   

Total
 £m

505 

24 

1,437 

4,178 

366 

205 

(403) 

6,312 

Quoted 
£m

20   

2,393   

2,720   

1,963   

—   

85   

—   

2021

Unquoted 
£m

462   

31   

1,197   

1,356   

439   

—   

—   

Total 
£m

482 

2,424 

3,917 

3,319 

439 

85 

— 

7,181   

3,485   

10,666 

Unquoted private equity, liability matching assets and debt funds are valued at fair value as calculated by the investment manager at the 
latest valuation date in accordance with generally accepted guidelines, adjusted for cash flow in the intervening period. Investment 
properties are valued in accordance with guidelines by independent valuers. These valuations are reviewed annually as part of the CCCIF 
audit and receive greater scrutiny now that unquoted assets make up a greater proportion of the scheme portfolio. Included within equities 
are £nil of ordinary shares of Centrica plc (2021: £nil) via pooled funds that include a benchmark allocation to UK equities. Included within 
corporate bonds are £nil (2021: £nil) of bonds issued by Centrica plc, albeit minor exposure may be held within pooled funds over which 
the CCCIF has no ability to direct investment decisions. Apart from the investment in the Scottish Limited Partnerships which form part of 
the asset-backed contribution arrangements described in section (g) of this note, no direct investments are made in securities issued by 
Centrica plc or any of its subsidiaries or property leased to or owned by Centrica plc or any of its subsidiaries. The corporate bond, high-
yield debt and liability matching asset categories headings above have segregated portfolio mandates which include the cash, cash funds 
and derivatives associated with the mandates.

At 31 December 2021 the aggregate gilts portfolio, the quoted element of the Liability matching assets line, was approximately 3 times 
leveraged (1 times being unleveraged). At 31 December 2022 the aggregate gilts portfolio was significantly less exposed to collateral 
movements, at approximately 1.3 times leveraged.

Included within the Group Balance Sheet within non-current securities are £95 million (2021: £111 million) of investments, held in trust on 
behalf of the Group, as security in respect of the Centrica Unfunded Pension Scheme. Of the pension scheme liabilities above, £49 million 
(2021: £66 million) relate to this scheme. More information on the Centrica Unapproved Pension Scheme is included in the Remuneration 
Report on pages 84 to 103.

(g) Pension scheme contributions

The Group estimates that it will pay £54 million of ordinary employer contributions during 2023 for its defined benefit schemes, at an 
average rate of 21% of pensionable pay, together with £26 million of contributions paid via a salary sacrifice arrangement.

For the Registered Pension Schemes the last actuarial valuation, agreed during the year with the Pension Trustees, was as at 31 March 
2021. As at that date, the weighted average duration of the liabilities of the Registered Pension Schemes was 22 years and the technical 
provisions deficit (funding basis) was £944 million. The Group committed to additional annual cash contributions to fund this pension 
deficit. The overall deficit contributions, including the previously disclosed asset-backed contribution arrangements, totalled £175 million in 
2021 (of which £99 million was after 31 March 2021), and £204 million in 2022; and will amount to £175 million per annum from 2023 to 
2025, with a balancing payment of £127 million in 2026. Separately, a pension strain payment of £10 million associated with employee 
redundancies was also contributed in 2022 (2021: £193 million). 

On a pure roll-forward basis, from 31 March 2021, using the same methodology and consequent assumptions, the technical provisions 
deficit (funding basis) would be c.£850 million on 31 December 2022. Note that the valuation methodology and assumptions used for 
future assessments may differ from those previously used.
In previous years, the Registered Pension Schemes also held a security package over the Group’s equity shareholding in the Direct Energy 
business, amounting to £1,235 million, enforceable in the unlikely event the Group was unable to meet its obligations. In January 2021, 
as part of the Direct Energy disposal, this security package was released by the Pension Trustees. In exchange, the Group provided 
replacement security of £745 million of letters of credit and £250 million cash in escrow. 

In October 2022, as part of the £400 million loan arrangement from Centrica plc to the Registered Pension Schemes (described in part (b) 
above), this security was reduced by £545 million, so that only £450 million of letters of credit remained at the year-end. When this loan 
is repaid, replacement security may be required (dependent on the funding position) and the form of security will be at the Group’s 
discretion.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
180

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

23. Leases, commitments and contingencies
(a) Commitments and leases

Commitments are not held on the Group’s Balance Sheet as these are executory arrangements, and relate to amounts 
that we are contractually required to pay in the future as long as the other party meets its contractual obligations.

The Group’s commitments in relation to commodity purchase contracts disclosed below are stated net of amounts receivable under 
commodity sales contracts where there is a right of offset with the counterparty, and are based on the expected minimum quantities of 
gas and other commodities that the Group is contracted to buy at estimated future prices.

The commitments in this note differ in scope and in basis from the maturity analysis of energy derivatives disclosed in note S3, as only 
certain procurement and sales contracts are within the scope of IFRS 9 and included in note S3 and the volumes used in calculating the 
maturity analysis in note S3 are estimated using valuation techniques, rather than being based on minimum contractual quantities. 

The Group’s 20-year agreement with Cheniere to purchase 89bcf per annum of LNG volumes for export from the Sabine Pass liquefaction 
plant in the US commits the Group to capacity payments of £3.6 billion (included in ‘LNG capacity’ below) between 2022 and 2039. It also 
allows the Group to make up to £6.0 billion of commodity purchases based on market gas prices and foreign exchange rates as at the 
balance sheet date. 

During 2019, the Group signed a 20-year agreement to purchase LNG volumes from Mozambique LNG1 Company. The commercial start 
date is 2025 and under this agreement the Group is committed to make commodity purchases expected to amount to £8.0 billion based 
on market gas and oil prices at the reporting date.

These LNG contracts are deemed to be own use and therefore are accounted for on an accruals basis. Based on forecast gas spreads, 
they are predicted to be profitable but due to their duration are exposed over a long period of time to the impact of climate change 
governmental policy decisions.

The Group has numerous renewable power purchase arrangements where renewable obligation certificates are purchased as power is 
produced. This gives rise to the commitments below.

31 December 

Commitments in relation to the acquisition of PP&E

Commitments in relation to the acquisition of intangible assets:

Renewable obligation certificates

Other intangible assets

Other commitments:

Commodity purchase contracts

LNG capacity

Transportation capacity
Other long-term commitments (i)

(i) Other long-term commitments include amounts in respect of executory contracts and the smart meter roll-out programme.

The maturity analysis for commodity purchase contract commitments at 31 December is given below:

2022
£m

75   

2021
£m

255 

3,642   

194   

3,289 

250 

69,824   

44,443 

3,894   

3,892 

320   

459   

292 

526 

31 December 

<1 year

1–2 years

2–3 years

3–4 years

4–5 years

>5 years

Commodity purchase contract commitments

Fixed price
 commodity commitments

Commodity commitments
 that float with indices

2022
£billion

13.0   

2.3   

0.9   

0.1   

—   

0.1   

16.4   

2021
£billion

2022
£billion

2021
£billion

6.8 

1.5 

0.3 

0.1 

— 

— 

8.7 

15.4   

10.9   

7.5   

2.3   

1.8   

15.5   

53.4   

9.2 

7.3 

4.4 

3.1 

1.3 

10.4 

35.7 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

181

23. Leases, commitments and contingencies

The Group enters into lease arrangements for assets including property, vehicles, vessels and assets used within the exploration and 
production business. 

The carrying amount, additions and depreciation charge associated with right-of-use assets is disclosed in note 13 and the interest 
expense arising on the Group’s lease liability is disclosed in note 8. The total Group cash outflow in the year for capital and interest from 
lease arrangements was £107 million (2021: £203 million), and the maturity analysis of cash flows associated with the Group’s lease 
liability at the reporting date is shown in note S3. 

The table below provides further information on amounts not included in the lease liability and charged to the Group Income Statement 
during the year. 

Year ended 31 December 

Expense related to short-term leases

Expense related to variable lease payments

2022
£m

82   

9   

2021
£m

9 

26 

During the year, the Group’s expense related to short-term lease commitments predominantly related to the hire of LNG vessels and 
exploration and production drilling rigs. The commitment at the balance sheet date also relates to assets of a similar nature. The Group 
has £17 million operating sub-lease arrangements mainly for LNG vessels. The Group does not have any material arrangements in which it 
acts as a lessor.

(b) Guarantees and indemnities

This section discloses any guarantees and indemnities that the Group has given, where we may have to provide 
security in the future against existing and future obligations that will remain for a specific period.

In connection with the Group’s energy trading, transportation and upstream activities, certain Group companies have entered into 
contracts under which they may be required to prepay, provide credit support or provide other collateral in the event of a significant 
deterioration in creditworthiness. The extent of credit support is contingent upon the balance owing to the third party at the point of 
deterioration.

As at 31 December 2022, £84 million (2021: £525 million) of letters of credit and on-demand payment bonds have been issued in respect 
of decommissioning obligations included in the Group Balance Sheet. The reduction is predominantly as a result of the disposal of the 
Norwegian and Statfjord fields - see note 12. 

(c) Contingent liabilities

The Group has no material contingent liabilities.

 
 
 
182

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

24. Sources of finance
(a)  Capital structure

The Group seeks to maintain an efficient capital structure with a balance of adjusted net cash and equity as shown in the table below:

31 December 

Adjusted net cash

Shareholders’ equity

Capital

2022
£m

(1,199)   

1,017   

(182)   

2021
£m

(680) 

2,365 

1,685 

Debt levels are restricted to limit the risk of financial distress and, in particular, to maintain a strong credit profile. The Group’s credit 
standing is important for several reasons: to maintain a low cost of debt, limit collateral requirements in energy trading, hedging and 
decommissioning security arrangements, and to ensure the Group is an attractive counterparty to energy producers and long-term 
customers.

The Group monitors its current and projected capital position on a regular basis, considering a medium-term view of at least three years, 
and different stress case scenarios, including the impact of changes in the Group’s credit ratings and significant movements in commodity 
prices. A number of financial ratios are monitored, including those used by the credit rating agencies. 

The level of debt that can be raised by the Group is restricted by the Company’s Articles of Association. Borrowing is limited to the higher 
of £10 billion and a gearing ratio of three times Shareholder’s equity. The Group funds its long-term debt requirements through issuing 
bonds in the capital markets and taking bank debt. Short-term debt requirements are met primarily through commercial paper or short-
term bank borrowings. The Group maintains substantial committed facilities and uses these to provide liquidity for general corporate 
purposes, including short-term business requirements and back-up for commercial paper.

British Gas Insurance Limited (BGIL) is required to hold a minimum capital amount under PRA regulations and has complied with this 
requirement since its inception. BGIL’s capital management policy and plan are subject to review and approval by the BGIL board. 
Reporting processes provide relevant and timely capital information to management and the board. A medium-term capital management 
plan forms part of BGIL’s planning and forecasting process, embedded into approved timelines, management reviews and board 
approvals.  

The Group’s January 2023 trading update noted that the 2022 closing net cash position was expected to be above £1 billion and the 
Group’s final net position is £1,199 million at the year-end.

 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

183

24. Sources of finance
(b) Liquidity risk management and going concern

The Group has a number of treasury and risk policies to monitor and manage liquidity risk. Cash forecasts identifying the Group’s liquidity 
requirements are produced regularly and are stress tested for different scenarios, including, but not limited to, reasonably possible 
increases or decreases in commodity prices and the potential cash implications of a credit rating downgrade. The Group seeks to ensure 
that sufficient financial headroom exists for at least a 12-month period to safeguard the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern, 
and as at the reporting date, the analysis performed by the Group extends to 31 December 2024. It is the Group’s policy to maintain 
committed facilities and/or available surplus cash resources of at least £1,200 million, raise at least 75% of its gross debt (excluding 
non-recourse debt) in the capital market and to maintain an average term to maturity in the recourse long-term debt portfolio greater than 
five years. 

In response to the extremely volatile commodity market conditions witnessed during 2022, the Group proactively increased the level of 
committed credit bank facilities to ensure additional liquidity was available, if required, as the business entered the winter period.

At 31 December 2022 the Group had undrawn committed credit facilities of £3,951 million (2021: £3,006 million) and £3,687 million 
(2021: £3,875 million) of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, net of outstanding overdrafts. 82% (2021: 89%) of the Group’s gross 
debt has been raised in the long-term debt market and the average term to maturity of the long-term debt portfolio was 9.9 years 
(2021: 10.9 years). The completion of the disposal of the Direct Energy business on 5 January 2021 led to a cash receipt of $3.6 billion 
(£2.7 billion), significantly improving the Group’s adjusted net debt position. 

The Group’s liquidity is impacted by the cash posted or received under margin and collateral agreements. The terms and conditions of 
these agreements depend on the counterparty and the specific details of the transaction. Margin/collateral is generally posted or received 
to support energy trading and procurement activities. It is posted when contracts with marginable counterparties are out of the money and 
received when contracts are in the money. Cash is generally returned to the Group or by the Group within two days of trade settlement. 
At 31 December 2022 the collateral position was as follows:

31 December 

Collateral (received)/posted included within:

Trade and other payables

Trade and other receivables

Collateral posted/(received) extinguishing:

Net derivative liabilities/(assets) (i)
Net collateral posted/(received) (ii)

2022
£m

2021
£m

(601)   

(1,185) 

1,154   

888 

270   

823   

(114) 

(411) 

(i) Variation margin on daily settled derivatives results in the extinguishment of the net derivative asset/liability. These contracts remain outstanding until a future delivery 

date, and therefore the cumulative daily settlement is considered collateral until that fulfilment date.
In-year movements of net collateral posted/(received) include exchange adjustments of £61 million (2021: £4 million).

(ii)

Commodity prices were very volatile throughout 2022. During the year, the peak month-end net collateral posted (i.e. outflow) was in 
August and amounted to £1.9 billion. The Group utilises initial margin waiver facilities to help manage its liquidity and working capital 
position in relation to derivative trading. For certain types of trade, initial margin is a requirement before entering into a transaction, as it 
provides credit assurance for the exchange. As initial margin is not a liability of the Group and is refundable, it is reflected as a margin 
asset on the Group’s balance sheet. Accordingly, where counterparties waive any requirement to post initial margin, the Group has no 
liability.

The level of undrawn committed bank facilities and available cash resources has enabled the Directors to conclude that the Group has 
sufficient headroom to continue as a going concern. The statement of going concern is included in the Governance section – Other 
Statutory Information, on page 106.

 
 
 
 
 
184

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

24. Sources of finance
(c)

 Adjusted net cash/(debt) summary

Adjusted net cash/(debt) predominantly includes capital market borrowings offset by cash, securities and certain 
hedging financial instruments used to manage interest rate and foreign exchange movements on borrowings.

Presented in the derivatives and current and non-current borrowings, leases and interest accruals columns shown 
below are the assets and liabilities that give rise to financing cash flows.

Other assets and liabilities

Group adjusted net debt at 1 January 2021

(4,877) 

346  

(4,531)   

Current and 
non-current 
borrowings, 
leases and 
interest accruals
£m

Derivatives
£m

Gross debt
£m

Cash and cash 
equivalents, net 
of bank 
overdrafts (i) (ii)
£m

Disposal of business (iv)

Cash outflow from settlement and purchase of securities

Cash outflow for payment of capital element of leases

Cash outflow for repayment of borrowings (vi)

Remaining cash inflow

Revaluation

Financing interest paid

36   

—   

162   

650   

—   

122   

206   

Increase in interest payable and amortisation of borrowings  

(195)   

New lease agreements and re-measurement of existing 
lease liabilities

Exchange adjustments

Group adjusted net (debt)/cash at 31 December 2021 (iv)
Disposal of business (iv)

Net cash outflow from net purchase of securities

Cash outflow for payment of capital element of leases

Cash outflow for repayment of borrowings (vi)

Cash inflow from short term borrowings (vi)

Remaining cash inflow (iv) (v)

Revaluation/interest receivable on securities

Financing interest paid

Increase in interest payable and amortisation of borrowings  

New lease agreements and re-measurement of existing 
lease liabilities

Exchange adjustments

(28)   

25   

(3,899)   

6   

—   

103   

1,482   

(1,220)   

—   

240   

179   

(181)   

(42)   

(85)   

—   

—   

—   

(106)   

—   

(133)   

(14)   

—   

—   

—   

93   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(238)   

(8)   

—   

—   

—   

Current and 
non-current 
securities (iii)
£m

Sub-lease 
assets
£m

Adjusted 
net (debt)/
cash
£m

138   

2   

(2,998) 

(4)   

3   

—   

—   

—   

19   

—   

—   

—   

—   

156   

(21)   

398   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(11)   

—   

—   

—   

3   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

2   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(100) 

— 

— 

— 

4,010 

8 

(41) 

(195) 

(28) 

24 

680 

(45) 

— 

— 

— 

— 

796 

(9) 

(1) 

(181) 

(42) 

1 

36   

—   

162   

544   

—   

(11)   

192   

(195)   

(28)   

25   

1,393   

(132)   

(3)   

(162)   

(544)   

4,010   

—   

(233)   

—   

—   

(1)   

(3,806)   

4,328   

6   

—   

103   

(30)   

(398)   

(103)   

1,482   

(1,482)   

(1,220)   

1,220   

—   

2   

171   

(181)   

(42)   

(85)   

796   

—   

(172)   

—   

—   

83   

Group adjusted net (debt)/cash at 31 December 2022

(3,417)   

(153)   

(3,570)   

4,242   

525   

2   

1,199 

(i) Cash and cash equivalents includes £555 million (2021: £435 million) of restricted cash, of which £440 million relates to cash received from the Energy Bill Support 

Scheme. This includes cash totalling £6 million (2021: £31 million) within the Spirit Energy business that is not restricted by regulation but is managed by Spirit Energy’s 
own treasury department.

(ii) Cash and cash equivalents are net of £600 million bank overdrafts (2021: £750 million). 

(iii) Securities balances includes £403 million of loans to the pension schemes, measured at amortised cost, £67 million (2021: £83 million) other debt instruments and 

£55 million (2021: £52 million) equity instruments, both measured at fair value. See note 22 for further details on pension loans provided.

(iv) Group adjusted net cash at 31 December 2021 includes £6 million of lease liabilities and £18 million of cash and cash equivalents held for sale related to the Norwegian 

disposal group, and current and non-current securities includes £21 million related to the Driivz business held for sale at that date. Disposal of business in 2022 
represents the disposal of these items as part of the sale of these businesses, and the cash received for the sale is shown as part of remaining cash inflow. Disposal of 
business in 2021 relates to the adjusted net cash items disposed of with the sale of Direct Energy in January 2021.

(v) Remaining cash inflow includes financing cash outflows of £59 million relating to equity dividends paid (see note 9), £273 million of distributions to non-controlling 
interests (see note 12) and £43 million related to the share buyback programme. There is a liability of £207 million recognised at 31 December 2022 related to this 
programme. See note S4 for further details.

(vi) Bond repayment comprises the scheduled £36 million repayment of a 3.68% HKD bond repaid on 22 February 2022, and £246 million repayment of a 6.375% GBP bond 
repaid on 10 March 2022. During August 2022 the Group borrowed £1,200 million, which was repaid in September 2022. During December 2022 short-term borrowing of 
£20 million was obtained. See note 24(b) for collateral volatility. Bond repayment in 2021 comprises £650 million repayment of a 3% Euro bond which the Group had the 
right to repay at par on 10 April 2021 net of £106 million foreign exchange gain on the associated Euro bond derivative.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

185

(d)  Borrowings, leases and interest accruals summary

31 December 

Bank overdrafts

Bank loans (> 5 year maturity)

Other borrowings

Bonds (by maturity date):

22 February 2022

10 March 2022
16 October 2023 (i)
4 September 2026 (i)

16 April 2027
13 March 2029 (i)
5 January 2032 (ii)
19 September 2033 (i)

16 October 2043

12 September 2044

25 September 2045
10 April 2075 (i) (iii)

Obligations under lease arrangements 

Interest accruals

Coupon rate
%

Principal
m

Current
£m

Non-current
£m

2022

(600)   

—   

(20)   

—   

—   

HK$450  

£246  

US$302  

(246)   

£52  

US$70  

£552  

€50  

£770  

US$367  

£550  

US$50  

£450  

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(143)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(49)   

(58)   

(471)   

(69)   

(684)   

(299)   

(539)   

(41)   

(418)   

3.680

6.375

4.000

6.400

5.900

4.375

Zero

7.000

5.375

4.250

5.250

5.250

Total
£m

(600) 

(143) 

(20) 

— 

— 

(246) 

(49) 

(58) 

(471) 

(69) 

(684) 

(299) 

(539) 

(41) 

(418) 

2021

Current
£m

Non-current
£m

(750)   

—   

—   

(43)   

(241)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(137)   

—   

—   

—   

(228)   

(55)   

(51)   

(559)   

(63)   

(788)   

(267)   

(538)   

(36)   

(455)   

Total
£m

(750) 

(137) 

— 

(43) 

(241) 

(228) 

(55) 

(51) 

(559) 

(63) 

(788) 

(267) 

(538) 

(36) 

(455) 

(246)   

(2,628)   

(2,874) 

(88)   

(55)   

(237)   

—   

(325) 

(55) 

(284)   

(102)   

(68)   

(3,040)   

(3,324) 

(262)   

—   

(364) 

(68) 

(1,009)   

(3,008)   

(4,017) 

(1,204)   

(3,439)   

(4,643) 

(i) Bonds or portions of bonds maturing in 2023, 2026, 2029, 2033 and 2075 have been designated in a fair value hedge relationship. See note S5 for details of hedge 

relationships.

(ii) €50 million of zero coupon notes have an accrual yield of 4.2%, which will result in a €114 million repayment on maturity.
(iii) The Group has the right to repay at par on 10 April 2025 and every interest payment date thereafter.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
186

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

25. Share capital

Ordinary share capital represents the total number of shares issued which are publicly traded. We also disclose the 
number of own and treasury shares the Company holds, which the Company has bought, principally as part of share 
repurchase programmes.

Allotted and fully paid share capital of the Company

31 December 
5,907,846,138 ordinary shares of 614/81 pence each (2021: 5,881,438,431)

2022
£m

365

2021
£m

363

During the year 26 million ordinary shares were issued at an average original purchase price of 70.8 pence for employee share awards. 

The closing price of one Centrica ordinary share on 31 December 2022 was 96.5 pence (2021: 71.5 pence). Centrica employee share 
ownership trusts purchase Centrica ordinary shares from the open market and receive treasury shares to satisfy future obligations of 
certain employee share schemes. The movements in own and treasury shares during the year are shown below:

1 January 

Shares purchased

Shares issued and placed into trust

Shares released to employees on vesting
Share buyback programme (ii)
31 December (i)

Own shares (i)

Treasury shares (i)

2022
million shares

2021
million shares

2022
million shares

2021
million shares

33.8   

6.5   

8.4   

(18.3)   

—   

30.4   

59.6 

— 

— 

(25.8) 

— 

33.8 

—   

—   

—   

—   

45.7   

45.7   

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

(i) Own shares are shares held in trusts to meet employee share awards. Treasury shares are shares that have been purchased from the open market and have not been 
cancelled. The closing balance in the treasury and own share reserve of own shares was £20 million (2021: £18 million) and treasury shares was £43 million (2021: £nil).

(ii) See Note S4 for further details of the share buyback programme.

26. Events after the balance sheet date

The Group updates disclosures in light of new information being received, or a significant event occurring, in the 
period between 31 December 2022 and the date of this report.

The Directors propose a final dividend of 2.00 pence per ordinary share (totalling £118 million) for the year ended 31 December 2022. 
The dividend will be submitted for formal approval at the Annual General Meeting to be held on 13 June 2023 and, subject to approval 
will be paid on 20 July 2023 to those shareholders on the register at 9 June 2023.

The Group also announced an intention to extend the existing share buyback programme of £250 million by an additional £300 million.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Supplementary Information

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

187

Supplementary information includes additional information and disclosures we are required to make by accounting 
standards or regulation.

S1. General information
Centrica plc (the ‘Company’) is a public company limited by shares, domiciled and incorporated in the UK, and registered in England 
and Wales. The address of the registered office is Millstream, Maidenhead Road, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 5GD. The Company, together 
with its subsidiaries comprise the ‘Group’. The nature of the Group’s operations and principal activities are set out in note 4(a) and on 
pages 1 to 54.

The consolidated Financial Statements of Centrica plc are presented in pounds sterling. Operations and transactions conducted in 
currencies other than pounds sterling are included in the consolidated Financial Statements in accordance with the foreign currencies 
accounting policy set out in note S2.

S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

This section sets out the Group’s significant accounting policies in addition to the critical accounting policies applied in 
the preparation of these consolidated Financial Statements. Unless otherwise stated, these accounting policies have 
been consistently applied to the years presented.

Basis of consolidation
The Group Financial Statements consolidate the Financial Statements of the Company and entities controlled by the Company. 
Subsidiaries are all entities (including structured entities) over which the Group has control. Control is exercised over an entity when the 
Group is exposed to, or has rights to, variable returns from its involvement with the entity and has the ability to affect those returns through 
its power over the entity. Subsidiaries are fully consolidated from the date on which control is transferred to the Group. They are 
deconsolidated from the date that control ceases. Transactions with non-controlling interests that relate to their ownership interests and 
do not result in a loss of control are accounted for as equity transactions.

The results of subsidiaries acquired or disposed of during the year are consolidated from the effective date of acquisition (at which point 
the Group gains control over a business as defined by IFRS 3, and applies the acquisition method to account for the transaction as a 
business combination) or up to the effective date of disposal, as appropriate. Where necessary, adjustments are made to the financial 
statements of subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures to align the accounting policies with those used by the Group.

When the Group ceases to have control, any retained interest in the entity is re-measured to its fair value with the change in carrying 
amount recognised in profit or loss. This fair value becomes the initial carrying amount for the purposes of subsequently accounting for 
the retained interest as a joint venture, associate or financial asset.
Segmental reporting
The Group’s operating segments are reported in a manner consistent with the internal reporting provided to and regularly reviewed by 
the Group’s Executive Committee (which is the Group’s Chief Operating Decision Maker as defined by IFRS 8: ‘Operating segments’) for 
the purposes of evaluating segment performance and allocating resources.
Revenue
Energy supply to business and residential customers
The vast majority of contractual energy supply arrangements have no fixed duration, and require no minimum consumption by the 
customer. No enforceable rights and obligations exist at inception of the contract and arise only once the cooling off period is complete 
and the Group is the legal supplier of energy to the customer. The performance obligation is the supply of energy over the contractual 
term; the units of supply represent a series of distinct goods that are substantially the same with the same pattern of transfer to the 
customer. The performance obligation is considered to be satisfied as the customer consumes based on the units of energy delivered. 
This is the point at which revenue is recognised. In respect of energy supply contracts, the Group considers that it has the right to 
consideration from the customer for an amount that corresponds directly with the invoiced value delivered to the customer through their 
consumption. The Group’s assessment of the amount that it has a right to invoice includes an assessment of energy supplied to 
customers between the date of the last meter reading and the year end (known as unread revenue). Unread gas and electricity comprises 
both billed and unbilled revenue and is estimated through the billing systems, using historical consumption patterns, on a customer-by-
customer basis, taking into account weather patterns, load forecasts and the differences between actual meter readings being returned 
and system estimates. Actual meter readings continue to be compared to system estimates between the balance sheet date and the 
finalisation of the accounts. 

The Group holds a number of energy supply contracts that specify a minimum consumption volume over a specified contractual term. 
The transaction price for these contracts is the minimum supply volume multiplied by the contractually agreed price per unit of energy. 
Revenue from the sale of additional volumes is considered to be variable and not included in the transaction price. Revenue for these 
contracts continues to be recognised as invoiced.

In making disclosures under IFRS 15, the Group applies the practical expedient in paragraph 121 of IFRS 15 and therefore does not 
disclose information related to the transaction price allocated to remaining performance obligations on the basis that the Group recognises 
revenue from the satisfaction of the performance obligations within energy supply contracts in accordance with Paragraph B16. 

188

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

Energy services provided to business and residential customers
Energy services relate to the installation, repair and maintenance of central heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. 

In the UK, delivery of an item is considered a separate performance obligation to the installation of the item, both satisfied at a point in 
time. Delivery is the point at which control passes to the customer as the customer takes physical possession of the asset. It is also the 
point at which the Group has the right to consideration. Delivery and installation usually occur at the same point in time and consequently 
revenue is recognised for both performance obligations simultaneously.

Sales of LNG
Revenue arising from sales of LNG is recognised when control of the commodity passes to the counterparty, with each cargo representing 
a separate performance obligation satisfied at a point in time. 

Sales of own gas and liquid production
Revenue arising from the sale of produced gas is recognised in a manner consistent with energy supply contracts with the revenue 
recognition profile reflecting the supply of gas to the customer. 

The rights and obligations identifiable within a contract where the Group holds sellers’ nomination rights are considered to be enforceable 
from inception of the contract. The transaction price for the contract will include variable consideration based on forecast production and 
market prices. The point at which the performance obligation is satisfied and revenue recognised is the point at which control of the 
commodity passes to the customer according to the contractual trading terms, usually on shipment or delivery to a specified location. 

Energy sales to trading and energy procurement counterparties
Revenue arising from the sale of energy procured from generation asset owners to trading and energy procurement counterparties is also 
recognised in a manner consistent with energy supply contracts. There is a single performance obligation being the supply of energy over 
the contractual term at spot prices and revenue is recognised at the point at which energy is supplied to the counterparty in accordance 
with the contractual terms.

Revenue arising from contracts outside the scope of IFRS 15
Revenue from sources other than the Group’s contracts with customers is recognised in accordance with the relevant standard, 
as detailed below:

Fixed-fee service and insurance contracts: revenue from these contracts is recognised in the Group Income Statement with regard to the 
incidence of risk over the life of the contract, reflecting the seasonal propensity of claims to be made under the contracts and the benefits 
receivable by the customer, which span the life of the contract as a result of emergency maintenance being available throughout the 
contract term.

Power generation: revenue is recognised under IFRS 9 where contracts to supply power are measured at fair value. 
Cost of sales
Energy supply includes the cost of gas and electricity produced and purchased during the year for own-use contracts, taking into account 
the industry reconciliation process for total gas and total electricity usage by supplier and related transportation, distribution, royalty costs 
and bought-in materials and services.

Cost of sales relating to fixed-fee service and insurance contracts includes direct labour and related overheads on installation work, repairs 
and service contracts in the year.

Cost of sales relating to gas production includes depreciation of assets used in production of gas, royalty costs and direct labour costs.

Cost of sales within power generation businesses includes the depreciation of assets included in generating power, fuel purchase costs, 
direct labour costs and carbon emissions costs.
Re-measurement and settlement of energy contracts
Re-measurement and settlement of energy contracts includes both realised (settled) commodity sales and purchase contracts in the 
scope of IFRS 9, as well as unrealised (fair value changes) on active contracts, as detailed further in note 2.
Financing costs
Financing costs that arise in connection with the acquisition, construction or production of a qualifying asset are capitalised and 
subsequently amortised in line with the depreciation of the related asset. Financing costs not arising in connection with the acquisition, 
construction or production of a qualifying asset are expensed.

 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

189

S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

Foreign currencies
The consolidated Financial Statements are presented in pounds sterling, the functional currency of the Company and the Group’s 
presentational currency. Each entity in the Group determines its own functional currency and items included in the financial statements of 
each entity are measured using that functional currency. Transactions in foreign currencies are initially recorded in the functional currency 
of the entity at the exchange rate ruling at the date of the transaction. 

Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are retranslated to the functional currency of the relevant entity at the rate 
of exchange ruling at the balance sheet date and exchange movements included in the Group Income Statement for the period. 

Non-monetary items that are measured at historical cost in a currency other than the functional currency of the entity concerned are 
translated using the exchange rate prevailing at the dates of the initial transaction.

For the purpose of presenting consolidated Financial Statements, the assets and liabilities of the Group’s non-sterling functional currency 
subsidiary undertakings, joint ventures and associates are translated into pounds sterling at exchange rates prevailing at the balance sheet 
date. The monthly results of these (generally foreign) subsidiary undertakings, joint ventures and associates are translated into pounds 
sterling each month at the average rates of exchange for that month. The closing exchange rates, and the average of the rates used to 
translate the results of foreign operations to pounds sterling are shown below.

Exchange rate per pounds sterling (£)

US dollars

Canadian dollars

Euro

Norwegian krone

Danish krone

Closing rate at
31 December

Average rate for the year ended
31 December

2022

1.20

1.63

1.14

11.89

8.51

2021

1.35

1.71

1.19

11.93

8.85

2022

1.24

1.61

1.17

11.84

8.73

2021

1.37

1.72

1.16

11.85

8.65

Exchange adjustments arising from the retranslation of the opening net assets and results of non-sterling functional currency operations 
are transferred to the Group’s foreign currency translation reserve, a separate component of equity, and are reported in other 
comprehensive income. In the event of the disposal of a non-sterling functional currency subsidiary, the cumulative translation difference 
arising in the foreign currency translation reserve is charged or credited to the Group Income Statement on disposal. Where the Group 
utilises net investment hedging, changes in the fair value of the hedging instrument are recognised in equity and remain there until the 
disposal of the specific, related investments, at which point the gains and losses are recycled to profit or loss. The Group previously 
employed net investment hedging but ceased in 2009, with historic hedging gains and losses remaining in equity until the disposal of the 
related investment. During 2020 the Group recommenced net investment hedging in respect of the US dollar functional currency 
subsidiaries in its Direct Energy business up until the date of disposal in January 2021.
Employee share schemes
The Group operates a number of employee share schemes, detailed in the Remuneration Report on pages 84 to 86, under which it makes 
equity-settled share-based payments to certain employees. Equity-settled share-based payments are measured at fair value at the date of 
grant (excluding the effect of non-market-based vesting conditions). The fair value determined at the grant date is expensed on a straight-
line basis together with a corresponding increase in equity over the vesting period, based on the Group’s estimate of the number of 
awards that will vest, and adjusted for the effect of non-market-based vesting conditions.

The majority of the share-based payment charge arises from the Annual Incentive Plan. This scheme is applicable to senior executives, 
and senior and middle management. Shares issued under the scheme vest subject to continued employment within the Group in two 
stages (half after two years and the other half after three years). Employees leaving prior to the vesting date will normally forfeit their rights 
to unvested share awards. The fair value of the awards is measured using the market value at the date of grant.

More information is included in the Remuneration Report on pages 84 to 86.
Share buyback programme
On 10th November 2022, the Group announced an intention to undertake a share buyback of £250 million, expected to complete by 
31 May 2023. The Group entered into contracts with third parties to undertake this repurchase programme and, as at 31 December 2022, 
£43 million of shares had been purchased. The Group has recognised a financial liability on the basis that the terms and conditions of the 
contracts mean that, as at the year-end, it was unable to cancel the remaining obligation during the period to the Group’s Preliminary 
Announcement on 16 February 2023. Accordingly, the Group has recorded a financial liability of £207 million for this remaining obligation, 
in accordance with IFRS 9: ‘Financial Instruments’.

 
190

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

Business combinations and goodwill
The acquisition of subsidiaries is accounted for using the acquisition method (at the point the Group gains control over a business as 
defined by IFRS 3). The cost of the acquisition is measured as the cash paid and the aggregate of the fair values, at the date of exchange, 
of other assets transferred, liabilities incurred or assumed, and equity instruments issued by the Group in exchange for control of the 
acquiree. The consideration transferred includes the fair value of any asset or liability resulting from a contingent consideration 
arrangement at the acquisition date.

Acquisition-related costs are expensed as incurred. The identifiable assets, liabilities and contingent liabilities are recognised at their fair 
value at the acquisition date, except for non-current assets (or disposal groups) that are classified as held for sale in accordance with IFRS 
5. The Group recognises any non-controlling interests in the acquiree either at fair value or at the non-controlling interests’ proportionate 
share of the recognised amounts of the acquiree’s identifiable net assets.

Goodwill arising on a business combination represents the excess of the consideration transferred, the amount of the non-controlling 
interests and the acquisition date fair value of any previously held interest in the acquiree over the Group’s interest in the fair value of the 
identifiable net assets acquired. Goodwill arising on the acquisition of a stake in a joint venture or an associate represents the excess of 
the consideration transferred over the Group’s interest in the fair value of the identifiable assets and liabilities of the investee at the date of 
acquisition. Goodwill is initially recognised as an asset at cost and is subsequently measured at cost less any accumulated impairment 
losses. The goodwill arising on an investment in a joint venture or in an associate is not recognised separately, but is shown under 
‘Interests in joint ventures and associates’ in the Group Balance Sheet. If, after reassessment, the Group’s interest in the net fair value of 
the acquiree’s identifiable assets, liabilities and contingent liabilities exceeds the cost of the business combination, the excess is 
recognised immediately in the Group Income Statement.

Acquisitions of joint operations that meet the definition of a business as defined in IFRS 3 are accounted for as business combinations. 

On disposal of a subsidiary, associate or joint venture entity, any amount of goodwill attributed to that entity is included in the 
determination of the profit or loss on disposal. A similar accounting treatment is applied on disposal of assets that represent a business.
Other intangible assets
Intangible assets acquired separately are measured on initial recognition at cost. 

Capitalisation begins when expenditure for the asset is being incurred and activities necessary to prepare the asset for use are in progress 
and ceases when substantially all the activities that are necessary to prepare the asset for use are complete. Amortisation commences at 
the point of commercial deployment. The cost of intangible assets acquired in a business combination is their fair value as at the date of 
acquisition.

Following initial recognition, intangible assets are carried at cost less any accumulated amortisation and any accumulated impairment 
losses. Intangible assets with finite lives are amortised over their useful lives and are tested for impairment, as part of the CGU to which 
they relate where necessary, annually and whenever there is an indication that the asset could be impaired. The amortisation period and 
method for an intangible asset are reviewed at each financial year end. Changes in the expected useful life or the expected pattern of 
consumption of future economic benefits embodied in the asset are accounted for on a prospective basis by changing the amortisation 
period or method, as appropriate, and treated as changes in accounting estimates.

Intangible assets are derecognised on disposal, or when no future economic benefits are expected from their use.

Intangible assets with indefinite useful lives are not amortised but tested for impairment annually, and whenever there is an indication that 
the intangible asset could be impaired, either individually or at the CGU level. The indefinite life assessment is reviewed annually and, if not 
supportable, the change in the useful life assessment from indefinite to finite is made on a prospective basis.

The useful economic lives for the principal categories of intangible assets are as follows:

Customer relationships and other contractual assets

Strategic identifiable acquired brands

Application software

Up to 20 years

Indefinite

Up to 15 years

Strategic identifiable acquired brands are deemed to have indefinite lives where evidence suggests that the brand will generate net cash 
inflows for the Group for an indefinite period. 
Cloud computing arrangements
The Group has a number of contracts for Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) Cloud Computing Arrangements. 
These contracts permit the Group to access vendor-hosted software and platform services over the term of the arrangement. The Group 
does not control the underlying assets in these arrangements and costs are expensed as incurred.

The Group also incurs implementation costs in respect of these contracts. Implementation costs are capitalised as intangible assets where 
costs meet the definition and recognition criteria of an intangible asset under IAS 38. Such costs typically relate to software coding which 
is capable of providing benefit to the Group on a standalone basis. Other implementation costs, primarily relating to the configuration and 
customisation of the Cloud software solution, are assessed to determine whether the implementation activity relating to these costs is 
distinct from the Cloud Arrangement, in which case costs are expensed as the activity occurs. If the configuration and customisation costs 
relate to activity which is integral to the Cloud Arrangement such that the activity is received over the term of the Cloud Arrangement, 
costs are recognised as a prepayment and expensed over the term of the Cloud Arrangement.

 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

191

S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

UK & EU Emissions Trading Scheme
Purchased carbon dioxide emissions allowances are recognised initially at cost (purchase price) within intangible assets. The liability is 
measured at the cost of purchased allowances up to the level of purchased allowances held, and then at the market price of allowances 
ruling at the balance sheet date, with movements in the liability recognised in operating profit.

Forward contracts for the purchase or sale of carbon dioxide emissions allowances are measured at fair value with gains and losses 
arising from changes in fair value recognised in the Group Income Statement. The intangible asset is surrendered and the liability is 
extinguished at the end of the compliance period. No amortisation is charged up to the date of surrender as the cost and residual value 
of the intangible asset are deemed to be the same with no consumption of economic benefit.
Renewable certificates
The Group purchases renewable certificates both on a standalone basis, and through Power Purchase Agreements. The main types of 
renewable certificates acquired are Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs) which are certificates issued by Ofgem certifying that 
electricity has been produced from renewable sources, Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) which are issued to accredited 
generators for the eligible renewable electricity they generate and Guarantees of Origin (GoOs) which are the EU equivalent of REGOs. 
The Group uses renewable certificates to meet its obligations under a number of Ofgem schemes, namely the Feed-in Tariff (FIT), the 
Contracts for Difference (CFD), the Fuel Mix Disclosure (FMD) and the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme.

Purchased renewable certificates are recognised initially at cost within intangible assets as an indefinite life asset. A liability for the RO is 
recognised based on the level of electricity supplied to customers, and is calculated in accordance with percentages set by the UK 
Government and the renewable obligation certificate buyout price for that period. 

The intangible asset is surrendered and the liability is extinguished at the end of the compliance period to reflect the consumption of 
economic benefits. Any recycling benefit related to the submission of renewable obligation certificates is recognised in the Group Income 
Statement when received. The Group also recognises supplier obligations for CFD and FIT schemes; renewable certificates are used to 
offset these liabilities.

Cash flows relating to renewable obligation certificates and similar schemes are recognised within cash flows from operating activities.
Exploration, evaluation, development and production assets
The Group uses the successful efforts method of accounting for exploration and evaluation expenditure. Exploration and evaluation 
expenditures associated with an exploration well, including acquisition costs related to exploration and evaluation activities are capitalised 
initially as intangible assets. Certain expenditures such as geological and geophysical exploration costs are expensed. If the prospects are 
subsequently determined to be successful on completion of evaluation, the relevant expenditure is transferred to PP&E. If the prospects 
are subsequently determined to be unsuccessful, the associated costs are expensed in the period in which that determination is made. 

All field development costs are capitalised as PP&E. Such costs relate to the acquisition and installation of production facilities and include 
development drilling costs, project-related engineering and other technical services costs. PP&E, including rights and concessions related 
to production activities, is depreciated from the commencement of production in the fields concerned, using the unit of production 
method, based on all of the 2P reserves of those fields. Changes in these estimates are dealt with prospectively. 

The net carrying value of fields in production and development is compared annually on a field-by-field basis with the likely discounted 
future net revenues to be derived from the remaining commercial reserves. An impairment loss is recognised where it is considered that 
recorded amounts are unlikely to be fully recovered from the net present value of future net revenues. Exploration assets are reviewed 
annually for indicators of impairment and production and development assets are tested annually for impairment.
Interests in joint arrangements and associates
The Group’s joint ventures and associates (as defined in note 6) are accounted for using the equity method. 

The Group’s interests in joint operations (gas exploration and production licence arrangements) are accounted for by recognising its 
assets (including its share of assets held jointly), its liabilities (including its share of liabilities incurred jointly), its revenue from the sale of 
its share of the output arising from the joint operation, its share of the revenue from the sale of the output by the joint operation and its 
expenses (including its share of any expenses incurred jointly).

Where the Group has an equity stake or a participating interest in operations governed by a joint arrangement for which it is acting as 
operator, an assessment is carried out to confirm whether the Group is acting as agent or principal. As the terms and conditions 
negotiated between business partners usually provide joint control to the parties over the relevant activities of the gas fields that are 
governed by joint arrangements, the Group is usually deemed to be an agent when it is appointed as operator and not as principal as the 
contracts entered into presents gross liabilities and gross receivables of joint operations (including amounts due to or from non-operating 
partners) in the Group Balance Sheet in accordance with the netting rules of IAS 32: ‘Financial instruments – presentation’.
Property, plant and equipment
PP&E is included in the Group Balance Sheet at cost, less accumulated depreciation and any provisions for impairment. 

Subsequent expenditure in respect of items of PP&E, such as the replacement of major parts, major inspections or overhauls, are 
capitalised as part of the cost of the related asset where it is probable that future economic benefits will arise as a result of the expenditure 
and the cost can be reliably measured. All other subsequent expenditure is expensed as incurred.

 
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S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

Freehold land is not depreciated. Other PP&E, with the exception of upstream production assets (see above), are depreciated on a 
straight-line basis at rates sufficient to write off the cost, less estimated residual values, of individual assets over their estimated useful 
lives. The depreciation periods for the principal categories of assets are as follows:

Freehold and leasehold buildings

Plant

Equipment and vehicles

Power generation assets

Up to 50 years

5 to 20 years

3 to 10 years

Up to 30 years

The carrying values of PP&E are tested annually for impairment and are reviewed for impairment when events or changes in circumstances 
indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. Residual values and useful lives are reassessed annually and, if necessary, 
changes are accounted for prospectively.
Impairment assumptions
The Group tests the carrying amounts of goodwill, PP&E and intangible assets (with the exception of exploration assets) for impairment 
at least annually. Interests in joint ventures and associates and exploration assets are reviewed annually for indicators of impairment and 
tested for impairment where such an indicator arises. Where an asset does not generate cash flows that are independent from other 
assets, the Group estimates the recoverable amount of the CGU to which the asset belongs. The recoverable amount is the higher of 
value in use (VIU) and fair value less costs of disposal (FVLCD). 

At inception, goodwill is allocated to each of the Group’s CGUs or groups of CGUs that expect to benefit from the business combination 
in which the goodwill arose. If the recoverable amount of an asset (or CGU) is estimated to be less than its carrying amount, the carrying 
amount of the asset (or CGU) is reduced to its recoverable amount. Any impairment is expensed immediately in the Group Income 
Statement. Any CGU impairment loss is allocated first to reduce the carrying amount of any goodwill allocated to the CGU and then to the 
other assets of the CGU pro rata on the basis of the carrying amount of each asset in the CGU. 

Further information on the assumptions used in the VIU calculations and FVLCD calculations that resulted in impairment or impairment 
reversals during the year can be found at note 7.

VIU – Key assumptions used
Pre-tax cash flows used in the VIU calculations are derived from the Group’s Board-approved business plans, and assumptions specific to 
the nature and life of the asset. The Group’s business plans and assumptions are based on past experience and adjusted to reflect market 
trends, economic conditions and key risks. Commodity prices used in the planning process are based in part on observable market data 
and in part on estimates. Note S6 provides additional detail on the active period of each of the commodity markets in which the Group 
operates. 

(a) VIU – Growth rates and discount rates
Unless stated otherwise in the table below, cash flows beyond the planned period have been extrapolated using long-term growth rates in 
the market where the CGU operates. Long-term growth rates are determined using a blend of publicly available historical data and long-
term growth rate forecasts published by external analysts. Cash flows are discounted using a discount rate specific to each CGU. 
Discount rates reflect the current market assessments of the time value of money and are based on the estimated cost of capital of each 
CGU. Additionally, risks specific to the cash flows of the CGUs are reflected within cash flow forecasts. Each CGU’s weighted average 
cost of capital is then adjusted to reflect the impact of tax in order to calculate an equivalent pre-tax discount rate.

Long-term growth rates and pre-tax discount rates used in the VIU calculations for each of the Group’s CGUs are shown below.

2022

Growth rate to perpetuity (including inflation)

Pre-tax discount rate

2021

Growth rate to perpetuity (including inflation)

Pre-tax discount rate

British Gas 
Services & 
Solutions
%

British Gas 
Energy
 %

2.0

9.3

2.0

10.0

British Gas 
Services & 
Solutions
%

2.0

8.0

British Gas 
Energy
 %

2.0

8.0

Centrica 
Business 
Solutions 
Energy 
Supply 
%

2.0

11.3

Centrica 
Business 
Solutions 
Energy
Supply 
%

2.0

8.7

Centrica 
Business 
Solutions 
(turbines/
engines/
battery/solar) (i) 
%

Bord Gáis 
Energy 
%

1.9

8.1

N/A
9.3/8.0 (ii)

Centrica 
Business 
Solutions 
(turbines/
engines/
battery/solar) (i)
%

Bord Gáis 
Energy 
%

1.5

7.1

N/A
6.7/5.3 (ii)

Energy 
Marketing & 
Trading 
%

2.0

11.3

Energy 
Marketing & 
Trading 
%

2.0

8.7

Nuclear (i)
%

N/A

24.8

Nuclear (i)
%

N/A

14.7

(i) Cash flows arising after the plan period have been derived from forecasts to the end of the asset lives. Due to the nature of these finite-lived assets this provides a more 

appropriate valuation in later years.

(ii) Battery and solar discount rates respectively.

 
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193

S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

(b) VIU – Inflation rates
Inflation rates used in the business plan were based on a blend of publicly available inflation forecasts and range from 1.9% to 9.6%.

(c) Key operating assumptions by CGUs using VIU
The key operating assumptions across all CGUs are gross margin, revenues and operating costs. These assumptions are tailored to the 
specific CGU using management’s knowledge of the environment, as shown in the table below: 

Gross margin

Revenues

Operating costs

CGU

All – base 
assumptions

Energy Marketing & 
Trading

Existing customers: based on 
contractual terms.
Losses are forecast based on historic 
data and future expectations of 
the market.
New customers and renewals: based 
on gross margins achieved in the 
period leading up to the date of the 
business plan. Both adjusted for 
current market conditions and cost of 
goods inflation.
For the Services business, future sales 
and related gross margins are based 
on planned future product sales and 
contract losses based upon past 
performance and future expectations 
of the competitive environment.

Existing and new markets: 
management’s estimate of future 
trading performance.

Existing customers: based on 
contractual terms. 
Losses are forecast based on historic 
data and future expectations of 
the market.
Adjusted for: growth forecasts which 
are based on sales and marketing 
activity, recent customer acquisitions 
and the current economic environment 
in the relevant geography. 
Gas and electricity revenues based 
on forward market prices.
Market share: percentage immediately 
prior to business plan.

As above.

Centrica Business 
Solutions (turbines/
engines/battery/solar)

Based on forecast revenues, 
operations and maintenance costs, 
grid network and balancing system 
charges for the asset life.

Based on forward and contracted 
prices for commodity, capacity market 
and grid ancillary service contracts for 
the asset life.

Wages: projected headcount in line 
with expected efficiency programme. 
Salary increases based on inflation 
expectations. 
Credit losses: historical assumptions 
regarding realised cash losses have 
been updated to reflect the current 
environment.

Future development: increase in costs 
to support growth forecasts, adjusted 
for planned business process 
efficiencies.

Based on run-rate and forecast 
changes, including expected inflation 
for the asset life.

Overlift and underlift
Off-take arrangements for gas produced from joint operations are often such that it is not practical for each participant to receive or sell its 
precise share of the overall production during the period. This results in short-term imbalances between cumulative production entitlement 
and cumulative sales, referred to as overlift and underlift.

An overlift payable, or underlift receivable, is recognised at the balance sheet date within trade and other payables or trade and other 
receivables respectively, and is measured at market value, with movements in the period recognised within cost of sales. 

 
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S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

Leases
The Group assesses its contractual arrangements to determine whether they are or contain leases based on whether they convey the right 
to control the use of an identified asset for a period of time in exchange for consideration.

The Group recognises a right-of-use asset and a lease liability at the lease commencement date. The right-of-use asset is initially 
measured at cost, which comprises the initial amount of the lease liability adjusted for any lease payments made at or before the 
commencement date, plus any initial direct costs incurred and an estimate of costs to dismantle and remove the underlying asset or to 
restore the underlying asset or the site on which it is located, less any lease incentives received.

The right-of-use asset is subsequently depreciated using the straight-line method from the commencement date to the earlier of the end 
of the useful life of the right-of-use asset or the end of the lease term. The estimated useful lives of right-of-use assets are determined on 
the same basis as those of property and equipment. In addition, the right-of-use asset is periodically reduced by impairment losses, if any, 
and adjusted for certain re-measurements of the lease liability.

The lease liability is initially measured at the present value of the lease payments that are not paid at the commencement date, discounted 
using the interest rate implicit in the lease or, if that rate cannot be readily determined, the Group’s incremental borrowing rate. The 
liabilities for the majority of the Group’s lease portfolio are calculated using the incremental borrowing rate. This rate is calculated on a 
lease-by-lease basis, taking into account the credit rating of the Group at the inception of the lease and the lease term. The credit 
adjustment used in this calculation is modified to reflect the security implicit in a lease arrangement based on the specific class of asset 
being leased.

Lease payments included in the measurement of the lease liability comprise: fixed payments (including in-substance fixed payments), 
variable lease payments that depend on an index or a rate (initially measured using the index or rate as at the commencement date), 
amounts expected to be payable under a residual value guarantee, the exercise price under a purchase option that the Group is 
reasonably certain to exercise, lease payments in an optional renewal period if the Group is reasonably certain to exercise an extension 
option, and penalties for early termination of a lease unless the Group is reasonably certain not to terminate early. When considering 
whether the Group is reasonably certain to exercise extension or termination options, various factors are considered, such as the level of 
lease payments relative to the market rate, the importance of the specific asset to the Group’s operations and the period remaining until 
the option becomes exercisable. Such judgements are reconsidered when there is a significant event or change of circumstances that is 
within the control of the Group. Variable lease payments that do not depend on an index or rate are recognised in profit or loss in the 
period in which the event or condition that triggers those payments occurs.

The lease liability is subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method. It is re-measured when there is a 
change in future lease payments arising from a change in an index or rate, if there is a change in the Group's estimate of the amount 
expected to be payable under a residual value guarantee, or if the Group changes its assessment of whether it will exercise a purchase, 
lease-term extension or termination option. Cash flows reflecting payment of capital and interest on leases are shown in cash flows from 
financing activities.

When the lease liability is re-measured in this way, a corresponding adjustment is made to the carrying amount of the right-of-use of asset 
or is recorded in profit or loss if the carrying amount of the right-of-use asset has been reduced to zero.

The Group recognises the lease payments associated with short-term leases (leases expiring within twelve months from commencement) 
and leases of low value assets (underlying asset value less than £5,000) on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

The Group holds interests in a number of joint operations within its exploration and production business. The Group has applied 
judgement in identifying the customer where a lease arrangement is to be used by a jointly controlled operation.

If the leased asset is dedicated to a specific joint operation and its usage is dictated by the joint operating agreement, the joint operation 
is deemed the customer. In such instances: 

• When the Group signs a lease agreement on behalf of a joint operation and has primary responsibility for payments to the lessor, the 

Group recognises 100% of the lease liability and a right-of-use asset on its balance sheet. When the partner is obliged to reimburse the 
Group for its share of lease payments, a sub-lease receivable is recognised and an equal adjustment to the right-of-use asset is made.

• When the partner has the primary responsibility for payments to the lessor and the Group is obliged to reimburse its share of the lease 

payments, a lease liability due to the partner and equal right-of-use asset are recognised. 

If the leased asset is not dedicated to a specific joint operation or its usage is not dictated by the joint operating agreement of a joint 
operation to which it is dedicated, the signatory to the lease agreement is deemed the customer. If this is the Group, the lease liability and 
right-of-use asset are recognised in full. If it is the partner, no lease liability or right-of-use asset is recognised. 

 
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195

S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

Inventories
Inventories of finished goods are valued at the lower of cost (using weighted-average cost) or estimated net realisable value after 
allowance for redundant and slow-moving items. The cost of inventories includes the purchase price plus costs of conversion incurred in 
bringing the inventories to their present location and condition.

Inventory of gas in storage held for the purpose of the Group’s own use is measured on a weighted-average cost basis, whilst gas used 
for trading purposes is measured at fair value less any costs to sell. Changes in fair value less costs to sell are recognised in the Group 
Income Statement.
Securities
The Group holds debt and equity securities predominantly in respect of the Centrica Unfunded Pension Scheme (see note 22). Debt 
securities are required to be measured at fair value through profit or loss under IFRS 9, as the contractual terms of these assets do not 
give rise to cash flows that are solely payments of principal and interest on the principal amounts outstanding. The Group has elected to 
recognise the changes in fair value of the equity securities in other comprehensive income. The Group has also elected to recognise the 
changes in fair value of certain equity trade investments held by Centrica Innovations in other comprehensive income. Further details can 
be found in the accounting policy on financial instruments.
Government grants
Government grants are transfers of resources to the Group in return for past or future compliance with certain conditions relating to the 
operating activities of the entity. Government assistance is designed to provide an economic benefit that is specific to an entity qualifying 
under certain criteria. The Group recognises government grants only when there is reasonable assurance that the Group will comply with 
the conditions attached to them and the grant will be received. Government grants are recognised in profit and loss on a systematic basis 
over the periods in which the Group recognises as expenses the related costs for which the grants are intended to compensate. 
Government grants related to assets are deducted from the carrying amount of the asset.

In 2021 and 2022 the Group recognised a SoLR receivable in relation to amounts recoverable under the Last Resort Supplier Payment 
mechanism administered by Ofgem, a government body, which is detailed in note 1. This process allows suppliers, appointed as Supplier 
of Last Resort, to recover costs reasonably incurred in supplying affected customers. The receivable recognised reflects amounts incurred 
primarily on commodity costs up to the reporting date which are recoverable under the LRSP claim. The associated credit has been 
recognised in cost of sales and operating costs.
Decommissioning costs
A provision is made for the net present value of the estimated cost of decommissioning gas production facilities at the end of the 
producing lives of fields and power stations at the end of their useful lives, based on price levels and technology at the balance sheet date.

When this provision relates to an asset with sufficient future economic benefits, a decommissioning asset is recognised and included as 
part of the associated PP&E and depreciated accordingly. The asset is subject to impairment review as detailed above. Changes in 
estimates and discount rates are dealt with prospectively and reflected as an adjustment to the provision and corresponding 
decommissioning asset included within PP&E. The discount rate used to calculate the provision is 1% as discussed in note 3. 
The unwinding of the discount on the provision is included in the Group Income Statement within financing costs.
Non-current assets and disposal groups held for sale and discontinued operations
Non-current assets and disposal groups classified as held for sale are measured at the lower of carrying amount and fair value less costs 
of disposal. No depreciation is charged in respect of non-current assets classified as held for sale.

Non-current assets and disposal groups are classified as held for sale if their carrying amount will be recovered through a sale transaction 
rather than through continuing use. This condition is regarded as met only when the sale is highly probable, the asset or disposal group is 
available for immediate sale in its present condition and the Directors are committed to the sale which should be expected to qualify for 
recognition as a completed sale within one year from the date of classification.

The profits or losses and cash flows that relate to a major component of the Group that has been sold or is classified as held for sale 
are presented separately from continuing operations as discontinued operations within the Group Income Statement and Group Cash 
Flow Statement.
Pensions and other post-employment benefits
The Group operates a number of defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes. The cost of providing benefits under the 
defined benefit schemes is determined separately for each scheme using the projected unit credit actuarial valuation method. Actuarial 
gains and losses are recognised in the period in which they occur in other comprehensive income.

The cost of providing retirement pensions and other benefits is charged to the Group Income Statement over the periods benefitting from 
employees’ service. Past service cost is recognised immediately. Costs of administering the schemes are charged to the Group Income 
Statement. Net interest, being the change in the net defined benefit liability or asset due to the passage of time, is recognised in the Group 
Income Statement within net finance cost.

The net defined benefit liability or asset recognised in the Group Balance Sheet represents the present value of the defined benefit 
obligation of the schemes and the fair value of the schemes’ assets. The present value of the defined benefit obligation is determined by 
discounting the estimated future cash outflows using interest rates of high-quality corporate bonds that are denominated in the currency in 
which the benefits are paid, and that have terms of maturity approximating to the terms of the related pension liability.

Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are recognised in the Group Income Statement as they fall due.

 
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S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

In 2022 the Group provided a loan facility to the Group’s three defined benefit pension schemes. The Group recognised the loan as a 
financial asset under IFRS 9 ‘Financial instruments’ measured at amortised cost and classified as a receivable within securities on the 
Group’s balance sheet. The loan liability has been deducted from plan assets on the basis that the loan does not relate to employee 
benefits in accordance with IAS 19.
Provisions
Provisions are recognised when the Group has a present obligation (legal or constructive) as a result of a past event, that can be 
measured reliably, and it is probable that the Group will be required to settle that obligation. Provisions are discounted to present value 
where the effect is material.

Where discounting is used, the increase in the provision due to the passage of time is recognised in the Group Income Statement within 
interest expense. Onerous contract provisions are recognised where the unavoidable costs of meeting the obligations under a contract 
exceed the economic benefits expected to be received under it. Contracts to purchase or sell energy are reviewed on a portfolio basis 
given the fungible nature of energy, whereby it is assumed that the highest priced purchase contract supplies the highest priced sales 
contract and the lowest priced sales contract is supplied by the lowest priced purchase contract. Since 2021, the Group recognises a 
material onerous supply contract provision where the future costs to fulfil customer contracts on a current market price basis exceed the 
charges recoverable from customers because the associated hedging gains have already been recognised in the Group Income 
Statement. Further detail relating to the key assumptions and sources of estimation uncertainty are provided in note 3.
Taxation
Current tax, including UK corporation tax, UK petroleum revenue tax and foreign tax is provided at amounts expected to be paid (or 
recovered) using the tax rates and laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the balance sheet date. From time to time, 
the Group may have open tax issues with a number of revenue authorities. Where an outflow of funds is believed to be probable and a 
reliable estimate of the dispute can be made, management provides for its best estimate of the liability. These estimates take into account 
the specific circumstances of each dispute and relevant external advice as well as the rules and regulations of the relevant tax authority in 
the jurisdiction of the dispute. Often the Group is unable to predict whether an uncertain tax treatment will be accepted by the relevant 
authority. In such instances the effects of uncertainty are reflected in management’s assessment of the most likely outcome of each issue, 
as reviewed and updated on a regular basis. Each item is considered separately and on a basis that provides the better prediction of the 
outcome, unless the Group determines that it is appropriate to group certain items for consideration. See note 9 for further details on 
uncertain tax provisions. 

Deferred tax is recognised in respect of all temporary differences identified at the balance sheet date, except to the extent that the 
deferred tax arises from the initial recognition of goodwill, or the initial recognition of an asset or liability in a transaction which is not a 
business combination and at the time of the transaction affects neither accounting profit nor taxable profit and loss. Temporary differences 
are differences between the carrying amount of the Group’s assets and liabilities and their tax base. 

Deferred tax liabilities may be offset against deferred tax assets within the same taxable entity or qualifying local tax group. Any remaining 
deferred tax asset is recognised only when, on the basis of all available evidence, it can be regarded as probable that there will be suitable 
taxable profits, within the same jurisdiction, in the foreseeable future, against which the deductible temporary difference can be utilised.

Deferred tax is provided on temporary differences arising on subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates, except where the timing of the 
reversal of the temporary difference can be controlled and it is probable that the temporary difference will not reverse in the foreseeable 
future.

Deferred tax is measured at the average tax rates that are expected to apply in the periods in which the asset is realised or liability settled, 
based on tax rates and laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the balance sheet date. Measurement of deferred tax 
liabilities and assets reflects the tax consequences expected from the manner in which the asset or liability is recovered or settled.

 
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197

S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

Financial instruments 
Financial assets and financial liabilities are recognised in the Group Balance Sheet when the Group becomes a party to the contractual 
provisions of the instrument. Financial assets are derecognised when the Group no longer has the rights to cash flows, the risks and 
rewards of ownership or control of the asset. Financial liabilities are derecognised when the obligation under the liability is discharged, 
cancelled or expires.

(a) Trade receivables
Trade receivables are initially recognised at a value based on their transaction price, and are subsequently held at amortised cost using the 
effective interest method (taking into account the Group’s business model, which is to collect the contractual cash flows owing) less an 
allowance for impairment losses. Balances are written off when recoverability is assessed as being remote. If collection is expected in one 
year or less, receivables are classified as current assets. If not, they are presented as non-current assets. 

(b) Trade payables
Trade payables are initially recognised at fair value, which is usually the original invoice amount and are subsequently held at amortised 
cost using the effective interest method. If payment is due within one year or less, payables are classified as current liabilities. If not, they 
are presented as non-current liabilities.

(c) Share capital
Ordinary shares are classified as equity. Incremental costs directly attributable to the issue of new shares are shown in equity as a 
deduction from the proceeds received. Own equity instruments that are reacquired (treasury or own shares) are deducted from equity. 
No gain or loss is recognised in the Group Income Statement on the purchase, sale, issue or cancellation of the Group’s own equity 
instruments. 

(d) Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash in hand and current balances with banks and similar institutions and money market deposits, 
which are readily convertible to known amounts of cash and which are subject to insignificant risk of changes in value and have an original 
maturity of three months or less. Money market funds are also included in cash and cash equivalents, and are required to be measured at 
fair value through profit or loss under IFRS 9, as noted in section (g) below. Cash and cash equivalents are presented net of outstanding 
bank overdrafts where there is a legal right of set off and, for the Group’s cash pooling arrangements, to the extent the Group expects to 
settle its subsidiaries’ year-end account balances on a net basis.

For the purpose of the Group Cash Flow Statement, cash and cash equivalents consist of cash and cash equivalents as defined above, 
net of outstanding bank overdrafts. 

(e) Interest-bearing loans and other borrowings
All interest-bearing loans and other borrowings with banks and similar institutions are initially recognised at fair value net of directly 
attributable transaction costs. After initial recognition, interest-bearing loans and other borrowings are subsequently measured at 
amortised cost using the effective interest method, except when they are hedged items in an effective fair value hedge relationship where 
the carrying value is also adjusted to reflect the fair value movements associated with the hedged risks. Such fair value movements are 
recognised in the Group Income Statement. Amortised cost is calculated by taking into account any issue costs, discount or premium.

(f) Financial instruments at fair value through other comprehensive income
Financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income are equity instruments that the Group has elected to recognise the 
changes in fair value of in other comprehensive income. They are recognised initially at fair value in the Group Balance Sheet and are re-
measured subsequently at fair value with gains and losses arising from changes in fair value recognised directly in equity and presented in 
other comprehensive income. Dividends arising on these financial assets are recognised in the Group Income Statement.

If the Group assesses the need to recognise a loss allowance on a financial asset carried at fair value through other comprehensive 
income, the loss allowance is recognised in other comprehensive income; however, the recognition of a loss allowance does not impact 
the carrying value of the asset on the Group’s Balance Sheet.

Cumulative gains and losses on equity instruments at fair value through other comprehensive income are not recycled to the Group 
Income Statement. 

(g) Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss
The Group previously held investments in gilts which it designated at fair value through profit or loss in order to eliminate asymmetry arising 
from the measurement of an index-linked derivative. Other debt instruments and money market funds (which are classified as cash 
equivalents) are required to be measured at fair value through profit or loss under IFRS 9, as the assets are not held solely for the purpose 
of collecting contractual cash flows related to principal and interest. Both mandatory and designated instruments are measured at fair 
value on initial recognition and are re-measured to fair value in each subsequent reporting period. Gains and losses arising from changes 
in fair value are recognised in the Group Income Statement within investment income or financing costs.

 
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S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

(h) Derivative financial instruments
The Group routinely enters into sale and purchase transactions for physical delivery of gas and power. A portion of these transactions 
take the form of contracts that were entered into and continue to be held for the purpose of receipt or delivery of the physical commodity 
in accordance with the Group’s expected sale, purchase or usage requirements (‘own use’), and are not within the scope of IFRS 9. The 
assessment of whether a contract is deemed to be ‘own use’ is conducted on a Group basis without reference to underlying book 
structures, business units or legal entities.

Certain purchase and sales contracts for the physical delivery of gas and power are within the scope of IFRS 9 due to the fact that they 
net settle or contain written options. Such contracts are accounted for as derivatives under IFRS 9 and are recognised in the Group 
Balance Sheet at fair value. Gains and losses arising from changes in fair value on derivatives that do not qualify for hedge accounting are 
taken directly to the Group Income Statement for the year.

The Group uses a range of derivatives for both trading and to hedge exposures to financial risks, such as interest rates, foreign exchange 
and energy price risks, arising in the normal course of business. Where considered appropriate, the Group may use weather derivatives to 
protect against earnings volatility arising from unseasonal weather variations. The use of such derivatives did not have a material financial 
statement impact in 2022 or 2021. The use of derivative financial instruments is governed by the Group’s policies which are approved by 
the Board of Directors. Further detail on the Group’s risk management policies is included within the Strategic Report – Principal Risks and 
Uncertainties on pages 28 to 33 and in note S3.

The accounting treatment of derivatives is dependent on whether they are entered into for trading or hedging purposes. A derivative 
instrument is considered to be used for hedging purposes when it alters the risk profile of an underlying exposure of the Group in line with 
the Group’s risk management policies and is in accordance with established guidelines. Certain derivative instruments used for hedging 
purposes are designated in hedge accounting relationships as described by IAS 39 (the Group has not applied the hedge accounting 
requirements of IFRS 9). In order to qualify for hedge accounting, the effectiveness of the hedge must be reliably measurable and 
documentation describing the formal hedging relationship must be prepared at the point of designation. The hedge must be highly 
effective in achieving its objective. The Group also holds derivatives that are used for hedging purposes which are not designated in hedge 
accounting relationships and are held for trading.

All derivatives are recognised at fair value on the date on which the derivative is entered into and are re-measured to fair value at each 
reporting date. Derivatives are carried as assets when the fair value is positive and as liabilities when the fair value is negative. Derivative 
assets and derivative liabilities are offset and presented on a net basis only when there is a currently enforceable legal right of set-off, and 
the intention to net settle the derivative contracts is present. The disclosure of current and non-current derivative assets and liabilities is 
determined by the settlement date of the derivative.

The Group enters into certain energy derivative contracts covering periods for which observable market data does not exist. The fair value 
of such derivatives is estimated by reference in part to published price quotations from active markets, to the extent that such observable 
market data exists, and in part by using valuation techniques, the inputs to which include data that is not based on or derived from 
observable markets. Where the fair value at initial recognition for such contracts differs from the transaction price, a fair value gain or fair 
value loss will arise. This is referred to as a day-one gain or day-one loss. Such gains and losses are deferred (not recognised) and 
amortised to the Group Income Statement based on volumes purchased or delivered over the contractual period until such time as 
observable market data becomes available. When observable market data becomes available, any remaining deferred day-one gains or 
losses are recognised within the Group Income Statement. 

Recognition of the gains or losses resulting from changes in fair value depends on the purpose for issuing or holding the derivative. For 
derivatives that do not qualify for cash flow or net investment hedge accounting, any gains or losses arising from changes in fair value are 
taken directly to the Group Income Statement and are included within gross profit or investment income and financing costs. Where 
derivatives qualify for cash flow or net investment hedging, changes in fair value arising from the effective element of the hedge are 
recognised initially in the Group Statement of Comprehensive Income and are recycled to the Group Income Statement when the hedged 
item impacts profit or loss. Further details on the treatment of energy derivatives in the Group Income Statement is provided in note 2. 
Further detail on the treatment of derivatives in hedging relationships is provided in note S5.

Derivatives embedded in other financial instruments or other host contracts are treated as separate derivatives when their risks and 
characteristics are not closely related to those of the host contracts and the host contracts are not carried at fair value, with gains or 
losses reported in the Group Income Statement. The closely related nature of embedded derivatives is reassessed when there is a change 
in the terms of the contract that significantly modifies the future cash flows under the contract. Where a contract contains one or more 
embedded derivatives, and providing that the embedded derivative significantly modifies the cash flows under the contract, the option to 
fair value the entire contract may be taken and the contract will be recognised at fair value with changes in fair value recognised in the 
Group Income Statement. Gains and losses arising from changes in the fair value of energy derivative contracts are recognised within 
‘Re-measurement and settlement of energy contracts’ in the Group’s Results for the period under IFRS.

 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

199

S2. Summary of significant accounting policies 

(i) Hedge accounting
The Group continues to apply the hedge accounting requirements of IAS 39 and has not adopted IFRS 9 hedge accounting.

For the purposes of hedge accounting, hedges are classified as either net investment hedges, fair value hedges or cash flow hedges. 
Note S5 details the Group’s accounting policies in relation to derivatives qualifying for hedge accounting under IAS 39. 

(j) Financial guarantees
Financial guarantees are contracts that require the Group to make specified payments to reimburse the holder for a loss it incurs because 
a specified debtor fails to make payment when due in accordance with the terms of a debt instrument. The Group accounts for financial 
guarantee contracts at fair value under IFRS 9.

(k) Impairment of financial assets
In accordance with IFRS 9, the Group has applied the expected credit loss model to financial assets measured at amortised cost and to 
investments in debt instruments measured at fair value through other comprehensive income.

For trade receivables and contract assets the simplified approach is taken and the lifetime expected credit loss provided for. 

For all other in-scope financial assets at the balance sheet date either the lifetime expected credit loss or a 12-month expected credit loss 
is provided for, depending on the Group’s assessment of whether the credit risk associated with the specific asset has increased 
significantly since initial recognition. As the Group’s financial assets are predominantly short-term (less than 12 months), the impairment 
loss recognised is not materially different using either approach. Further details of the assumptions and inputs used to calculate expected 
credit losses are shown in note 17.
Nuclear activity
The Group’s investment in Lake Acquisitions Limited (‘Nuclear’) is accounted for as an associate. The following accounting policies are 
specific to this nuclear activity.

(a) Fuel costs – nuclear front end
Front-end fuel costs consist of the costs of procurement of uranium, conversion and enrichment services, and fuel element fabrication. 
All costs are capitalised into inventory and charged to the Group Income Statement in proportion to the amount of fuel burnt.

(b) Fuel costs – nuclear back end
Advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR)

Spent fuel extracted from the reactors is sent for reprocessing and/or long-term storage and eventual disposal of resulting waste 
products. Back-end fuel costs comprise of a loading-related cost per tonne of uranium and a rebate/surcharge to this cost which is 
dependent on the out-turn market electricity price and the amount of electricity generated from AGR stations in the year. These costs are 
capitalised into inventory and charged to the Group Income Statement in proportion to the amount of fuel burnt.

Pressurised water reactor (PWR)

Back-end fuel costs are based on wet storage in station ponds followed by dry storage and subsequent direct disposal of fuel. Back-end 
fuel costs are capitalised into inventory on loading and are charged to the Group Income Statement in proportion to the amount of fuel 
burnt.

(c) Nuclear PP&E – depreciation
The majority of the cost of the nuclear fleet is depreciated from the date of the Group acquiring its share of the fleet on a straight-line 
basis, with remaining depreciable periods currently of up to 33 years.

Other expenditure including amounts spent on major inspections and overhauls of production plant is depreciated over the period until the 
next outage which for AGR power stations is 2 to 3 years and for the PWR power station is 18 months.

(d) Nuclear Liabilities Fund (NLF) funding arrangements
Under the arrangements in place with the Secretary of State, the NLF will fund, subject to certain exceptions, qualifying uncontracted 
nuclear liabilities and qualifying decommissioning costs.

In part consideration for the assumption of these liabilities by the Secretary of State and the NLF, the former British Energy Group agreed 
to pay fixed decommissioning contributions each year and £150,000 (indexed to RPI) for every tonne of uranium in PWR fuel loaded into 
the Sizewell B reactor after the date of these arrangements.

(e) NLF and nuclear liabilities receivables
The UK Government indemnity is provided to indemnify any future shortfall on NLF funding of qualifying uncontracted nuclear liabilities 
(including PWR back-end fuel services) and qualifying nuclear decommissioning costs such that the receivable equals the present value of 
the associated qualifying nuclear liabilities (apart from a small timing difference due to timing of receipts from NLF).

(f) Nuclear liabilities
Nuclear liabilities represent provision for liabilities in respect of the costs of waste management of spent fuel and nuclear decommissioning.

(g) Unburnt fuels at shutdown
Due to the nature of the nuclear fuel process there will be quantities of unburnt fuel in the reactors at station closure. The costs relating to 
this unburnt fuel (final core) are fully provided for at the balance sheet date. The provision is based on a projected value per tonne of fuel 
remaining at closure, discounted back to the balance sheet date and recorded as a long-term liability.

 
200

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S3. Financial risk management 

The Group’s normal operating, investing and financing activities expose it to a variety of financial risks: market risk 
(including commodity price risk, currency risk and interest rate risk), credit risk and liquidity risk. The Group’s overall 
financial risk management processes are designed to identify, manage and mitigate these risks.

Further detail on the Group’s overall risk management processes is included within the Strategic Report – Principal Risks and 
Uncertainties on pages 28 to 33.

Commodity price risk management is carried out in accordance with individual business unit policies and directives including appropriate 
escalation routes. 

Treasury risk management, including management of currency risk, interest rate risk and liquidity risk is carried out by a central Group 
Treasury function in accordance with the Group’s financing and treasury policy, as approved by the Board.

The wholesale credit risks associated with commodity trading and treasury positions are managed in accordance with the Group’s credit 
risk policy. Downstream customer credit risk management is carried out in accordance with appropriate group-wide and individual 
business unit credit policies.
Market risk management
Market risk is the risk of loss that results from changes in market prices (commodity prices, foreign exchange rates and interest rates). The 
level of market risk to which the Group is exposed at a point in time varies depending on market conditions, expectations of future price or 
market rate movements and the composition of the Group’s physical asset and contract portfolios.

(a) Commodity price risk management
The Group is exposed to commodity price risk in its energy procurement and supply activities, production, generation and trading 
operations and uses specific limits to manage the exposure to commodity prices associated with the Group’s activities to an acceptable 
level. The Group uses Profit at Risk (PaR) limits to control exposures to market prices. These are complemented by other limits including 
Value at Risk (VaR), volumetric or stop-loss limits to control risk around trading activities.

(i) Energy price exposed business activities
The Group’s price exposed business activities consist of equity gas and liquids production, equity power generation, bilateral procurement 
and sales contracts, market-traded purchase and sales contracts and derivative positions primarily transacted with the intent of securing 
gas and power for the Group’s supply customers, from a variety of sources at an optimal cost. The Group actively manages commodity 
price risk by optimising its asset and contract portfolios and making use of volume flexibility.

The Group’s commodity price risk exposure within its business activities is driven by the cost of procuring gas and electricity to serve its 
supply customers and selling gas and electricity from its upstream production and generation, which varies with wholesale commodity 
prices. The primary risk is that market prices for commodities will fluctuate between the time that sales prices are fixed or tariffs are set 
and the time at which the corresponding procurement cost is fixed, thereby potentially reducing expected margins or making sales 
unprofitable.

The Group’s supply activities are also exposed to volumetric risk in the form of an uncertain consumption profile arising from a range of 
factors, including the weather, energy consumption changes, customer attrition and the economic climate. There is also risk associated 
with ensuring that there is sufficient commodity available to secure supply to customers. The Group’s production and generation activities 
are also exposed to volumetric risk in the form of uncertain production profiles.

In order to manage the exposure to market prices associated with the Group’s business operations the Group uses a specific set of 
risk limits (including VaR and PaR) established by the Board, and sub-delegated downwards through the delegation lines to the 
commercial leaders. 

PaR measures the estimated potential loss in a position or portfolio of positions associated with the movement of a commodity price for 
a given confidence level, over the remaining term of the position or contract. VaR measures the estimated potential loss for a given 
confidence level over a predetermined holding period. The standard confidence level used is 95%. In addition, regular stress and scenario 
tests are performed to evaluate the impact on the portfolio of possible substantial movements in commodity prices.

The Group measures and manages the commodity price risk associated with the Group’s entire energy price exposed business portfolio. 
Only certain of the Group’s energy contracts constitute financial instruments under IFRS 9 (see note S6.).

As a result, while the Group manages the commodity price risk associated with both financial and non-financial energy procurement and 
sales contracts, it is the notional value of energy contracts being carried at fair value that represents the exposure of the Group’s energy 
price exposed business activities to commodity price risk according to IFRS 7 ‘Financial Instruments: Disclosures’. This is because energy 
contracts that are financial instruments under IFRS 9 are accounted for on a fair value basis and changes in fair value immediately impact 
profit. Conversely, energy contracts that are not financial instruments under IFRS 9 are accounted for as executory contracts and changes 
in fair value do not immediately impact profit and, as such, are not exposed to commodity price risk as defined by IFRS 7. So, whilst the 
PaR or VaR associated with energy procurement and supply contracts that are outside the scope of IFRS 9 are monitored for internal risk 
management purposes, only those energy contracts within the scope of IFRS 9 are within the scope of the IFRS 7 disclosure 
requirements.

 
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201

S3. Financial risk management

(ii) Proprietary energy trading
The Group’s proprietary energy trading activities consist of physical and financial commodity purchases and sales contracts taken on with 
the intent of benefitting from changes in market prices or differences between buying and selling prices. The Group conducts its trading 
activities in the over-the-counter market and through exchanges in the UK and continental Europe. The Group is exposed to commodity 
price risk as a result of its proprietary energy trading activities because the value of its trading assets and liabilities will fluctuate with 
changes in market prices for commodities.

The Group sets volumetric and VaR limits to manage the commodity price risk exposure associated with the Group’s proprietary energy 
trading activities. VaR measures the estimated potential loss at a 95% confidence level over a one-day holding period. The carrying value 
of energy contracts used in proprietary energy trading activities at 31 December 2022 is disclosed in note 19.

As with any modelled risk measure, there are certain limitations that arise from the assumptions used in the VaR calculation. VaR assumes 
that historical price behaviours will continue in the future and that the Group’s trading positions can be unwound or hedged within the 
predetermined holding period. Furthermore, the use of a 95% confidence level, by definition, does not take into account changes in value 
that might occur beyond this confidence level.

(b) Currency risk management
The Group is exposed to currency risk on foreign currency denominated forecast transactions, firm commitments, monetary assets and 
liabilities (transactional exposure) and on its net investments in foreign operations (translational exposure). IFRS 7 only requires disclosure 
of currency risk arising on financial instruments denominated in a currency other than the functional currency of the commercial operation 
transacting. As a result, for the purposes of IFRS 7, currency risk excludes items that are not financial instruments, such as the Group’s 
net investments in international operations as well as foreign currency denominated forecast transactions and firm commitments.

(i) Transactional currency risk
The Group is exposed to transactional currency risk on transactions denominated in currencies other than the underlying functional 
currency of the commercial operation transacting. The primary functional currencies remain pounds sterling in the UK, Danish krone in 
Denmark, Euros in the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland and US Dollars in the Group’s LNG business. The risk is that the functional 
currency value of cash flows will vary as a result of movements in exchange rates. Transactional exposure arises from the Group’s energy 
procurement, production and generation activities, where many transactions are denominated in foreign currencies. In addition, in order to 
optimise the cost of funding, the Group has, in certain cases, issued foreign currency denominated debt or entered into foreign currency 
loans, primarily in US dollars, Euros and Japanese yen.

It is the Group’s policy to hedge material transactional exposures using derivatives (either applying formal hedge accounting or economic 
hedge relationships) to fix the functional currency value of non-functional currency cash flows, except where there is an economic hedge 
inherent in the transaction. At 31 December 2022, there were no material unhedged non-functional currency monetary assets or liabilities, 
firm commitments or probable forecast transactions (2021: £nil), other than transactions which have an inherent economic hedge and 
foreign currency borrowings used to hedge translational exposures.

(ii) Translational currency risk
The Group is exposed to translational currency risk as a result of its net investments in Europe. The risk is that the pounds sterling value of 
the net assets of foreign operations will decrease with changes in foreign exchange rates. The Group’s policy is to protect the pounds 
sterling book value of its net investments in foreign operations where appropriate, subject to certain parameters, by holding foreign 
currency debt, entering into foreign currency derivatives, or a mixture of both.

The Group manages translational currency risk taking into consideration the cash impact of any hedging activity as well as the risk to the 
net asset carrying values in the Group’s Financial Statements. The translation hedging programme including the potential cash impact is 
managed by the Group Treasury function and monitored by the Chief Financial Officer.

(c) Interest rate risk management
In the normal course of business the Group borrows to finance its operations. The Group is exposed to interest rate risk because the fair 
value of fixed-rate borrowings and the cash flows associated with floating rate borrowings will fluctuate with changes in interest rates. The 
Group’s policy is to manage the interest rate risk on long-term borrowings by ensuring the exposure to floating interest rates remains 
within a 30% to 70% range, including the impact of interest rate derivatives.

The return generated on the Group’s cash balance is also exposed to movements in short-term interest rates. The Group manages cash 
balances to protect against adverse changes in rates whilst retaining liquidity.

 
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S3. Financial risk management

(d) Sensitivity analysis
IFRS 7 requires disclosure of a sensitivity analysis that is intended to illustrate the sensitivity of the Group’s financial position and 
performance to changes in market variables (commodity prices, foreign exchange rates and interest rates) as a result of changes in the fair 
value or cash flows associated with the Group’s financial instruments. The sensitivity analysis provided discloses the effect on profit or loss 
and equity at 31 December 2022, assuming that a reasonably possible change in the relevant risk variable had occurred at 31 December 
2022, and has been applied to the risk exposures in existence at that date to show the effects of reasonably possible changes in price on 
profit or loss and equity. Reasonably possible changes in market variables used in the sensitivity analysis are based on implied volatilities, 
where available, or historical data for energy prices and foreign exchange rates. Reasonably possible changes in interest rates are based 
on management judgement and historical experience.

The sensitivity analysis has been prepared based on 31 December 2022 balances and on the basis that the balances, the ratio of fixed to 
floating rates of debt and derivatives, the proportion of energy contracts that are financial instruments, the proportion of financial 
instruments in foreign currencies and the hedge designations in place at 31 December 2022 are all constant. Excluded from this analysis 
are all non-financial assets and liabilities and energy contracts that are not financial instruments under IFRS 9. The sensitivity to foreign 
exchange rates relates only to monetary assets and liabilities denominated in a currency other than the functional currency of the 
commercial operation transacting, and excludes the translation of the net assets of foreign operations to pounds sterling.

The sensitivity analysis provided is hypothetical only and should be used with caution as the impacts provided are not necessarily 
indicative of the actual impacts that would be experienced. This is because the Group’s actual exposure to market rates is changing 
constantly as the Group’s portfolio of commodity, debt and foreign currency contracts changes. Changes in fair values or cash flows 
based on a variation in a market variable cannot be extrapolated because the relationship between the change in market variable and the 
change in fair value or cash flows may not be linear. In addition, the effect of a change in a particular market variable on fair values or cash 
flows is calculated without considering interrelationships between the various market rates or mitigating actions that would be taken by the 
Group. 

(i) Transactional currency risk
The Group has performed an analysis of the sensitivity of the Group’s financial position and performance to changes in foreign exchange 
rates. The Group deems 10% movements to US dollar and euro currency rates relative to pounds sterling to be reasonably possible.

The material impact of such movements on profit and equity, both before and after taxation, are as follows:

Incremental profit/(loss)

US dollar – increase/(decrease)

Euro – increase/(decrease)

All other currency sensitivities are not material. 

2022
Impact on 
profit
£m

2021
Impact 
on profit
£m

139/(180)

86/(117)

36/(38)

111/(113)

(ii) Interest rate risk
The Group has performed an analysis of the sensitivity of the Group’s financial position and performance to changes in interest rates. The 
Group deems a one percentage point move in UK, US and euro interest rates to be reasonably possible. The impact of such movements 
on profit and equity, both after taxation, is immaterial.

(iii) Commodity price risk – non proprietary
The impacts of reasonably possible changes in commodity prices on profit and equity, both after taxation, based on the assumptions set 
out above are as follows:

Energy prices

UK gas (p/therm)

European gas (p/therm)

UK power (£/MWh)

UK emissions (€/tonne)

UK oil (US$/bbl)

North American gas (US cents/therm)

2022

2021

Reasonably 
possible
change in 
variable (ii)
 %

+/-47

+/-47

+/-26

+/-7

+/-19

+/-25

Base price (i)

184

71

189

86

84

44

Reasonably  
possible 
change in  
variable (ii)
 % 

+/-58

+/-58

+/-17

+/-7

+/-7

+/-13

Base price (i)

105

103

115

82

71

34

 
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203

S3. Financial risk management

Incremental profit/(loss)

UK gas price – increase/(decrease)

UK power price – increase/(decrease)

European gas price – (decrease)/increase

Other UK energy prices (oil and emissions) – (decrease)/increase

UK and European energy prices (combined) – increase/(decrease)

North American energy prices (combined) – increase/(decrease)

2022
Impact on 
profit (ii)
£m

2021
Impact on 
profit (ii)
£m

365/(374) 1,076/(1,053)

540/(544)

(171)/171

(32)/32

201/(225)

(690)/691

(22)/22

702/(715)

565/(565)

60/(60)

34/(34)

(i) The base price represents the average forward market price over the duration of the active market curve used in the sensitivity analysis provided.
(ii) The reasonably possible change in variable and the impact on profit are calculated using both the active and inactive market curves for energy prices.

The impact on other comprehensive income of such price changes is immaterial.

(iv) Commodity price risk – proprietary trades
As at 31 December 2022 the VaR associated with proprietary trading was £5 million (2021: £13 million). This represents the statistical 
downside risk associated with the proprietary trade and associated hedging positions. The changes in the year only relate to changes in 
commodity prices. Intra-day trading positions are monitored using a live time risk management system.

The impacts of reasonably possible changes using probability-based high and low price curves applied to level 3 proprietary trades are 
as follows:

Incremental profit/(loss)
Level 3 proprietary trades – increase/(decrease) (ii)

2022
Impact on 
profit (i)
£m

2021
Impact on 
profit (i)
£m

891/(877)

562/(503)

(i) The reasonably possible change in variable and the impact on profit are calculated using both the active and inactive market curves for energy prices, see note 7(c) for 

detail on market curves.

(ii) The level 3 proprietary financial instruments’ sensitivity has been valued in Secure Environment and excludes associated hedges which would mitigate this impact. 

 
204

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S3. Financial risk management

Credit risk management
Credit risk is the risk of loss associated with a counterparty’s inability or failure to discharge its obligations under a contract. 

The Group continually reviews its rating thresholds for relevant counterparty credit limits and updates these as necessary, based on a 
consistent set of principles. It continues to operate within its limits. In respect of trading activities for both the US and Europe there is an 
effort to maintain a balance between exchange-based trading and bilateral transactions. This allows for a reasonable balance between 
counterparty credit risk and potential liquidity requirements. In addition, the Group actively manages the trade-off between credit and 
liquidity risks by optimising the use of contracts with collateral obligations and physically settled contracts without collateral obligations. 

The Group is exposed to credit risk in its treasury, trading, energy procurement and downstream activities. The maximum exposure to 
credit risk for financial instruments at fair value is equal to their carrying value. Gross amounts are shown by counterparty credit rating in 
the table below. Further details of other collateral and credit security not offset against these amounts is shown in note S6. 

Financial assets at 
amortised cost

Financial assets at fair value

2022

31 December 

AAA to AA

AA- to A-

BBB+ to BBB-

BB+ to BB-

B+ or lower
Unrated (iii)

31 December 

AAA to AA

AA- to A-

BBB+ to BBB-

BB+ to BB-

B+ or lower
Unrated (iii)

Receivables 
including 
treasury, trading 
and energy 
procurement 
counterparties (i)
£m
245   

Securities (ii)
£m
—   

Cash and 
cash 
equivalents
£m
1,046 

Cash and 
cash 
equivalents
£m
2,800   

914   

2,727   

542   

112   

4,534   

9,074   

—   

—   

—   

—   

403   

403   

798 

20 

— 

— 

— 

178   

—   

—   

—   

—   

Derivative 
financial 
instruments 
with positive 
fair values
£m
19   

1,271   

4,459   

724   

235   

719   

Securities
£m
95 

— 

— 

— 

— 

27 

1,864 

2,978   

7,427   

122 

Financial assets at 
amortised cost

Financial assets at fair value

2021

Receivables
 including
 treasury,
 trading and 
energy 
procurement 
counterparties
£m
444   

615   

1,249   

1,051   

17   

3,081   

6,457   

Securities (ii)
£m
—   

Cash and cash 
equivalents
£m
— 

Cash and cash 
equivalents
£m
3,670   

1,278 

60 

— 

— 

52 

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

Derivative
 financial 
instruments 
with positive 
fair values
£m
52   

2,128   

4,453   

629   

128   

160   

Securities
£m
111 

— 

— 

— 

— 

24 

1,390 

3,670   

7,550   

135 

(i) The Group holds a provision of £872 million (2021: £633 million) against receivables. The significant majority of this provision is held against amounts due from unrated 

counterparties. Further analysis of past due trade receivables may be found at note 17. 
(ii) Securities held at amortised cost consist of loans to the pension schemes – see note 22.
(iii) The unrated counterparty receivables primarily comprise amounts due from downstream customers, subsidiaries of rated entities, exchanges or clearing houses.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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205

S3. Financial risk management

Details of how credit risk is managed across the asset categories are provided below:

(a) Treasury, trading and energy procurement activities
Wholesale counterparty credit exposures are monitored by individual counterparty and by category of credit rating, and are subject to 
approved limits. The Group uses master netting agreements to reduce credit risk and net settles payments with counterparties where net 
settlement provisions exist (see note S6. for details of amounts offset). In addition, the Group employs a variety of other methods to 
mitigate credit risk: margining, various forms of bank and parent company guarantees and letters of credit. 

The vast majority of group credit risk associated with its treasury, trading and energy procurement activities is with counterparties in 
related energy industries or financial institutions together with smaller exposures to commodity traders and small independent renewable 
producers. The impairment considerations of IFRS 9 are applicable to financial assets arising from treasury, trading and energy 
procurement activities that are carried at amortised cost and debt instruments that are carried at fair value through other comprehensive 
income (FVOCI). Debt instruments measured at FVOCI are not material for further disclosure. 

Included in the table above within receivables including treasury, trading and energy procurement counterparties is £4,525 million (2021: 
£3,643 million) of treasury, trading and energy procurement assets. The Group’s risk assessment procedures and counterparty selection 
process ensure that the credit risk on this type of financial asset is always low at initial recognition.

Included within the table above is information about the exposure to credit risk arising from only certain of the Group’s energy 
procurement contracts – those in the scope of IFRS 9. Whilst the Group manages the credit risk associated with both financial and non-
financial energy procurement contracts, it is the carrying value of financial assets within the scope of IFRS 9 (note S6.) that represents the 
maximum exposure to credit risk in accordance with IFRS 7.

(b) Trade receivables and contract assets 
The simplified approach of measuring lifetime expected credit losses has been applied to trade receivables and contract asset balances, 
which are the focus of this disclosure. Therefore, consideration of the significance of any change in credit risk since initial recognition for 
the purpose of applying this model is not required for any material component of the receivables balance. 

In the case of business customers, credit risk is managed by checking a company’s creditworthiness and financial strength both before 
commencing trade and during the business relationship. For residential customers, creditworthiness is ascertained normally before 
commencing trade to determine the payment mechanism required to reduce credit risk to an acceptable level. Certain customers will only 
be accepted on a prepayment basis or with a security deposit. In some cases, an ageing of receivables is monitored and used to manage 
the exposure to credit risk associated with both business and residential customers. In other cases, credit risk is monitored and managed 
by grouping customers according to method of payment or profile.

Liquidity risk management and going concern
Liquidity risk is the risk that the Group is unable to meet its financial obligations as they fall due. The Group experiences significant 
movements in its liquidity position due primarily to the seasonal nature of its business and margin cash arrangements associated with 
certain wholesale commodity contracts. To mitigate this risk the Group maintains significant committed facilities and holds cash on deposit 
to ensure that there is sufficient liquidity headroom at all points in the seasonal trading cycle of the business. See note 24 for further 
information. 

 
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S3. Financial risk management

Maturity profiles
Maturities of derivative financial instruments, provisions, borrowings and leases are provided in the following tables (all amounts are 
remaining contractual undiscounted cash flows):

Due for payment 2022

Energy and interest derivatives in a loss position that will be 
settled on a net basis (i)

Gross energy procurement contracts and other derivative buy 
trades carried at fair value

Foreign exchange derivatives that will be settled on a gross 
basis:

Outflow

Inflow

Borrowings (bank loans, bonds, overdrafts and interest)

Leases: (ii)

Minimum lease payments

Capital elements of leases

Due for payment 2021

Energy and interest derivatives in a loss position that will be 
settled on a net basis (i)

Gross energy procurement contracts and other derivative buy 
trades carried at fair value

Foreign exchange derivatives that will be settled on a gross 
basis:

Outflow

Inflow

Borrowings (bank loans, bonds, overdrafts and interest)

Leases: (ii)

Minimum lease payments

Capital elements of leases

<1
year
£m

1 to 2 
years
£m

2 to 3
years
£m

3 to 4
years
£m

4 to 5
years
£m

>5
years
£m

(1,159)   

(146)   

(47)   

(28)   

(18)   

(80) 

(10,490)   

(8,525)   

(4,580)   

(67)   

(47)   

(116) 

(7,748)   

(1,244)   

8,027   

(1,016)   

1,207   

(157)   

(73)   

239   

(595)   

(12,386)   

(8,865)   

(5,056)   

(89)   

(88)   

<1
year
£m

(79)   

(69)   

1 to 2 
years
£m

(70)   

(67)   

2 to 3
years
£m

—   

20   

(185)   

(260)   

(55)   

(51)   

3 to 4
years
£m

—   

1   

(186)   

(250)   

(26)   

(24)   

4 to 5
years
£m

— 

— 

(3,575) 

(3,771) 

(29) 

(26) 

>5
years
£m

(807)   

(77)   

(22)   

(13)   

(8)   

(13) 

(6,118)   

(5,063)   

(3,342)   

(1,821)   

(42)   

(122) 

(4,068)   

4,500   

(1,141)   

(7,634)   

(103)   

(102)   

(985)   

990   

(385)   

(130)   

130   

(154)   

(22)   

22   

(592)   

(5,520)   

(3,518)   

(2,426)   

(68)   

(66)   

(59)   

(56)   

(55)   

(52)   

(3)   

1   

(182)   

(234)   

(47)   

(46)   

(54) 

96 

(3,673) 

(3,766) 

(48) 

(42) 

(i) Proprietary energy trades are excluded from this maturity analysis as the Group does not take physical delivery of volumes traded under these contracts. The associated 

cash flows are expected to be equal to the contract fair value at the balance sheet date. See note 19 for further details.

(ii) The difference between the total minimum lease payments and the total capital elements of leases is due to future finance charges.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

207

S4. Other equity 

This section summarises the Group’s other equity reserve movements.

1 January 2021

Actuarial gain

Employee share schemes:

Exercise of awards

Value of services provided

Impact of cash flow and net investment hedging

Taxation on above items

Share of other comprehensive income 
of joint ventures and associates, net of taxation

Exchange differences on translation of foreign 
operations

Exchange differences reclassified to Group Income 
Statement on disposal

Revaluation of FVOCI securities

31 December 2021

Actuarial loss

Employee share schemes:

Exercise of awards

Value of services provided

Purchase of own shares

Issue of shares

Share buyback programme:

Purchase of Treasury shares

Accrual for committed share purchases

Impact of cash flow hedging

Taxation on above items

Share of other comprehensive loss of joint ventures 
and associates, net of taxation

Exchange differences on translation of foreign 
operations

Exchange differences reclassified to Group Income 
Statement on disposal

31 December 2022

Cash flow 
hedging 
reserve
£m

Foreign 
currency 
translation 
reserve
£m

Actuarial 
gains and 
losses 
reserve
£m

Financial 
asset at 
FVOCI 
reserve
£m

Treasury 
and own 
shares 
reserve
£m

Share based 
payments 
reserve
£m

Merger, 
capital 
redemption 
and other 
reserves
£m

16   

—   

—   

—   

(7)   

1   

(198)   

(1,308)   

—   

218   

—   

—   

(49)   

9   

—   

—   

—   

(74)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(31)   

—   

13   

—   

—   

—   

79   

—   

(49)   

12   

—   

—   

527   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

Total
£m

(915) 

218 

(36) 

12 

(56) 

(64) 

—   

—   

152   

—   

—   

—   

—   

152 

—   

(46)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(46) 

—   

—   

10   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(28)   

8   

(20)   

—   

—   

—   

(304)   

(1,012)   

—   

(147)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

23   

—   

3   

3   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(18)   

—   

10   

—   

(5)   

(7)   

(43)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

42   

—   

(22)   

10   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

527   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(207)   

—   

—   

(20) 

3 

(752) 

(147) 

(12) 

10 

(5) 

(7) 

(43) 

(207) 

(28) 

31 

—   

—   

(293)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(293) 

—   

(95)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(95) 

—   

(10)   

272   

—   

(127)   

(1,429)   

—   

3   

—   

(63)   

—   

30   

—   

272 

320   

(1,276) 

Merger, capital redemption and other reserves
During February 1997, BG plc (formerly British Gas plc) demerged certain businesses (grouped together under GB Gas Holdings Limited 
(GBGH)) to form Centrica plc. Upon demerger, the share capital of GBGH was transferred to Centrica plc and was recorded at the 
nominal value of shares issued to BG plc shareholders. In accordance with the Companies Act 1985, no premium was recorded on the 
shares issued. On consolidation, the difference between the nominal value of the Company’s shares issued and the amount of share 
capital and share premium of GBGH at the date of demerger was credited to a merger reserve.

On 8 December 2017, the Group’s existing exploration and production business was combined with that of Bayerngas Norge AS to form 
the Spirit Energy business. The Group acquired 69% of the Spirit Energy business and Bayerngas Norge’s former shareholders acquired 
31%. The non-controlling interest established on acquisition has been based on its share of the carrying value of the combined business, 
with the other reserve representing the difference between the fair value and this carrying value. 

In accordance with the Companies Act, the Company has transferred to the capital redemption reserve an amount equal to the nominal 
value of shares repurchased and subsequently cancelled. Up to 31 December 2022 the cumulative nominal value of shares repurchased 
and subsequently cancelled was £28 million (2021: £28 million).

During the year, the Group recognised a financial liability of £207 million relating to the Share buyback programme. See treasury and own 
shares reserve section for more details.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
208

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S4. Other equity 

Treasury and own shares reserve
The own shares reserve reflects the cost of shares in the Group held in the Centrica employee share ownership trusts to meet the future 
requirements of the Group’s share-based payment plans.

Treasury shares are acquired equity instruments of the Company. 

Centrica’s current return of capital programme, initially approved by the Board on 9 November 2022, seeks to return up to £250 million to 
shareholders and is expected to be completed by 31 May 2023.

During the year ended 31 December 2022, the Group purchased 46 million ordinary shares, representing approximately 0.8% of the 
issued ordinary share capital at an average price of 93.7 pence per share, and an aggregate cost of £43 million under the share buyback 
programme. 

A financial liability of £207 million was recognised at 31 December 2022, representing the difference between purchases to date, and the 
maximum potential repurchase by 16 February 2023. This liability is included within the Merger, capital redemption and other reserves.
The monthly breakdown of all shares purchased and the average price paid per share (excluding expenses) for the year ended 
31 December 2022 were as follows:

Number
of shares
purchased under
share buyback
programme

16,906,393 

28,808,490 

45,714,883 

Average price paid
Pence

Total cost
£m

93.3

93.9

93.7

16

27

43

Authorised
purchases
unutilised at
month end
£m

234

207

207

Period

November 2022

December 2022

Total

S5. Hedge accounting

The Group primarily applies hedge accounting to address interest rate and foreign currency risk on borrowings. 

For the purposes of hedge accounting, hedges are classified either as fair value hedges, cash flow hedges or hedges of 
net investments in foreign operations. 

The fair values of derivatives and primary financial instruments in hedge accounting relationships at 31 December were as follows: 

31 December 

Interest rate risk

Hedge

Fair value

Foreign exchange risk

Cash flow hedge

Foreign exchange risk

Net investment hedge

2022

2021

Assets
£m

Liabilities
£m

37   

37   

—   

(221)   

(6)   

—   

Change in
fair value
£m

(228) 

(10) 

— 

Assets
£m

Liabilities
£m

67   

33   

—   

—   

(7)   

—   

Change in
fair value
£m

(95) 

(44) 

2 

2022

Interest rate risk

Hedge

Fair value

Timing of
nominal 
amount

2022-2033

Foreign exchange risk

Cash flow hedge

2032

Cash flow hedge

2036-2038

Average rate Nominal value

Fixed to 
floating
at LIBOR/US
IBOR + 1%-5%

£50 million-
£550 
million,
$250 million

Hedged item
Bonds (ii)

GBP to Euro
at 1.171

GBP to Yen
at 157.33

€50 million Euro bonds  

¥20 billion

Yen bank
loans

Cumulative
amount of 
fair value 
hedge
adjustments 
on hedged 
item
£m

Accumulated
gains/(losses) 
in equity (i)
£m

Change in
fair value
of hedged item
in year
£m

228   

158 

N/A

7 

3 

N/A  

26 

N/A  

(23) 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

209

S5. Hedge accounting

2021

Interest rate risk

Hedge

Fair value

Timing of
nominal 
amount

Average rate

Nominal value

2022-2032 Fixed to floating
at LIBOR/US
IBOR + 1%-5%

£50 million-
£550 million,
$250 million

Hedged item
Bonds (ii)

Foreign exchange risk

Cash flow hedge

2021-2032

GBP to Euro
at 1.356

€50 million,
€750 million

Euro bonds  

Foreign exchange risk

Cash flow hedge

2036-2038

Net investment
hedge/Cash flow
hedge

2021

GBP to Yen
at 145.43

GBP to USD
at 1.34

¥20 billion

$2.3 billion

Yen bank
loans

Carrying
value of net
assets of
subsidiary/
disposal
proceeds

Change in
fair value
of hedged item
in year
£m

Cumulative
amount of fair
value hedge
adjustments on
hedged item
£m

Accumulated
gains/(losses) in
equity (i)
£m

95   

(70) 

N/A

24 

14 

4 

N/A  

N/A  

N/A  

32 

(21) 

— 

In the years presented all amounts related to continuing cash flow hedge relationships.

(i)
(ii) The carrying amount of bonds designated as hedged items in hedging relationships is disclosed in note 24.

The Group’s accounting policies in relation to derivatives qualifying for hedge accounting under IAS 39 are described below.
Fair value hedges 
A derivative is designated as a hedging instrument and its relationship to a recognised asset or liability is classified as a fair value hedge 
when it hedges the exposure to changes in the fair value of that recognised asset or liability. The Group’s fair value hedges consist of 
interest rate swaps used to protect against changes in the fair value of fixed-rate, long-term debt due to movements in market interest 
rates. Any gain or loss from re-measuring the hedging instrument to fair value is recognised immediately in the Group Income Statement 
in net finance cost. Any gain or loss on the hedged item attributable to the hedged risk is adjusted against the carrying amount of the 
hedged item and recognised in the Group Income Statement within net finance cost. The Group discontinues fair value hedge accounting 
if the hedging instrument expires or is sold, terminated or exercised, the hedge no longer qualifies for hedge accounting or the Group 
revokes the designation. Any adjustment to the carrying amount of a hedged financial instrument for which the effective interest method is 
used is amortised to the Group Income Statement. Amortisation may begin as soon as an adjustment exists and begins no later than 
when the hedged item ceases to be adjusted for changes in its fair value attributable to the risk being hedged.

Impact of interest rate benchmark reform 
Phase 2 of the Interest Rate Benchmark Reform became effective on 1 January 2021. Under Phase 2, to the extent that modifications 
were made to financial instruments that were necessary to implement Interest Rate Benchmark Reform, reliefs from the discontinuation 
of hedge accounting or immediate recognition of any gains or losses in the income statement on the modification of financial instruments 
measured at amortised cost were available on transition to alternative rates, as the modification was a direct consequence of the reform 
and the new basis for calculating cash flows is economically equivalent to the previous basis.

The Group applied the International Swaps and Derivatives Associates (ISDA) fallback protocol to the derivative financial instruments held 
by the Group affected by the IBOR Reform where the interest rate benchmark was linked to GBP Libor. These instruments primarily 
comprise interest rate swap agreements designated in fair value hedge relationships. The ISDA fallback rates are derived from the Sterling 
Overnight Interbank Average (SONIA) rate and are calculated and published by Bloomberg. 

The Group amended its hedge designation to reflect changes which are required by IBOR reform to designate movements in Bloomberg 
Fallback Libor as the hedged risk and to amend the description of both the hedged item and the hedging instrument to reference the 
alternative rate. 

The Group also has interest rate swap agreements designated in fair value hedge relationships which are linked to USD Libor which is 
expected to remain in place until 2023, when it is expected to be replaced by the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR). 
Cash flow hedges 
A derivative is classified as a cash flow hedge when it hedges exposure to variability in cash flows that is attributable to a particular risk 
associated with a recognised asset, liability or a highly probable forecast transaction. The Group’s cash flow hedges consist primarily of: 

• forward foreign exchange contracts used to protect against the variability of functional currency denominated cash flows associated 

with non-functional currency denominated highly probable forecast transactions; and

• cross-currency interest rate swaps and forward foreign exchange contracts used to protect against the variability in cash flows 

associated with borrowings denominated in non-functional currencies.

 
 
 
 
210

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S5. Hedge accounting

The portion of the gain or loss on the hedging instrument which is effective is recognised directly in equity while any ineffectiveness is 
recognised in the Group Income Statement. The gains or losses that are initially recognised in the cash flow hedging reserve through other 
comprehensive income are transferred to the Group Income Statement in the period in which the hedged item affects profit or loss. Where 
the hedged item is the cost of a non-financial asset or liability, the amounts taken to equity are transferred to the initial carrying amount of 
the non-financial asset or liability on its recognition. Hedge accounting is discontinued when the hedging instrument expires or is sold, 
terminated or exercised without replacement or rollover, no longer qualifies for hedge accounting or the Group revokes the designation. 
At that point in time, any cumulative gain or loss on the hedging instrument recognised in equity remains in equity until the hedged 
transaction occurs. If the transaction is no longer expected to occur, the cumulative gain or loss recognised in equity is recognised in the 
Group Income Statement. Note S4 details movements in the cash flow hedging reserve. The ineffective portion of gains and losses on 
cash flow hedging is immaterial.
Net investment hedges
Hedges of net investments in foreign operations hedge the exposure of the sterling value of the assets of foreign currency subsidiaries in 
the consolidated Financial Statements to changes in exchange rates. Such hedges are accounted for similarly to cash flow hedges. Any 
gain or loss on the effective portion of the hedge is recognised in equity, any gain or loss on the ineffective portion of the hedge is 
recognised in the Group Income Statement. On disposal of the foreign operation, the cumulative gains or losses recognised directly in 
equity are transferred to the Group Income Statement. The Group initially ceased any net investment hedging activity in 2009. The Group 
recommenced this strategy in respect of the US dollar subsidiaries in its Direct Energy business in 2020 until its disposal in 2021. 

S6. Fair value of financial instruments

The fair value of a financial instrument is the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability 
in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. The Group has documented internal 
policies for determining fair value, including methodologies used to establish valuation adjustments required for 
credit risk.

(a)  Fair value hierarchy

Financial assets and financial liabilities measured and held at fair value are classified into one of three categories, known as hierarchy 
levels, which are defined according to the inputs used to measure fair value as follows:

• Level 1: fair value is determined using observable inputs that reflect unadjusted quoted market prices for identical assets and liabilities;

• Level 2: fair value is determined using significant inputs that may be directly observable inputs or unobservable inputs that are 

corroborated by market data; and

• Level 3: fair value is determined using significant unobservable inputs that are not corroborated by market data and may be used with 

internally developed methodologies that result in management’s best estimate of fair value.

31 December 

Financial assets

Derivative financial instruments:

Energy derivatives

Interest rate derivatives

Foreign exchange derivatives

Debt instruments

Equity instruments

Cash and cash equivalents

Total financial assets at fair value

Financial liabilities

Derivative financial instruments:

Energy derivatives

Interest rate derivatives

Foreign exchange derivatives

Total financial liabilities at fair value

2022

2021

Level 1
£m

Level 2
£m

Level 3
£m

Total
£m

Level 1
£m

Level 2
£m

Level 3
£m

Total
£m

—   

—   

—   

66   

29   

—   

95   

—   

—   

—   

—   

6,486   

592   

7,078 

37   

312   

—   

9   

2,978   

9,822   

—   

—   

1   

17   

—   

37 

312 

67 

55 

2,978 

—   

—   

—   

82   

29   

—   

6,906   

480   

7,386 

71   

93   

—   

3   

3,670   

—   

—   

1   

20   

—   

71 

93 

83 

52 

3,670 

610   

10,527 

111   

10,743   

501   

11,355 

(8,806)   

(850)   

(9,656) 

(221)   

(274)   

—   

—   

(221) 

(274) 

(9,301)   

(850)   

(10,151) 

—   

—   

—   

—   

(5,662)   

(290)   

(5,952) 

—   

(57)   

—   

—   

— 

(57) 

(5,719)   

(290)   

(6,009) 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

211

S6. Fair value of financial instruments
The reconciliation of the Level 3 fair value measurements during the year is as follows:

Level 3 financial instruments

1 January 

Disposal of Direct Energy

Total realised and unrealised gains/(losses):

Recognised in Group Income Statement

Purchases, sales, issuances and settlements (net)

Transfer to assets held for sale
Transfers from Level 2 to Level 3 (i)

Foreign exchange movements

31 December 

Total gains/(losses) for the year for Level 3 financial instruments 
held at the end of the reporting year

(i) Transfers between levels are deemed to occur at the beginning of the reporting year.

2022

Financial
 assets
£m

Financial 
liabilities
£m

2021

Financial 
assets
£m

Financial 
liabilities
£m

501   

—   

10   

(4)   

—   

101   

2   

610   

(290) 

— 

(784) 

— 

— 

224 

— 

(850) 

120   

(53)   

453   

2   

(21)   

—   

—   

501   

(129) 

20 

(181) 

— 

— 

— 

— 

(290) 

10   

(784) 

453   

(181) 

(b) Valuation techniques used to derive Level 2 and Level 3 fair values and Group valuation process 

Level 2 interest rate derivatives and foreign exchange derivatives comprise interest rate swaps and forward foreign exchange contracts. 
Interest rate swaps are fair valued using forward interest rates extracted from observable yield curves. Forward foreign exchange contracts 
are fair valued using forward exchange rates that are quoted in an active market, with the resulting market value discounted back to 
present value using observable yield curves.

Level 2 energy derivatives are fair valued by comparing and discounting the difference between the expected contractual cash flows for 
the relevant commodities and the quoted prices for those commodities in an active market. The average discount rate applied to value this 
type of contract during the year was 5% per annum (31 December 2021 average discount rate of 1% per annum).

For Level 3 energy derivatives, the main input used by the Group pertains to deriving expected future commodity prices in markets that 
are not active as far into the future as some of our contractual terms. This applies to certain contracts within Europe and North America. 
Fair values are then calculated by comparing and discounting the difference between the expected contractual cash flows and these 
derived future prices using an average discount rate of 5% (Europe) and 5% (North America) per annum (31 December 2021 average 
discount rate of 1% (Europe) and 3% (North America) per annum).

Active period of markets

UK (years)

Gas

4

Power

4

Coal

Emissions

3

3

Oil

3

Because the Level 3 energy derivative valuations involve the prediction of future commodity market prices, sometimes a long way into the 
future, reasonably possible alternative assumptions for gas, power, coal, emissions or oil prices may result in a higher or lower fair value for 
Level 3 financial instruments. The impact of reasonably possible changes in commodity prices on profit and loss are included in note S3. 
Other than commodity prices there are no other unobservable inputs which would have a material impact.

It should be noted that the fair values disclosed in the tables above only concern those contracts entered into that are within the scope of 
IFRS 9. The Group has numerous other commodity contracts that are outside of the scope of IFRS 9 and are not fair valued. The Group’s 
actual exposure to market rates is constantly changing as the Group’s portfolio of energy contracts changes. 

The Group’s valuation process includes specific teams of individuals that perform valuations of the Group’s derivatives for financial 
reporting purposes, including Level 3 valuations. The Group has an independent team that derives future commodity price curves based 
on available external data and these prices feed into the energy derivative valuations, subject to adjustments to ensure they are compliant 
with IFRS 13 ‘Fair Value Measurement’. The price curves are subject to review and approval by the Group’s Executive Committee and 
valuations of all derivatives, together with other contracts that are not within the scope of IFRS 9, are also reviewed regularly as part of the 
overall risk management process. The Group adjusts the market value of derivative instruments to account for counterparty credit risk and 
corresponding possibility of a counterparty default preventing full realisation of the risk-free market value of the derivative. The Group 
estimates Credit Valuation Adjustments by computing an expected evolution of the market value of a counterpart’s derivatives portfolio 
over the life of the contracts weighted by the probability of a default and an assumption of the market value recoverable in the event of 
a default. The default probability is calibrated to the price of Credit Default Swaps – a debt instrument reflecting the insurance premium 
payable to protect against a debtor’s default. Debit valuation adjustments are the amount added back to the derivative value to account 
for the expected gain from the Group’s own default and are calculated using a similar methodology with reference to the Group’s own 
probability of default.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
212

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S6. Fair value of financial instruments

Where the fair value at initial recognition for contracts which have significant unobservable inputs and the fair value differs from the 
transaction price, a day one gain or loss will arise. These deferred gains are presented net against respective derivative assets and 
derivative liabilities. Such gains and losses are deferred and amortised to the Group Income Statement based on volumes purchased or 
delivered over the contractual period until such time as observable market data becomes available (see note S2 for further detail). The 
amount that has yet to be recognised in the Group Income Statement relating to the differences between the transaction prices and the 
amounts that would have arisen had valuation techniques used for subsequent measurement been applied at initial recognition, less 
subsequent releases, is as follows: 

Day-one gains deferred

1 January 

Disposal of Direct Energy

Net gains deferred on transactions in the year

Net amounts recognised in Group Income Statement

Exchange differences

31 December 

2022
£m

90   

—   

401   

(195)   

8   

304   

2021
£m

64 

(45) 

70 

2 

(1) 

90 

(c) Fair value of financial assets and liabilities held at amortised cost 

The carrying value of the Group’s financial assets and liabilities measured at amortised cost are approximately equal to their fair value 
except as listed below:

31 December 

Bank loans

Bonds 

Level 1

Level 2

Carrying value
£m

2022

Fair value
£m

Fair value 
hierarchy

Carrying value
£m

(143)   

(143) 

(2,805)   

(2,840) 

(69)   

(79) 

Level 2

Level 1

Level 2

(137)   

(3,218)   

(106)   

Notes

24(d)

24(d)

24(d)

2021

Fair value
£m

(173) 

(3,947) 

(136) 

Fair value 
hierarchy

Level 2

Level 1

Level 2

Bank loans and borrowings
The fair values of bonds classified as Level 1 within the fair value hierarchy are calculated using quoted market prices. The fair values of 
Level 2 bonds and bank loans have been determined by discounting cash flows with reference to relevant market rates of interest. The fair 
values of overdrafts and short-term loans are assumed to equal their book values due to the short-term nature of these amounts.

Other financial instruments
Due to their nature and/or short-term maturity, the fair values of trade and other receivables, cash and cash equivalents, trade and other 
payables and securities held at amortised cost are estimated to approximate their carrying values.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

213

S6. Fair value of financial instruments
(d) Financial assets and liabilities subject to offsetting, master netting arrangements and similar 

arrangements

Related amounts not offset in 
the Group Balance Sheet (i)

Gross 
amounts
of recognised
financial 
instruments
£m

Gross amounts of
recognised financial
instruments offset 
in the Group
Balance Sheet
£m

Net amounts 
presented
in the Group
Balance Sheet
£m

Financial
instruments
£m

Collateral
£m

Net amount
£m

28,019   

(30,743)   

(20,592)   

7,427   

20,592   

(10,151)   

(956)   

956   

(601)   

1,154   

(2,724) 

31 December 2022

Derivative financial assets

Derivative financial liabilities

5,870 

(8,041) 

(2,171) 

4,072 

(4,749) 

4,242 

(143) 

Balances arising from commodity contracts:

Accrued and unbilled downstream and energy income  

12,751   

Accruals for commodity costs

Cash and financing arrangements:

Cash and cash equivalents

Bank loans and overdrafts

(13,428)   

4,842   

(743)   

(8,057)   

8,057   

4,694   

(5,371)   

—   

—   

4,842   

(743)   

(622)   

622   

(600)   

600   

—   

—   

—   

—   

Related amounts not offset in the 
Group Balance Sheet (i)

31 December 2021

Derivative financial assets

Derivative financial liabilities

Balances arising from commodity contracts:

Accrued and unbilled downstream and energy income  

Accruals for commodity costs

Cash and financing arrangements:

Cash and cash equivalents

Bank loans and overdrafts

Gross amounts
of recognised
financial 
instruments
£m

Gross amounts of
recognised financial
instruments offset 
in the Group
Balance Sheet
£m

Net amounts 
presented
in the Group
Balance Sheet
£m

Financial
instruments
£m

Collateral
£m

Net amount
£m

33,212   

(31,671)   

(25,662)   

25,662   

7,550   

(6,009)   

1,541 

(810)   

810   

(1,185)   

888   

8,890   

(8,905)   

5,060   

(887)   

(5,443)   

5,443   

3,447   

(3,462)   

—   

—   

5,060   

(887)   

(242)   

242   

(750)   

750   

—   

—   

—   

—   

5,555 

(4,311) 

1,244 

3,205 

(3,220) 

4,310 

(137) 

(i) The Group has arrangements in place with various counterparties in respect of commodity trades which provide for a single net settlement of all financial instruments 

covered by the arrangement in the event of default or termination, or other circumstances arising whereby either party is unable to meet its obligations. The above table 
shows the potential impact of these arrangements being enforced by offsetting the relevant amounts within each Group Balance Sheet class of asset or liability, but does 
not show the impact of offsetting across Group Balance Sheet classes where the offsetting Group Balance Sheet class is not included within the above table.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
214

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S7. Fixed-fee service and insurance contracts

This section includes fixed-fee service (FFS) and insurance contract disclosures for services related to British Gas.

FFS contracts in the UK are entered into with home services customers by British Gas Services Limited (BGSL) and with business 
customers by British Gas Services (Commercial) Limited. Insurance contracts in the UK are entered into with home services customers by 
British Gas Insurance Limited (BGIL), authorised by the PRA and regulated by the FCA and the PRA. 

Product offerings include central heating, boiler and controls, plumbing and drains and electrical appliance insurance cover. 

FFS contracts continue until either party cancels; insurance contracts normally provide cover for twelve months with the option of renewal.

The contracts that protect policyholders against the risk of breakdowns result in risk transfer to the contract provider. Benefits provided to 
customers vary in accordance with terms and conditions of the contracts entered into. However, they generally include maintenance, 
repair and/or replacement of the items affected.

The levels of risk exposure and service provision to customers under the contract terms depend on the occurrence of uncertain future 
events, particularly the nature and frequency of faults, and the cost of repair or replacement of the items affected. Accordingly, the 
timing and the amount of future cash outflows associated with the contracts is uncertain. As the Group’s insurance contract portfolio is 
comprised of a large number of contracts with small individual values, a high volume of claims with relatively low unit cost results. The 
characteristics of the business mean that material concentrations or aggregations of risk are relatively remote. The key terms and 
conditions that affect future cash flows are as follows:

• provision of labour and parts for repairs, dependent on the agreement and associated level of service;
• a specified number of safety and maintenance inspections are carried out as set out in the agreement (usually once a year);
• no limit to the number of call-outs to carry out repair work; and 
• limits on certain maintenance and repair costs. 

The most significant insurance risk is an extreme weather event for an extended period, which has the propensity to increase claim 
frequencies. The Group regularly assesses insurance risk sensitivities, the most significant relating to increases in breakdown frequency 
and increases in the average cost of repair. A reasonably possible increase in either would not have a material impact on the results of 
the Group.

Revenue is recognised over the life of contracts (usually twelve months) regarding the incidence of risk, in particular the seasonal 
propensity of claims that span the life of the contract as a result of emergency maintenance being available throughout the contract term. 
Costs incurred to settle claims represent principally the engineer workforce employed by the Group within home services and the cost of 
parts utilised in repair or maintenance. Revenue is accounted for over a 12-month period, with adjustments made to reflect the seasonality 
of workload over a given year.

Weather conditions and the seasonality of repairs both affect the profile of the workload and associated costs incurred across the year.

The risk exposure of these uncertain events is actively managed by undertaking the following risk mitigation activities:

• an initial service visit is provided to customers taking up most central heating contracts and in some instances pre-existing faults may 

lead to the contract being cancelled and no further cover being provided;

• an annual maintenance inspection is performed as part of most central heating contracts to help identify and prevent issues developing 

into significant maintenance or breakdown claims; and

• contract limits are applied to certain types of maintenance and repair work considered to be higher risk in terms of frequency and cost.

The costs of FFS claims and insurance claims incurred during the year were £2 million (2021: £3 million) and £290 million 
(2021: £293 million) respectively and are included in the table below in ‘Expenses relating to FFS and insurance contracts’. All claims are 
settled immediately and in full. Due to the short average lead time between claims occurrence and settlement, no material provisions were 
outstanding at the balance sheet date in 2022 or 2021.

31 December 

Total revenue

Expenses relating to FFS and insurance contracts

Deferred income

Accrued income

2022
£m

857  

(848)   

(39)   

29   

2021
£m

913 

(803) 

(37) 

31 

The Group also considers whether estimated future cash flows under the contracts will be sufficient to meet expected future costs. Any 
deficiency is charged immediately to the Group Income Statement. Claims frequency is sensitive to the reliability of appliances as well as 
the impact of weather conditions. The contracts are not exposed to any interest rate risk or significant credit risk and do not contain any 
embedded derivatives.

 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

215

S8. Related party transactions

The Group’s principal related party is its investment in Lake Acquisitions Limited, which owns the existing EDF UK 
nuclear fleet. The disclosures below, including comparatives, only refer to related parties that were related in the 
current reporting period.

During the year, the Group entered into the following arm’s length transactions with related parties who are not members of the Group, 
and had the following associated balances:

31 December 

Associates:

Nuclear

2022

2021

Purchase of 
goods and 
services
£m

Amounts 
owed to
£m

Purchase of 
goods and 
services
£m

Amounts 
owed to
£m

(564)   

(564)   

(102) 

(102) 

(300)   

(300)   

(40) 

(40) 

During the year, there were no material changes to commitments in relation to joint ventures and associates. 

At the balance sheet date, the Group had committed facilities to the Lake Acquisition Group totalling £120 million (2021: £120 million), 
although nothing has been drawn at 31 December 2022.

Remuneration of key management personnel

Year ended 31 December 

Short-term benefits

Post-employment benefits

Share-based payments

2022
£m

4.4   

0.1   

4.1   

8.6   

2021
£m (i)

3.5 

0.4 

1.1 

5.0 

Key management personnel comprise members of the Board and Executive Committee, a total of 11 individuals at 31 December 2022 
(2021: 10).

Remuneration of the Directors of Centrica plc

Year ended 31 December 
Total emoluments (ii)

Amounts receivable under long-term incentive schemes

Contributions into pension schemes

2022
£m

3.2   

2.3   

—   

5.5   

2021
£m (i)

2.4 

— 

0.1 

2.5 

(i)
(ii)

 2021 comparatives have been restated.
 These emoluments were paid for services performed on behalf of the Group. No emoluments related specifically to services performed for the Company. 

Directors’ interests in shares are given in the Remuneration Report on pages 84 to 95. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
216

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S9. Auditors’ remuneration

Year ended 31 December 

Fees payable to the Company’s auditors for the audit of the Company’s individual and consolidated:

Financial Statements

Audit of the Company’s subsidiaries

Total fees related to the audit of the parent and subsidiary entities

Fees payable to the Company’s auditors and its associates for other services:

Audit-related assurance services (i)
All other services (ii)

Total fees
Fees in respect of pension scheme audits (iii)

2022
£m

2021
£m

4.8   

1.7   

6.5   

0.9   

—   

7.4   

0.1   

5.0 

1.7 

6.7 

0.8 

0.9 

8.4 

0.1 

(i) Predominantly relates to the review of the condensed interim Financial Statements and the audit of the Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement.
(ii) Prior year relates to the Class 1 Circular reporting accountant work for the Spirit Energy Norway and Statfjord field disposal.
(iii) The pension scheme audit continues to be performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

During 2021, work on the divestment of Spirit Energy Norway and Statfjord field required additional other services from Deloitte in respect 
of the disposal Class 1 Circular. Approval for this expenditure was sought and received from the Audit and Risk Committee in advance of 
the work commencing.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

217

 S10. Related undertakings

The Group has a large number of related undertakings principally in the UK, US, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and 
the Republic of Ireland. These are listed below.

(a)

Subsidiary undertakings

Investments held directly by Centrica plc with 100% voting rights

31 December 2022

Centrica Beta Holdings Limited

Centrica Holdings Limited
Centrica Ireland Holdings Limited (ii)
CH4 Energy Limited (iii)
Rhodes Holdings HK Limited

Principal activity

Country of incorporation/

registered address key (i)

Class of shares held

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Holding company Republic of Ireland

B

Ordinary shares

Dormant 

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Non-trading

Hong Kong

C

Ordinary shares

Investments held indirectly by Centrica plc with 100% voting rights

31 December 2022

Accord Energy (Trading) Limited

Alertme.com GmbH

Astrum Solar, Inc.

Bord Gáis Energy Limited

Bord Gáis Energy Trustees DAC
British Gas Energy Procurement Limited (iii) (iv)

British Gas Finance Limited

British Gas Insurance Limited
British Gas Limited (iii)

British Gas New Heating Limited

Principal activity

Country of incorporation/

registered address key (i)

Class of shares held

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

In liquidation

Germany

Home and/or commercial services

United States

Energy supply and power generation Republic of Ireland

Pension trustee company Republic of Ireland

D

E

B

B

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Vehicle leasing

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Insurance provision

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Energy supply

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Electrical and gas installations

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

British Gas Services (Commercial) Limited

Servicing and installation of heating systems

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

British Gas Services Limited

British Gas Social Housing Limited
British Gas Solar Limited (iv)

British Gas Trading Limited

British Gas X Limited

Caythorpe Gas Storage Limited
CBS Energy Assets Belgium B.V. (ii)
CBS Solar Assets UK Limited (iii)

CBS US Solar Fund 1, LLC

Centrica (Lincs) Wind Farm Limited

Centrica Barry Limited
Centrica Brigg Limited (vi)

Centrica Business Holdings Inc.

Centrica Business Solutions (Generation) Limited

Centrica Business Solutions Asset Management, 
LLC

Servicing and installation of heating systems

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Home services

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Energy supply

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Gas storage

United Kingdom F

Ordinary shares

Construction of battery storage

Belgium G

Ordinary shares

Building solar farm & connecting to grid

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Distributed Energy & Power

United States

H Membership interest

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Power generation

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Construction of battery storage

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United States

I

Ordinary shares

Power generation

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Energy management products and services

United States

H Membership interest

Centrica Business Solutions B.V.

Energy management products and services

Netherlands

J

Ordinary shares

Centrica Business Solutions Belgium NV

Demand response aggregation

Belgium G

Ordinary shares

Centrica Business Solutions Canada Inc.

Energy management products and services

Centrica Business Solutions Deutschland GmbH

Demand response aggregation

Canada

Germany

K

L

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

Centrica Business Solutions France SASU

Demand response aggregation

France M

Ordinary shares

Centrica Business Solutions International Limited

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Centrica Business Solutions Ireland Limited

Energy management products and services Republic of Ireland

Centrica Business Solutions Italia Srl

Energy management products and services

Italy

B

N

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

 
218

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S10.  Related undertakings

31 December 2022

Principal activity

Country of incorporation/

registered address key (i)

Class of shares held

Centrica Business Solutions Management Limited

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Centrica Business Solutions Optimize, LLC

Energy management products and services

United States

H Membership interest

Centrica Business Solutions Romania Srl

Energy management products and services

Romania O

Ordinary shares

Centrica Business Solutions Services, Inc.

Energy management products and services

United States

H

Ordinary shares

Centrica Business Solutions UK Limited

Energy management products and services

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Centrica Business Solutions UK Optimisation 
Limited

Demand response aggregation

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Centrica Business Solutions US, Inc.

Energy management products and services

United States

Centrica Business Solutions Zrt

Energy management products and services

Hungary

H

P

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

Centrica Combined Common Investment Fund 
Limited

Centrica Directors Limited

Centrica Distributed Generation Limited

Centrica Energy (Trading) Limited

Centrica Energy Limited

Centrica Energy Marketing Limited
Centrica Energy Operations Limited (iv)

Centrica Energy Renewable Investments Limited

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Power generation

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

In liquidation

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Wholesale energy trading

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Wholesale energy trading

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Centrica Energy Trading A/S

Centrica Energy Trading GmbH

Centrica Energy Trading Pte. Ltd

Energy services and wholesale energy trading

Denmark Q

Ordinary shares

Energy services and wholesale energy trading

Energy services and wholesale energy trading

Germany

Singapore

R

S

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

Centrica Engineers Pension Trustees Limited

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Centrica Finance (Canada) Limited

Centrica Finance (Scotland) Limited

Centrica Finance (US) Limited

Centrica Finance Investments Limited

Centrica Finance Norway Limited

Centrica Gamma Holdings Limited

Centrica Hive Limited

Centrica Hive Srl

Centrica Ignite GP Limited

Centrica Ignite LP Limited

Centrica India Offshore Private Limited
Centrica Infrastructure Limited (iv)

Centrica Innovations UK Limited

Centrica Innovations US, Inc.

Centrica Insurance Company Limited

Centrica KPS Limited

Centrica Lake Limited
Centrica Leasing (KL) Limited (iv)

Centrica LNG Company Limited

Centrica LNG UK Limited

Centrica Nederland B.V.

Centrica Nigeria Limited

Centrica Nominees No.1 Limited

Centrica Offshore UK Limited

Centrica Onshore Processing UK Limited

Centrica Overseas Holdings Limited

Centrica Pension Plan Trustees Limited

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom T

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

Jersey

U

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Energy management products and services

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Energy management products and services

Italy

V

Ordinary shares

Investment company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Investment company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Business services

India W

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom T

Ordinary shares

Investment company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Investment company

United States

Insurance provision

Isle of Man

H

H

Ordinary shares

Ordinary and 
preference shares

Power generation

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

LNG Trading

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

LNG Trading

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Holding company

Netherlands

J

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom F

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom F

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Limited by guarantee

 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

219

S10.  Related undertakings

31 December 2022

Centrica Pension Trustees Limited

Centrica Production Limited

Centrica Resources (Nigeria) Limited
Centrica Resources (UK) Limited (iv)
Centrica Resources Petroleum UK Limited (iv)

Centrica Secretaries Limited

Centrica Services Limited

Centrica Storage Holdings Limited

Centrica Storage Limited

Centrica Titan Limited

Centrica Trinidad and Tobago Limited

Centrica Trust (No.1) Limited
Centrica Upstream Investment Limited (iv)
Centrica Trading Limited (iii)
CIU1 Limited (iv)

DEML Investments Limited

DER Development No. 10 Ltd.

Principal activity

Country of incorporation/

registered address key (i)

Class of shares held

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom T

Ordinary shares

Non-trading

Nigeria

X

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Business services

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom F

Ordinary shares

Gas production and processing

United Kingdom F

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Business services

Trinidad and 
Tobago

Y

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom T

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Holding company

Holding company

Canada

Canada

K

K

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

Distributed Energy Customer Solutions Limited

Energy management products and services

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dyno-Rod Limited

ECL Contracts Limited

ECL Investments Limited

Electricity Direct (UK) Limited

ENER-G Cogen International Limited

ENER-G Nagykanizsa Kft

ENER-G Power2 Limited

ENER-G Rudox, LLC

Energy For Tomorrow

GB Gas Holdings Limited

Generation Green Solar Limited
GF One Limited (v)
GF Two Limited (v)

Goldbrand Development Limited

Home Assistance UK Limited

Neas Energy Limited

Neas Invest A/S
North Sea Infrastructure Partners Limited (iv)
NSIP (Holdings) Limited (iv)

P.H Jones Group Limited

Panoramic Power Ltd.

Pioneer Shipping Limited
PRP Battery (Dyce) Limited (ii)
Solar Technologies Group Limited (iv)

South Energy Investments, LLC

Vista Solar, Inc.

Operation of a franchise network

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Energy management products and services

Hungary

P

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Energy management products and services

United States

H Membership interest

Not-for-profit energy services

United Kingdom A

Limited by guarantee

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant community benefit society

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

In liquidation

United Kingdom Z

Ordinary shares

In liquidation

United Kingdom Z

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Energy services and wholesale energy trading

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

Denmark Q

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom T

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom T

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Energy management products and services

Israel AA

Ordinary shares

LNG vessel chartering

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Non-trading

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Dormant

United Kingdom A

Ordinary shares

Investment company

United States AB Membership interest

Distributed Energy & Power

United States AC

Ordinary shares 

 
220

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S10. Related undertakings

Investments held indirectly by Centrica plc with 69% voting rights

31 December 2022

Spirit Norway Holdings AS

Spirit Energy Nederland B.V.

Spirit Energy Norway AS

Spirit Infrastructure B.V.

Principal activity

Dormant

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

Construction, ownership and exploitation of 
infrastructure

Country of incorporation/

registered address key (i)

Norway

Netherlands

Norway

Netherlands

AD

AE

AF

AE

Class of shares held

Ordinary shares

Ordinary Shares

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

Bowland Resources (No.2) Limited

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Spirit Energy Hedging Holding Limited

Spirit Energy Hedging Limited

Bowland Resources Limited

Elswick Energy Limited

Spirit Energy Limited

Dormant

Dormant

United Kingdom AG 

Ordinary shares

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary and 
deferred shares

Spirit Energy North Sea Limited

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Spirit Energy North Sea Oil Limited

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AH

Ordinary shares

Spirit Energy Production UK Limited

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Spirit Energy Resources Limited

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Spirit Energy Southern North Sea Limited

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Spirit Energy Treasury Limited

Spirit Europe Limited

Finance company

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Holding company

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Spirit North Sea Gas Limited

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AH

Ordinary shares

Spirit Norway Limited

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

Spirit Production (Services) Limited

Business services

United Kingdom AH

Ordinary shares

Spirit Resources (Armada) Limited

Gas and/or liquid exploration and production

United Kingdom AG

Ordinary shares

(i) For list of registered addresses, refer to note S10(d).
(ii)
(iii) The following name changes were made during the year:

Incorporated or acquired in 2022.

– Centrica Trading Limited to CH4 Energy Limited
– CH4 Energy Limited to Centrica Trading Limited
– British Gas Limited to British Gas Energy Procurement Limited
– British Gas Energy Procurement Limited to British Gas Limited
– Pennings Power Limited to CBS Solar Assets UK Limited

(iv) Active proposal to strike off.
(v) GF One Limited and GF Two Limited are 75% indirectly owned by Centrica plc.
(vi) Centrica Brigg Limited change of name to CBS Energy Storage Assets UK Limited as of 15 February 2023. 

 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

221

S10. Related undertakings

(b)

Subsidiary undertakings – partnerships held indirectly by Centrica plc with 100% voting rights

31 December 2022

CF 2016 LLP

CFCEPS LLP

CFCPP LLP

Direct Energy Resources Partnership

Finance Scotland 2016 Limited Partnership

Finance Scotland CEPS Limited Partnership

Finance Scotland CPP Limited Partnership

Principal activity

Country of incorporation/

registered address key (i)

Class of shares held

Group financing

United Kingdom A

Membership interest

Group financing

United Kingdom A

Membership interest

Group financing

United Kingdom A

Membership interest

Holding entity

Canada AI

Membership interest

Group financing

United Kingdom T

Membership interest

Group financing

United Kingdom T

Membership interest

Group financing

United Kingdom T

Membership interest

Ignite Social Enterprise LP

Social enterprise investment fund

United Kingdom A

Membership interest

(i) For list of registered addresses, refer to note S10(d).

The following partnerships are fully consolidated into the Group Financial Statements and the Group has taken advantage of the 
exemption (as confirmed by regulation 7 of the Partnerships (Accounts) Regulations 2008) not to prepare or file separate accounts for 
these entities:

• Finance Scotland 2016 Limited Partnership;
• Finance Scotland CEPS Limited Partnership;
• Finance Scotland CPP Limited Partnership; and
• Ignite Social Enterprise LP.

(c) 

Joint arrangements and associates

31 December 2022
Joint ventures (ii)

Allegheny Solar 1, LLC

C2 Centrica MT, LLC

Principal activity

Country of incorporation/

registered address key (i)

Class of shares held

Energy supply and/or services

United States AJ

Membership interest

Energy supply and/or services

United States AK

Membership interest

Eurowind Polska VI Sp z.o.o.

Operation of an onshore windfarm

Poland AL

Development of flexible power generation 
sites

Republic of Ireland B

Energy supply and/or services

United States AJ

Membership interest

Energy supply and/or services

United States AJ

Membership interest

Energy supply and/or services

United States AJ

Membership interest

Operation of an onshore windfarm

Denmark AM

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

Ordinary shares

Greener Ideas Limited

Three Rivers Solar 1, LLC

Three Rivers Solar 2, LLC

Three Rivers Solar 3, LLC

Vindpark Keblowo ApS
Associates (ii)

Lake Acquisitions Limited

Holding company

United Kingdom AN

Ordinary shares

20.0%

Indirect 
interest 
and voting 
rights (%)

40.0%

50.0%

50.0%

50.0%

40.0%

40.0%

40.0%

50.0%

(i) For list of registered addresses, refer to note S10(d).
(ii) Further information on the principal joint ventures and associate investments held by the Group is disclosed in notes 6 and 14.

All Group companies principally operate within their country of incorporation unless noted otherwise.

 
222

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S10. Related undertakings

(d)

 List of registered addresses

Registered 
address key

Address

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

AA

AB

AC

AD

AE

AF

AG

AH

AI

AJ

AK

AL

AM

AN

Millstream, Maidenhead Road, Windsor, SL4 5GD, United Kingdom

1 Warrington Place, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland

Level 54, Hopewell Centre, 183 Queens Road East, Hong Kong

Thomas-Wimmer-Ring 1-3, 80539, Munich, Germany

2 Wisconsin Circle #700, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, United States

Woodland House, Woodland Park, Hessle, HU13 0FA, United Kingdom

Roderveldlaan 2 bus 2, 2600 Antwerp, Belgium

3411 Silverside Road, Suite 104, Tatnall Building. Wilmington, DE 19810, United States

3411 Silverside Road, Rodney Building #104, Wilmington, DE 19810, United States

Wiegerbruinlaan 2A, 1422 CB Uithoorn, Netherlands

550 Burrard Street, Suite 2900, Vancouver BC V6C 0A3, Canada

Neuer Wall 10, 20354 Hamburg, Germany

60 Avenue Charles de Gaulle, Cs 60016, 92573, Neuilly sur Seine Cedex, France

Milan (MI), Via Emilio Cornalia 26, Italy

Strada Martir Colonel loan Uţă nr.28 camera 1, Municipiul Timisoara judet Timis, Romania

H-1106 Budapest Jászberényi út 24-36, Hungary

Skelagervej 1, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark
Esplanade 40, 20354 Hamburg, Germany (i)

220 Orchard Road, #05-01 Midpoint Orchard, Singapore 238852, Republic of Singapore

1 Waterfront Avenue, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH5 1SG, United Kingdom

47 Esplanade, St Helier, JE1 0BD, Jersey, Channel Islands

Via Paleocapa Pietro 4, 20121, Milano, Italy

G-74, LGF, Kalkaji, New Delhi, South Delhi, 110019, India

Sterling Towers, 20 Marina, Lagos, Nigeria

48-50 Sackville Street, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

1 More London Place, London, SE1 2AF, United Kingdom

15 Atir Yeda Street, Kfar Saba, 44643, Israel

6 Landmark Square, 4th floor, Stamford CT 06901, United States

4640 Admiralty Way, 5th floor, Marina del Rey, California 90292, United States

Lilleakerveien 8, 0283 Oslo, Norway

Transpolis Building, Polarisavenue 39, 2132 JH Hoofddorp, Netherlands

Veritasvien 29, 4007 Stavanger, Norway

1st floor, 20 Kingston Road, Staines-upon-Thames, TW18 4LG, United Kingdom

5th floor, IQ Building, 15 Justice Mill Lane, Aberdeen, AB11 6EQ, United Kingdom

350 7th Avenue SW, Suite 3400, Calgary AB T2P 3N9, Canada

1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, New Castle County, DE 19801, United States

850 New Burton Road, Suite 201, Dover, DE 19904, United States

Ul. Wysogotowska 23, 62-081 Przezmierowo, Wielkpolskie, Poland

Mariagervej 58B, DK 9500 Hobro, Denmark

90 Whitfield Street, London, W1T 4EZ, United Kingdom

(i) Centrica Energy Trading GmbH changed its registered address during the year from Gustav-Mahler-Platz 1, 20354 Hamburg, Germany to the address listed above.

 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

223

S10. Related undertakings
(e)

Summarised financial information

Management has determined that the investment in Lake Acquisitions Limited is sufficiently material to warrant further disclosure on an 
individual basis. Accordingly, the Group presents summarised financial information, along with reconciliations to the amounts included in 
the consolidated Group Financial Statements, for this investee.

Lake Acquisitions Limited
Summarised statement of total comprehensive income

Year ended 31 December 

Revenue

Operating profit/(loss) before 
interest and tax

2022

2021

Associate 
information 
reported to 
Group
£m

Unadjusted 
20% share
£m

Fair value 
and other 
adjustments 
£m

2,960   

592   

—   

Associate 
information 
reported to 
Group
£m

Unadjusted 
20% share
£m

Fair value 
and other 
adjustments 
£m

1,661   

332   

—   

Group
 share
£m

592 

Group
 share
£m

332 

737   

147   

(26)   

121 

(1,106)   

(221)   

97   

(124) 

Profit/(loss) for the year

Other comprehensive (loss)/income

Total comprehensive (loss)/income

542   

(1,467)   

(925)   

108   

(293)   

(185)   

(15)   

—   

(15)   

93 

(293) 

(200) 

(889)   

760   

(129)   

(178)   

152   

(26)   

75   

—   

75   

(103) 

152 

49 

Summarised balance sheet

31 December 

Non-current assets

Current assets

Current liabilities

Non-current liabilities

Net assets

2022

2021

Associate 
information 
reported to 
Group
£m

Unadjusted 
20% share
£m

Fair value 
and other 
adjustments (i)
£m

Group
 share
£m

Associate 
information 
reported to 
Group
£m

Unadjusted 
20% share
£m

Fair value 
and other 
adjustments (i)
£m

Group
 share
£m

17,121   

3,424   

751   

4,175 

21,054   

4,211   

898   

5,109 

4,212   

(1,742)   

842   

(348)   

—   

—   

842 

(348) 

3,527   

(1,791)   

705   

(358)   

—   

—   

705 

(358) 

(12,405)   

(2,481)   

(131)   

(2,612) 

(14,379)   

(2,876)   

(263)   

(3,139) 

7,186   

1,437   

620   

2,057 

8,411   

1,682   

635   

2,317 

(i) Before cumulative impairments of £497 million (2021: £692 million) of the Group’s associate investment.

During the year, dividends of £60 million (2021: £1 million) were paid by the associate to the Group.

Joint operations - fields/assets

31 December 2022

Cygnus

Location

Percentage holding

UK North Sea

 61% 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
224

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

S11.  Non-controlling interests

The Group has one subsidiary undertaking with a non-controlling interest: Spirit Energy Limited, through which the Group carries out the 
majority of its exploration and production activities.

2022

2021

Non-
controlling 
interests
%

Profit for 
the year
£m

Total 
comprehensive 
income

Total 
equity
£m

Distributions 
to non-
controlling 
interests
£m

Non-
controlling 
interests
%

Loss for 
the year
£m

Total 
comprehensive 
loss
£m

Distributions 
to non-
controlling 
interests
£m

Total 
equity
£m

31 December 

Spirit Energy Limited

31   

146   

151   

263   

(273) 

31   

(37)   

(40)   

385   

— 

Summarised financial information
The summarised financial information disclosed is shown on a 100% basis. It represents the consolidated position of Spirit Energy Limited 
and its subsidiaries that would be shown in its consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS under Group 
accounting policies before intercompany eliminations.
Summarised statement of total comprehensive income

Year ended 31 December

Revenue

Profit/(loss) for the year (i)
Other comprehensive income/(loss) (i)

Total comprehensive income/(loss)

2022
£m

1,667 

371 

116 

487 

(i) 2022 includes £101 million exchange differences reclassified to the income statement on disposal not attributable to non-controlling interests (2021: £nil).

Summarised balance sheet

31 December

Non-current assets

Current assets

Assets of disposal groups classified as held for sale

Current liabilities

Liabilities of disposal groups classified as held for sale

Non-current liabilities

Net assets

Summarised cash flow

Year ended 31 December

Net (decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents

2022
£m

1,683 

1,451 

— 

(1,183) 

— 

(1,104) 

847 

2022
£m

(73) 

2021
£m

1,795 

(118) 

(10) 

(128) 

2021
£m

2,169 

1,649 

1,651 

(1,846) 

(1,225) 

(1,156) 

1,242 

2021
£m

66 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Company Statement of Changes in Equity

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

225

1 January 2021

Profit for the year

Other comprehensive income

Total comprehensive income

Employee share schemes and other share transactions

31 December 2021

Profit for the year

Other comprehensive loss

Total comprehensive income/(loss)

Employee share schemes and other share transactions
Share buyback programme (i)

Dividends paid to equity holders

31 December 2022

Share 
capital
£m

Share 
premium
£m

Retained 
earnings
£m

361   

2,347   

1,611   

—   

—   

—   

2   

—   

—   

—   

30   

976   

—   

976   

3   

363   

2,377   

2,590   

—   

—   

—   

2   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

17   

—   

—   

719   

—   

719   

(2)   

—   

(59)   

365   

2,394   

3,248   

Other 
equity 
(note II)
£m

(5)   

—   

10   

10   

(24)   

(19)   

—   

(51)   

(51)   

(14)   

(250)   

—   

(334)   

Total 
equity
£m

4,314 

976 

10 

986 

11 

5,311 

719 

(51) 

668 

3 

(250) 

(59) 

5,673 

(i) See note I and note S4 of the Group consolidated Financial Statements for further details of the share buyback programme.

As permitted by section 408(3) of the Companies Act 2006 no Income Statement or Statement of Comprehensive Income is presented.

The Directors propose a final dividend of 2.00 pence per ordinary share (totalling £118 million) for the year ended 31 December 2022. 
Details of the interim dividends are provided in note 11 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements.

Details of the Company’s share capital are provided in the Group Statement of Changes in Equity and note 25 to the Group consolidated 
Financial Statements.

The notes on pages 227 to 236 form part of these Financial Statements, along with note 25 to the Group consolidated Financial 
Statements.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
226

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Company Balance Sheet

31 December 

Non-current assets

Property, plant and equipment

Investments

Deferred tax assets

Trade and other receivables

Derivative financial instruments

Retirement benefit assets

Securities

Current assets

Trade and other receivables

Derivative financial instruments

Cash and cash equivalents

Total assets

Current liabilities

Derivative financial instruments

Current tax liabilities

Trade and other payables

Provisions for other liabilities and charges

Bank overdrafts, loans and other borrowings

Non-current liabilities

Deferred tax liabilities

Derivative financial instruments

Trade and other payables

Provisions for other liabilities and charges

Retirement benefit obligations

Bank loans and other borrowings

Total liabilities

Net assets

Share capital

Share premium
Retained earnings (i)
Other equity (ii)

Total shareholders’ equity

Notes

IV  

V  

XII

VI

VII

XIV  

IX  

VI

VII

VII

XI

XIII

XII

VII

XI

XIV  

XIII

II

2022
£m

11   

949   

1   

2021 
(restated)
£m

5 

1,100 

— 

13,089   

12,809 

101   

56   

498   

86 

102 

110 

14,705   

14,212 

1,500   

217   

3,395   

5,112   

848 

87 

3,627 

4,562 

19,817   

18,774 

(211)   

—   

(73) 

(1) 

(9,883)   

(9,160) 

(1)   

(905)   

(1) 

(810) 

(11,000)   

(10,045) 

—   

(271)   

(45)   

(1)   

(49)   

(14) 

(6) 

(154) 

(1) 

(66) 

(2,778)   

(3,144)   

(3,177) 

(3,418) 

(14,144)   

(13,463) 

5,673   

365   

2,394   

3,248   

(334)   

5,673   

5,311 

363 

2,377 

2,590 

(19) 

5,311 

(i) Retained earnings includes a net profit after taxation of £719 million (2021: £976 million profit).
(ii) Capital redemption reserve of (£179) million (including opening balance of £28 million) has been merged within ‘Other equity’ to align with Group consolidated Financial 

Statements presentation.

The prior year has been restated to reclassify £104 million of expected credit loss provision on financial guarantee contracts from current 
receivables owed by Group undertakings to current payables and shown as a separate liability as they do not meet IFRS 7 ‘Financial 
Instruments: Disclosures’ criteria for financial guarantee contracts. See note I for further details.

The Financial Statements on pages 225 to 236, of which the notes on pages 227 to 236 form part, along with note 25 to the Group 
consolidated Financial Statements, were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Directors on 15 February 2023 and were 
signed on its behalf by:

Chris O’Shea 
Group Chief Executive 

Kate Ringrose
Group Chief Financial Officer

Centrica plc Registered No: 03033654

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Notes to the Company Financial Statements

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

227

I. General information and principal accounting policies of the Company

General information
The Company is a public company limited by shares, incorporated and domiciled in the UK, and registered in England and Wales. 
The registered office is Millstream, Maidenhead Road, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 5GD.

The Company Financial Statements are presented in pounds sterling with all values rounded to the nearest million pounds. Pounds sterling 
is the functional currency of the Company.
(a) Basis of preparation
The separate financial statements of the Company are presented as required by the Companies Act 2006. The Company meets the 
definition of a qualifying entity under FRS 100 ‘Application of Financial Reporting Requirements’ issued by the FRC. Accordingly, these 
financial statements are prepared in accordance with FRS 101 ‘Reduced Disclosure Framework’.
(b) New accounting policies, standards, amendments and interpretations effective or adopted in 2022
From 1 January 2022, the following standards and amendments are effective in the Company’s Financial Statements:

• Amendments to IAS 37 ‘Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets’, costs of fulfilling a contract;
• Amendments to IAS 16 ‘Property, Plant and Equipment’, sale proceeds before intended use;
• Amendments to IFRS 3 ‘Business Combinations’, reference to the Conceptual Framework; and
• Annual improvements to IFRS 2018-2020.

These changes and other amendments effective during the year did not materially impact the Company’s Financial Statements.

Pension Scheme Loan Arrangement
As a result of the turbulence in longer-dated UK government debt during the second half of the year, the Company provided a loan facility 
to the Company’s three defined benefit pension schemes. The facility amounted to £550 million, of which £400 million (2021: £nil) 
remained outstanding at the reporting date. Interest on the loan is calculated based on the Bank of England base rate plus 1%; interest 
accrues over the two-year term of the loan and is paid by the pension schemes at maturity. See note 22 of Group consolidated Financial 
Statements for further details. The Company has recognised the loan as a financial asset under IFRS 9 ‘Financial Instruments’ measured 
at amortised cost and classified the receivable within Securities on the Company’s balance sheet. Correspondingly, the loan liability 
has been deducted from plan assets on the basis that the loan does not relate to employee benefits (scheme liabilities) in accordance 
with IAS 19.
(c) Standards and amendments that are issued but not yet applied by the Company
At the date of authorisation of these Company Financial Statements, the Company has not applied the following new and revised 
standards and amendments that have been issued but are not yet effective:

The following standard has been issued, endorsed and will be applied to the Company in future periods:

• IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts’, effective from 1 January 2023.

The following standards and amendments have been issued, endorsed and will be applied to the Company in future periods, subject 
to UK endorsement:

• Amendments to IAS 1 ‘Presentation of Financial Statements’:

– Disclosure of accounting policies and materiality judgements, effective 1 January 2023;
– Classification of liabilities as current or non-current, effective 1 January 2024; and
– Non-current liabilities with covenants, effective 1 January 2024.

• Amendments to IAS 8 ‘Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors’; effective from 1 January 2023;
• Amendments to IAS 12 ‘Income Taxes’; effective from 1 January 2023; and
• Amendments to IFRS 16 ‘Leases’; effective from 1 January 2024.

Management does not expect other issued but not effective amendments or standards, or standards not discussed above to have 
a material impact on the Company’s Financial Statements.

As permitted by FRS 101, the Company has taken advantage of the disclosure exemptions available under that standard in relation to:

• the requirements of IAS 7 ‘Statement of Cash Flows’;
• the statement of compliance with Adopted IFRS;
• the effects of new but not yet effective IFRS;
• prior year reconciliations for property, plant and equipment and intangible assets;
• the prior year reconciliation in the number of shares outstanding at the beginning and at the end of the year for share capital;
• disclosures in respect of related party transactions with wholly owned subsidiaries in a group;
• disclosures in respect of the compensation of key management personnel; and
• disclosures in respect of capital management.

As the Group consolidated Financial Statements of Centrica plc, which are available from the registered office, include the equivalent 
disclosures, the Company has taken the exemptions available under FRS 101 in respect of certain disclosures required by IFRS 13 
‘Fair Value Measurement’ and the disclosures required by IFRS 7 ‘Financial Instruments: Disclosures’. These disclosures have not been 
provided apart from those that are relevant for financial instruments held at fair value. 

228

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

I. General information and principal accounting policies of the Company

Re-presentation of expected credit losses on financial guarantee contracts 
In 2022, the Company has presented expected credit losses on financial guarantee contracts of £159 million (2021: £104 million) as 
separate liabilities under the requirements of IFRS 7 ‘Financial Instruments: Disclosures’. The Company had previously presented them 
within receivables as amounts owed by Group undertakings and has restated the prior period accordingly, see notes VI and XI.
Measurement convention
The Company Financial Statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis except for: investments in subsidiaries that have been 
recognised at deemed cost on transition to FRS 101; derivative financial instruments, financial instruments required to be measured at fair 
value through profit or loss or other comprehensive income, and those financial assets so designated at initial recognition, and the assets 
of the defined benefit pension schemes that have been measured at fair value; the liabilities of the defined benefit pension schemes that 
have been measured using the projected unit credit valuation method; and the carrying values of recognised assets and liabilities qualifying 
as hedged items in fair value hedges that have been adjusted from cost by the changes in the fair values attributable to the risks that are 
being hedged.
Going concern
The accounts have been prepared on a going concern basis, as described in the Directors’ Report and note 24(b) of the Group 
consolidated Financial Statements.
Critical accounting judgements – share buyback programme
On 10 November 2022, the Company announced an intention to undertake a share buyback of £250 million, expected to complete by 
31 May 2023. The Company entered into contracts with third parties to undertake this repurchase programme and, as at 31 December 
2022, £43 million of shares had been purchased. The Company has recognised a financial liability on the basis that the terms and 
conditions of the contracts mean that, as at the year-end, it was unable to cancel the remaining obligation during the period to the 
Group’s Preliminary Announcement on 16 February 2023. Accordingly, the Company has recorded a financial liability of £207 million 
for this remaining obligation, in accordance with IFRS 9 ‘Financial Instruments’.
Key sources of estimation uncertainty – subsidiary investment valuation
The Company is subject to estimation uncertainty related to the valuation of its investments in subsidiaries. Based on an impairment 
review conducted at 31 December 2022, the carrying value of its investments in Centrica Holdings Limited was in excess of the 
estimated recoverable amount and as a result, £140 million (2021: £nil) of impairment charge has been reflected as disclosed in note V. 
The impairment resulted from the payment of a dividend of £1.5 billion (2021: £1.25 billion) to the Company from its immediate subsidiary. 
This has resulted in an increase in the net assets of the Company but a reduction in the overall value of the remainder of the Group. 
The key assumption used in determining the recoverable amount of the Company’s investments in subsidiaries is the use of an average 
of third-party analysts’ ‘sum of the parts’ valuations for the Group’s business units. For recoverable amount purposes, this valuation is 
allocated to each of the Company’s relevant investments in subsidiaries and then compared with the carrying value of both the investment 
and any net intercompany receivable position.  Where a shortfall exists, the investment carrying value is impaired first. The key source of 
estimation uncertainty relates to the analysts’ ‘sum of the parts’ valuation of the Group’s business units.       
Principal accounting policies

The accounting policies set out below have, unless otherwise stated, been applied consistently to all periods presented in these Company 
Financial Statements. 
Employee share schemes
The Group has a number of employee share schemes under which it makes equity-settled share-based payments as detailed in the 
Remuneration Report on pages 84 to 95 and in note S2 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements. Equity-settled share-based 
payments are measured at fair value at the date of grant (excluding the effect of non-market-based vesting conditions). The fair value 
determined at the grant date is expensed on a straight-line basis together with a corresponding increase in equity over the vesting period, 
based on the Group’s estimate of the number of awards that will vest and adjusted for the effect of non-market-based vesting conditions. 
The issue of share incentives by the Company to employees of its subsidiaries represents additional capital contributions. When these 
costs are recharged to the subsidiary undertaking, the investment balance is reduced accordingly. Fair value is measured using methods 
detailed in note S2 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements.
Foreign currencies
The Company’s functional and presentational currency is pounds sterling. Transactions in foreign currencies are translated at the rate of 
exchange ruling at the date of the transaction. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are translated into pounds 
sterling at closing rates of exchange. Exchange differences on monetary assets and liabilities are taken to the Income Statement.
Property, plant and equipment 
PP&E is included in the Balance Sheet at cost, less accumulated depreciation and any provisions for impairment. The initial cost of an 
asset comprises purchase price and construction cost and any costs directly attributable to bringing the asset into operation. The 
purchase price or construction cost is the aggregate amount paid and the fair value of any other consideration given to acquire the asset.

Depreciation is charged so as to write off the cost of assets over their estimated useful lives, on a straight-line basis, over a period of 3 to 
10 years.

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

229

I. General information and principal accounting policies of the Company

Investments
Fixed asset investments in subsidiaries’ shares are held at deemed cost on transition to FRS 101 and at cost in accordance with IAS 27 
‘Separate Financial Statements’, less any provision for impairment as necessary.
Impairment
Impairment of investments in subsidiaries and non-financial assets
The Company’s accounting policies in respect of impairment of property, plant and equipment, and intangible assets are consistent with 
those of the Group.

The carrying values of investments in subsidiary undertakings are reviewed at each reporting date to determine whether there is any 
indication of impairment. If any such indication exists, then the asset’s recoverable amount is estimated.

The recoverable amount of an investment in a subsidiary undertaking is the greater of its value in use and its fair value less cost of 
disposal. In assessing a fair value less cost of disposal, an average of third-party analysts’ ‘sum of the parts’ valuations for the Group’s 
business units is taken and allocated to specific investments. This is then compared with the investment carrying value and net 
intercompany receivable.

Refer to Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty within note I and note V for more details on the 
impairment charge on investments in subsidiaries recognised during the year.

Impairment of other financial assets and credit losses for financial guarantee contracts
The Company’s impairment policies in relation to financial assets are consistent with those of the Group, with additional consideration 
given to amounts owed by Group undertakings. Except for certain loans due in greater than one year, all outstanding receivable balances 
are repayable on demand and arise from funding provided by the Company to its subsidiaries. Where net receivers of funding are unable 
to repay loan balances in full at maturity, or if the debt was otherwise called upon, the Company expects that in such circumstances the 
counterparty would either negotiate extended credit terms with the Company or obtain external financing to repay the balance. As such, 
this is considered a significant risk of causing material adjustment to the carrying amounts of financial assets within the next financial year. 
A detailed review of the amounts owed by Group undertakings for the expected credit loss provision is carried out on an annual basis. 
The model considers whether the receivable is repayable on demand within a 12-month period and the probability of default by the 
counterparty. As at 31 December 2022, there was a cumulative provision for expected credit losses on current financial assets of 
£15 million (2021: £97 million) as disclosed in note VI (i) and on non-current financial assets of £872 million (2021:£640 million) as 
disclosed in note VI (ii).

The Company has applied the impairment requirements of IFRS 9 to financial guarantees issued to its subsidiary undertakings.  A financial 
guarantee contract is measured at fair value at the reporting date and where the expected credit loss is higher than calculated on 
recognition, an additional liability is recognised. Expected credit losses which arise on such arrangements have been calculated according 
to the nature of the guarantee and the Company’s estimate of potential exposure at the balance sheet date. In 2022, there was a net 
provision for expected credit losses on financial guarantees contracts of £159 million (2021: £104 million) as disclosed in note XI (iv). The 
significant increase in the provision is due to the increased short-term derivative liabilities in the market-facing entities which actively trade 
and are exposed to the risk of market price volatility during the year.
Pensions and other post-employment benefits
The Company’s employees participate in a number of the Group’s defined benefit pension schemes. The total Group cost of providing 
benefits under defined benefit schemes is determined separately for each of the Group’s schemes under the projected unit credit actuarial 
valuation method. Actuarial gains and losses are recognised in full in the period in which they occur. The key assumptions used for the 
actuarial valuation are based on the Group’s best estimate of the variables that will determine the ultimate cost of providing post-
employment benefits, on which further detail is provided in notes 3(b) and 22 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements.

The Company’s share of the total Group surplus or deficit at the end of the reporting period for each scheme is calculated in proportion to 
the Company’s share of ordinary employer contributions to that scheme during the year; ordinary employer contributions are determined 
by the pensionable pay of the Company’s employees within the scheme and the cash contribution rates set by the scheme trustees. Note 
that as a participant in these multi-employer schemes, the Company could be liable for other entities’ obligations (for example under 
section 75 of the Pensions Act). See note 22 of the Group consolidated Financial Statements for details of the overall scheme obligations. 
Current service cost is calculated with reference to the pensionable pay of the Company’s employees. The Company’s share of the total 
Group interest on scheme liabilities, expected return on scheme assets and actuarial gains or losses is calculated in proportion to ordinary 
employer contributions in the prior accounting period. Changes in the surplus or deficit arising as a result of the changes in the Company’s 
share of total ordinary employer contributions are also treated as actuarial gains or losses.

230

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

I. General information and principal accounting policies of the Company

Taxation
Current tax, including UK corporation tax, is provided at amounts expected to be paid (or recovered) using the tax rates and laws that 
have been enacted or substantively enacted by the balance sheet date.

Deferred tax is recognised in respect of all temporary differences identified at the balance sheet date, except for differences arising on:

• the initial recognition of an asset or liability in a transaction which is not a business combination and which at the time of the transaction 

affects neither accounting profit nor taxable profit; and

• investments in subsidiaries where the Company is able to control the timing of the reversal of the difference and it is probable that the 

difference will not reverse in the foreseeable future.

Temporary differences are differences between the carrying amount of the Company’s assets and liabilities and their tax base.

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are offset when the Company has a legally enforceable right to offset current tax assets and liabilities and 
the deferred tax assets and liabilities relate to taxes levied by the same tax authority.

Deferred tax assets that are not eligible for offset against deferred tax liabilities are recognised only when, on the basis of all available 
evidence, it can be regarded as probable that there will be suitable taxable profits in the foreseeable future, against which the deductible 
temporary difference can be utilised. 

Deferred tax is measured at the average tax rates that are expected to apply in the periods in which the asset is realised or the liability is 
settled, based on tax rates and laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the balance sheet date. Measurement of 
deferred tax liabilities and assets reflects the tax consequences expected from the manner in which the asset or liability is recovered 
or settled.

The tax expense for the year comprises current and deferred tax. Tax is recognised in the Income Statement, except to the extent that 
it relates to items recognised in other comprehensive income or directly in equity. In this case, the tax is also recognised in other 
comprehensive income or directly in equity, respectively.
Financial instruments
The Company’s accounting policies for financial instruments are consistent with those of the Group as disclosed in note S2 to the Group 
consolidated Financial Statements. The Company’s financial risk management policies are consistent with those of the Group and are 
described in the Strategic Report – Principal Risks and Uncertainties on pages 28 to 33 and in note S3 to the Group consolidated 
Financial Statements. 
Financial guarantees
Financial guarantees are contracts that require the Company to make specified payments to reimburse the holder for a loss it incurs 
because a specified debtor fails to make payment when due in accordance with the terms of a debt instrument. The Company accounts 
for financial guarantee contracts at fair value under IFRS 9.
Presentation of derivative financial instruments
In line with the Group’s accounting policy for derivative financial instruments, the Company has classified those derivatives held for the 
purpose of treasury management as current or non-current, based on expected settlement dates. 

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

231

II. Other equity

1 January 2021

8   

(96)   

7   

(31)   

79   

28   

Cash flow 
hedging 
reserve
£m

Actuarial gains 
and losses 
reserve
£m

Financial asset 
at FVOCI 
reserve
£m

Treasury and  
own shares 
reserve
£m

Share-based 
payments 
reserve
£m

Capital 
redemption 
reserve (ii)
£m

Gains on revaluation of equity investments 
measured at fair value through other 
comprehensive income

Actuarial gains

Employee share schemes:

 Exercise of awards

 Value of services provided

Impact of cash flow hedging

Taxation on above items

31 December 2021

Actuarial losses

Employee Share Schemes:

Exercise of awards

Value of services provided

Purchase of own shares

Issue of shares

Share buyback programme: (i)

Purchase of Treasury shares

Accrual for committed share purchases

Impact of cash flow hedging

Taxation on above items

31 December 2022

—   

—   

—   

—   

(1)   

(2)   

5   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(26)   

8   

(13)   

—   

11   

—   

—   

—   

(2)   

(87)   

(44)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

11   

(120)   

4   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

11   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

11   

—   

—   

13   

—   

—   

—   

(18)   

—   

10   

—   

(5)   

(7)   

(43)   

—   

—   

—   

(63)   

—   

—   

(49)   

12   

—   

—   

42   

—   

(22)   

10   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

30   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

28   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(207)   

—   

—   

(179)   

(i) See note I and Note S4 of the Group consolidated Financial Statement for further details of the share buyback programme.
(ii) Capital redemption reserve of £(179) million (including opening balance of £28 million) merged within ‘Other equity’ to align with Group consolidated Financial 

Total
£m

(5) 

4 

11 

(36) 

12 

(1) 

(4) 

(19) 

(44) 

(12) 

10 

(5) 

(7) 

(43) 

(207) 

(26) 

19 

(334) 

Statements presentation.

III. Directors and employees

Employee costs 

Year ended 31 December 

Wages and salaries

Other

Average number of employees during the year

Year ended 31 December 

Administration

Power

2022
£m

(7)   

(8)   

(15)   

2021
£m

(7) 

(8) 

(15) 

2022
Number

2021
Number

138   

8   

146   

107 

19 

126 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
232

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

IV. Property, plant and equipment

Cost

1 January 

Additions 

Disposals/retirements 

31 December 

Accumulated depreciation

1 January 

Charge for the year

Disposals/retirements 

31 December 
NBV at 31 December (i)

Plant, 
equipment & 
vehicles

2022
£m

31 

12 

(31) 

12 

(26) 

(6) 

31 

(1) 

11 

(i)

Included within the above are right-of-use assets of £9 million relating to infrastructure services (2021: £5 million), the contract of which was renewed in September 2022, 
and £2 million of staff salary sacrifice electric vehicles (2021: £nil).

V.

Investments in subsidiaries

Cost

1 January 
Employee share scheme net capital movement (ii)

31 December 

Provision

1 January
Impairment provided in the year (iii)

31 December 

NBV at 31 December 

2022 (i)
£m

2021 (i)
£m

2,273   

(11)   

2,262   

2,290 

(17) 

2,273 

(1,173)   

(1,173) 

(140)   

(1,313)   

949   

— 

(1,173) 

1,100 

(i) Direct investments are held in Centrica Holdings Limited, Centrica Trading Limited and Centrica Beta Holdings Limited, all of which are incorporated in England, and 

Rhodes Holdings HK Limited, which is incorporated in Hong Kong and Centrica Ireland Holdings Limited, which was incorporated in Ireland in November 2022. Related 
undertakings are listed in note S10 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements.

(ii) Employee share scheme movement is the net change in shares to be awarded under employee share schemes to employees of Group undertakings.
(iii) An impairment charge was recognised during the year, predominantly in relation to the investment in Centrica Holdings Limited.

The Directors believe that the carrying value of the investments is supported by their realisable value.

VI.

 Trade and other receivables

31 December 

Amounts owed by Group undertakings

Prepayments

2022

2021 (restated) (iii) 

Current (i)
£m

Non-current (ii)
£m

Current (i)
£m

Non-current (ii)
£m

1,496   

13,085   

4   

4   

1,500   

13,089 

645   

203   

848

12,804 

5 

12,809

(i) The amounts receivable by the Company includes a gross balance of £1,424 million (2021: £80 million) that bears interest at a quarterly rate determined by Group treasury 
and linked to the Group cost of funds. The quarterly rates ranged between 0% and 4.1% per annum during 2022 (2021: 3% and 4.6%). The other amounts receivable 
from Group undertakings are interest free. All amounts receivable from Group undertakings are unsecured and repayable on demand. Amounts receivable by the 
Company are stated net of credit loss provisions of £15 million (Restated 2021: £97 million).

(ii) The amounts receivable by the Company includes a gross balance of £14,206 million (2021: £13,335 million) due after more than one year that bears interest at a quarterly 

rate determined by Group treasury and linked to the Group cost of funds. The quarterly rates ranged between 0% and 4.1% per annum during 2022 (2021: 3% and 
4.6%).The other amounts receivable from Group undertakings are interest-free. All amounts receivable from Group undertakings are unsecured and not expected to be 
repayable within 12 months from the reporting date. Amounts receivable by the Company are stated net of credit loss provisions of £872 million (2021: £640 million).

(iii) The prior year has been restated to reclassify £104 million of expected credit losses on financial guarantee contracts from current receivables owed by Group 

undertakings to current payables and shown as a separate liability. See note I for further details.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

233

VII. Derivative financial instruments

31 December 

Derivative financial assets

Derivative financial liabilities

2022

Current
£m

Non-current
£m

217   

(211)   

101   

(271)   

Total
£m

318 

(482) 

2021

Current
£m

Non-current
£m

87   

(73)   

86   

(6)   

Total
£m

173 

(79) 

VIII Financial instruments 
(a) Determination of fair values
The Company’s policies for the classification and valuation of financial instruments carried at fair value are consistent with those of the 
Group, as detailed in note S6 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements.

(b)

Financial instruments carried at fair value

31 December 

Financial assets

Derivative financial assets held for trading:

Foreign exchange derivatives

Derivative financial assets in hedge accounting relationships:

Interest rate derivatives

Foreign exchange derivatives

Debt instruments

Equity instruments designated FVOCI

Cash and cash equivalents

Total financial assets at fair value

Financial liabilities

Derivative financial liabilities held for trading:

Foreign exchange derivatives

Derivative financial liabilities in hedge accounting relationships:

Interest rate derivatives

Foreign exchange derivatives

Total financial liabilities at fair value

IX.   Securities

31 December

Debt instruments

Equity instruments

Other

2021
Total
£m

70 

71 

32 

82 

28 

Level 1
£m

Level 2
£m

2022
Total
£m

Level 1
£m

Level 2
£m

—   

243   

243   

—   

70   

—   

—   

66   

29   

—   

95   

37   

38   

—   

—   

37   

38   

66   

29   

2,809   

3,127   

2,809   

3,222   

—   

—   

82   

28   

—   

110   

71   

32   

—   

—   

3,485   

3,658   

3,485 

3,768 

—   

(257)   

(257)   

—   

(74)   

(74) 

—   

—   

—   

(221)   

(4)   

(482)   

(221)   

(4)   

(482)   

—   

—   

—   

—   

(5)   

(79)   

2022
£m

66   

29   

403   

498   

— 

(5) 

(79) 

2021
£m

82 

28 

— 

110 

£95 million (2021: £110 million) of investments were held in trust, on behalf of the Company, as security in respect of the Centrica 
Unfunded Pension Scheme (refer to note XIV).

Other securities includes the pension scheme loan arrangement (including interest) of £403 million 2021: £nil) as disclosed in note I(b), 
note XIV(f) and in note 22(b) to the Group consolidated Financial Statements.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
234

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

X. Lease liabilities maturity analysis

A maturity analysis of lease liabilities based on undiscounted gross cash flow is reported in the table below:

Less than one year

2 years

3 years

Total lease liabilities (undiscounted)

Future finance charges are expected to be £0.5 million (2021: £0.02 million). 
Analysed as:

Non-current
Current

XI. Trade and other payables

31 December 

Amounts owed by Group undertakings
Loss on financial guarantee contracts (iv)
Accruals and other creditors (iii)

2022

£m

4   

4   

3   

11 

7   
4   

11 

2021

£m

5 

— 

— 

5

— 
5 
5

2022

2021(restated) (iv)

Current (i)
£m

Non-current (ii)
£m

Current (i)
£m

Non-current (ii)
£m

(9,503)   

(159)   

(221)   

(9,883)   

(45) 

— 

— 

(45) 

(9,044)   

(154) 

(104)   

(12)   

— 

— 

(9,160)   

(154) 

(i) The amounts payable by the Company include £8,577 million (2021: £7,658 million) that bears interest at a quarterly rate determined by Group treasury and linked to the 
Group cost of funds. The quarterly rates ranged between 0% and 4.1% per annum during 2022 (2021: 3% and 4.6%). Other amounts payable by the Company are 
interest free, unsecured and repayable on demand. Refer to note I for further details.

(ii) There were no amounts payable by the Company due after more than one year that bear interest at the prevailing SONIA rate less 0.05% (2021: £141 million). The 2021 
£141 million loan was fully settled after the obligations to repay were discharged by Centrica Lake Limited in April 2022. Other amounts payable by the Company are 
interest free, unsecured and repayable on demand.

(iii) During the year, the Company recognised a financial liability of £207 million (2021: £nil) relating to the share buyback programme. See note I and Own and treasury shares 

reserve section in note S4 of the Group consolidated Financial Statements for more details. 

(iv) The prior year has been restated to reclassify £104 million of expected credit losses on financial guarantee contracts from current receivables owed by Group 

undertakings to current payables and shown as a separate liability. See note I for further details.

XII. Deferred tax

1 January 2021

Charge to income

Charge to equity

Deferred tax liabilities at 31 December 2021

(Charge)/credit to income

Credit to equity

Deferred tax assets/(liabilities) at 31 December 2022

Retirement 
benefit 
obligation
£m

7   

(7)   

(2)   

(2)   

(6)   

11   

3   

Other
£m

(9)   

(1)   

(2)   

(12)   

2   

8   

(2)   

Total
£m

(2) 

(8) 

(4) 

(14) 

(4) 

19 

1 

Other deferred tax liabilities primarily relate to other temporary differences. All deferred tax crystallises in over one year.

XIII. Bank overdrafts, loans and other borrowings

31 December 

Bank loans and overdrafts

Bonds

Interest accruals

Lease obligations

2022

2021

Current
£m
(600)   

Non-current
£m
(143) 

Current
£m
(453)   

Non-current
£m
(137) 

(246)   

(55)   

(4)   
(905)   

(2,628) 

— 

(7) 
(2,778) 

(284)   

(68)   

(5)   
(810)   

(3,040) 

— 

— 
(3,177) 

Disclosures in respect of the Group’s financial liabilities are provided in notes 24 and S3 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements. 
With the exception of leases and overdrafts, materially all of the Group’s financing activity is carried out through the Company. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

235

XIV. Pensions
(a)

Summary of main schemes

The Company’s employees participate in the following Group defined benefit pension schemes: Centrica Pension Plan (CPP), Centrica 
Pension Scheme (CPS) and Centrica Unfunded Pension Scheme. Its employees also participate in the defined contribution section of the 
Centrica Pension Scheme. Information on these schemes is provided in note 22 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements.

Together with the Centrica Engineers Pensions Scheme (CEPS), CPP and CPS form the significant majority of the Group’s and 
Company’s defined benefit obligation and are referred to below and in the Group Financial Statements as the ‘Registered Pension 
Schemes’.

(b) Accounting assumptions, risks and sensitivity analysis

The accounting assumptions, risks and sensitivity analysis for the Registered Pension Schemes are provided in note 22 to the Group 
consolidated Financial Statements.

(c) Movements in the year

1 January 

Items included in the Company Income Statement:

Current service cost

Contributions by employer in respect of employee salary 
sacrifice arrangements (i)

Total current service cost

Expected return on scheme assets

Interest (expense)/income on scheme liabilities/assets

Termination benefit

Items included in the Company Statement of Comprehensive 
Income:

Returns on plan assets, excluding interest income

Actuarial gain from changes to demographic assumptions

Actuarial gain from changes in financial assumptions

Actuarial loss from experience adjustments

Other movements:

Employer contributions

Contributions by employer in respect of employee salary 
sacrifice arrangements

Benefits paid from schemes

31 December 

2022

2021

Pension liabilities
£m

Pension assets
£m

Pension liabilities
£m

Pension assets
£m

(1,328)   

1,364 

(1,611)   

1,583 

(6)   

(2)   

(8)   

—   

(24)   

1   

—   

4   

621   

(36)   

—   

—   

39   

(731)   

— 

— 

— 

— 

27 

— 

(633) 

— 

— 

— 

17 

2 

(39) 

738 

(5)   

(2)   

(7)   

—   

(23)   

4   

—   

—   

288   

(27)   

—   

—   

48   

(1,328)   

— 

— 

— 

26 

— 

— 

(250) 

— 

— 

— 

52 

1 

(48) 

1,364 

(i) A salary sacrifice arrangement was introduced on 1 April 2013 for pension scheme members. The contributions paid via the salary sacrifice arrangement have been 

treated as employer contributions and included within the current service cost, with a corresponding reduction in salary costs. 

Presented in the Company Balance Sheet as:

31 December 

Retirement benefit pension assets

Retirement benefit pension liabilities

The pension scheme liabilities relate to the Centrica Unfunded Pension Scheme.

2022
£m

56   

(49)   

2021
£m

102 

(66) 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
236

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

XIV. Pensions
(d) Analysis of the actuarial losses recognised in reserves 

Year ended 31 December 

Actuarial loss (actual return less expected return on pension scheme assets)

Experience loss arising on the scheme liabilities

Changes in assumptions underlying the present value of the schemes’ liabilities

Actuarial (loss)/gain recognised in reserves before adjustment for taxation

Cumulative actuarial losses recognised in reserves at 1 January, before adjustment for taxation

Cumulative actuarial losses recognised in reserves at 31 December, before adjustment for taxation

2022
£m

(633)   

(36)   

625   

(44)   

(108)   

(152)   

2021
£m

(250) 

(27) 

288 

11 

(119) 

(108) 

(e) Defined benefit pension scheme contributions

Note 22 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements provides details of the triennial review carried out at 31 March 2021 in respect of 
the UK Registered Pension Schemes and the future pension scheme contributions, including asset-backed arrangements, agreed as part 
of this review. Under IAS 19, the Company’s contribution and trustee interest in the Scottish Limited Partnerships are recognised as 
scheme assets.

The Company estimates that it will pay £54 million of employer contributions during 2023 for its defined benefit schemes, at an average 
rate of 21% of pensionable pay, together with contributions via the salary sacrifice arrangement of £26 million.

For details of the weighted average duration of the liabilities of the Registered Pension Schemes see note 22 of the Group consolidated 
Financial Statements.

(f)

Pension scheme assets

31 December 

Equities

Corporate bonds

High-yield debt

Liability matching assets

Property

Cash pending investment

Loan and interest

Asset-backed contribution assets
Group pension scheme assets (i)

Company share of the above

Quoted
£m

19   

24   

106   

2,835   

—   

205   

—   

—   

2022

Unquoted
£m

486   

—   

1,331   

1,343   

366   

—   

(403)   

527   

Total
£m

505 

24 

1,437 

4,178 

366 

205 

(403) 

527 

Quoted
£m

20   

2,393   

2,720   

1,963   

—   

85   

—   

—   

2021

Unquoted
£m

462   

31   

1,197   

1,356   

439   

—   

—   

600   

Total
£m

482 

2,424 

3,917 

3,319 

439 

85 

— 

600 

3,189   

3,650   

6,839 

7,181   

4,085   

11,266 

2022
£m

738

2021
£m

1,364

(i) Total pension scheme assets, including asset-backed contribution assets not recognised in the Group consolidated Financial Statements.

XV. Commitments

At 31 December 2022, the Company had commitments of £66 million (2021: £71 million) relating to contracts for outsourced services, 
£177 million ( 2021: £59 million) relating to the contracts for information services centralised last year and £5 million (2021: £5 million) 
relating to contracts for property services.

The Company has provided guarantees and letters of credit relating to its subsidiaries’ trading activities and decommissioning obligations. 
At 31 December 2022, the Group has derivative liabilities of £10,151 million (2021: £6,009 million), and decommissioning liabilities of 
£1,514 million (2021: £1,521 million). See notes 19 and 21 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements for further information on 
these balances. 

XVI. Related parties

During the year the Company accepted cash deposits on behalf of the Spirit Energy group of companies giving rise to a Trade and other 
payables balance of £1,091 million (2021: £1,161 million). Spirit Energy Limited is a subsidiary of the Company, held indirectly, that is not 
wholly owned. See note 3 to the Group consolidated Financial Statements for more information. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gas and Liquids Reserves (Unaudited)

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

237

The Group’s estimates of reserves of gas and liquids are reviewed as part of the full year reporting process and updated accordingly.

A number of factors affect the volumes of gas and liquids reserves, including the available reservoir data, commodity prices and future 
costs. Due to the inherent uncertainties and the limited nature of reservoir data, estimates of reserves are subject to change as additional 
information becomes available. 

The Group discloses 2P gas and liquids reserves, representing the central estimate of future hydrocarbon recovery. Reserves for Centrica 
operated fields are estimated by in-house technical teams composed of geoscientists and reservoir engineers. Reserves for non-operated 
fields are estimated by the operator but are subject to internal review and challenge.

As part of the internal control process related to reserves estimation, an assessment of the reserves, including the application of the 
reserves definitions, is undertaken by an independent technical auditor. An annual reserves assessment has been carried out by DeGolyer 
& McNaughton for the Group’s global reserves. Reserves are estimated in accordance with a formal policy and procedure standard.

The Group has estimated 2P gas and liquids reserves in Europe. 

The principal retained fields in Spirit Energy are Cygnus, South and North Morecambe, Rhyl and Chiswick. The principal non-Spirit Energy 
field is Rough. The European reserves estimates are consistent with the guidelines and definitions of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, 
the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers and the World Petroleum Council’s Petroleum Resources Management System using 
accepted principles.

Estimated net 2P reserves of gas 
(billion cubic feet)

1 January 2022
Revisions of previous estimates (ii)
Disposals (iii)
Production (iv)

31 December 2022

Estimated net 2P reserves of liquids 
(million barrels)

1 January 2022
Revisions of previous estimates (ii)
Disposals (iii)
Production (iv)

31 December 2022

Estimated net 2P reserves 
(million barrels of oil equivalent)
31 December 2022 (v)

Spirit Energy – 
Norway/Statfjord (i)

Spirit Energy – 
retained fields (i)

Rough

189   

—   

(178)   

(11)   

—   

296   

33   

—   

(68)   

261   

26   

8   

—   

(18)   

16   

Total

511 

41 

(178) 

(97) 

277 

Spirit Energy – 
Norway/Statfjord (i)

Spirit Energy – 
retained fields (i)

Rough

Total

55   

—   

(53)   

(2)   

—   

1   

1   

—   

(1)   

1   

—   

—   

—   

—   

—   

56 

1 

(53) 

(3) 

1 

Spirit Energy – 
Norway/Statfjord (i)

Spirit Energy – 
retained fields (i)

—   

45   

Rough

3   

Total

48 

(i) The movements represent Centrica’s 69% interest in Spirit Energy.
(ii) Revision of previous estimates include those associated with Cygnus
(iii) Disposal of Spirit Energy entire Norwegian portfolio and Statfjord field.
(iv) Represents total sales volumes of gas and oil produced from the Group’s reserves.
(v)

Includes the total of estimated gas and liquids reserves at 31 December 2022 in million barrels of oil equivalent. 

Liquids reserves include oil, condensate and natural gas liquids.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
238

Financial Statements | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Five Year Summary (Unaudited)

Group revenue from continuing operations included in business performance (i)

16,465   

15,958   

14,949   

18,300   

33,637 

Operating profit/(loss) from continuing operations before exceptional items and 
certain re-measurements:

2018 (restated) 
(i) (ii) 

2019 (restated) 
(ii) 

2020 (restated) 
 (ii)

£m

£m

£m

2021
£m

2022
£m

British Gas Services & Solutions (ii) (iii)
British Gas Energy (ii) (iii)
Bord Gáis Energy (ii) (iii)
Centrica Business Solutions (ii) (iii)
Energy Marketing & Trading (ii) (iii)
Upstream (ii) (iii)

Profit share

Operating profit from discontinued operations before exceptional items and 
certain re-measurements (ii) (iii)

Exceptional items and certain re-measurements after taxation

Profit/(loss) attributable to equity holders of the parent

Earnings per ordinary share

Adjusted earnings per ordinary share

Dividend per ordinary share in respect of the year

Assets and liabilities

31 December (restated) (v)

Goodwill and other intangible assets
Other non-current assets (iv)

Net current assets/(liabilities)
Non-current liabilities (iv)

Net assets of disposal groups held for sale

Net assets
Adjusted net (debt)/cash (v) (note 24)

Cash flows

31 December (restated) (v)

Cash flow from operating activities before exceptional payments

Payments relating to exceptional charges in operating costs

Net cash flow from investing activities

Cash flow before cash flow from financing activities

101   

490   

44   

(40)   

35   

567   

—   

1,197   

195   

(416)   

183   

Pence

3.3   

11.2   

12.0   

2018
£m

4,456   

7,435   

284   

187   

117   

50   

(20)   

138   

178   

—   

650   

251   

(1,531)   

(1,023)   

Pence

(17.8)   

7.3   

1.5   

2019
£m

4,033   

5,826   

(696)   

191   

82   

42   

(132)   

174   

90   

—   

447   

252   

(520)   

41   

Pence

0.7   

6.5   

—   

2020
£m

1,940   

4,767   

622   

121   

118   

28   

(52)   

70   

663   

—   

948   

—   

866   

1,210   

Pence

20.7   

4.1   

—   

2021
£m

1,161   

6,040   

1,465   

(8,227)   

(7,474)   

(8,072)   

(6,360)   

—   

3,948   

(2,946)   

106   

1,795   

(3,507)   

2,125   

1,382   

(2,998)   

444   

2,750   

680   

(9) 

72 

31 

44 

1,400 

1,793 

(23) 

3,308 

— 

(2,755) 

(782) 

Pence

(13.3) 

34.9 

1.0 

2022
£m

1,116 

7,234 

(1,023) 

(6,047) 

— 

1,280 

1,199 

2018
£m

2,182   

(248)   

(1,007)   

927   

2019
£m

2020
£m

2021
£m

2022
£m

1,548   

1,532   

1,687   

1,338 

(298)   

(503)   

747   

(132)   

(285)   

1,115   

(76)   

2,263   

3,874   

(24) 

(566) 

748 

(i) 2018 Group revenue included in business performance has been restated to include the net result of certain commodity purchases and sales trades that are deemed to 

be speculative in nature.

(ii) Results have been restated to reflect the new operating structure of the Group, effective during 2021. 
(iii) Adjusted operating profit has been restated to include the impact of business performance interest and taxation of joint ventures and associates.
(iv) Results from the 2018 figures have not been presented in line with IFRS 16 ‘Leases’.
(v) Results have been restated to reflect the change in definition of adjusted net debt/cash in 2021.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

239

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement

Independent Auditor’s Report to the Directors of Centrica plc and its Licensees
In our opinion the accompanying statement (the ‘Consolidated Segmental Statement’ or ‘CSS’) of Centrica plc and its Licensees for the 
year ended 31 December 2022 is prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with: 

– the requirements of Ofgem’s Standard Condition 19A of the Gas and Electricity Supply Licences and Standard Condition 16B of the 

Electricity Generation Licences established by the regulator Ofgem; and

– the basis of preparation on pages 246 to 249.

We have audited the Consolidated Segmental Statement of Centrica plc and its Licensees (as listed in footnote (i)) (the Group) for the year 
ended 31 December 2022 in accordance with the terms of our engagement letter dated 15 February 2023. The Consolidated Segmental 
Statement has been prepared by the Directors of Centrica plc and its Licensees based on the requirements of Ofgem’s Standard 
Condition 19A and the Gas and Electricity Supply Licences and Standard Condition 16B of the Electricity Generation Licences (together, 
the ‘Licences’) and the basis of preparation on pages 246 to 249. 
Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities 
under those standards are further described in the auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the CSS section of our report. 

We are independent of the Company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the CSS in the United 
Kingdom, including the Financial Reporting Council’s (the ‘FRC’s’) Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities 
in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a 
basis for our opinion. 
Emphasis of matter – basis of accounting
We draw attention to pages 246 to 249 of the CSS which describes the basis of accounting. The CSS is prepared to assist the Company 
in complying with the requirements of Ofgem’s Standard Condition 19A of the Gas and Electricity Supply Licences and Standard 
Condition 16B of the Electricity Generation Licences established by the regulator Ofgem. The basis of preparation is not the same as 
segmental reporting under IFRS and/or statutory reporting. As a result, the CSS may not be suitable for another purpose. Our opinion 
is not modified in respect of this matter.
Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the CSS, we have concluded that the Directors’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the CSS 
is appropriate. 

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually 
or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from 
when the CSS is authorised for issue. Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Directors with respect to going concern are 
described in the relevant sections of this report. 
Other information
The other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report, other than the CSS and our auditor’s report thereon. The 
Directors are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the CSS does not cover the other 
information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with 
the CSS or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material 
inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the 
CSS. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are 
required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.
Responsibilities of the Directors
The Directors are responsible for the preparation of the CSS in accordance with the Licences and the basis of preparation on pages 246 
to 249 and for such internal control as the Directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of the CSS that are free from 
material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the CSS, the Directors are responsible for assessing the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as 
applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Directors either intend to 
liquidate the Group or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so. 
Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the CSS
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the CSS as a whole is free from material misstatement, whether due to 
fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a 
guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements 
can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence 
the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of this CSS. 

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the CSS is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at frc.org.uk/
auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report. 

240 Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement  | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Independent Auditor’s Report to the Directors of Centrica plc and its Licensees
Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our 
responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our 
procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below. 

We considered the nature of the Group’s industry and its control environment, and reviewed the Group’s documentation of their 
policies and procedures relating to fraud and compliance with laws and regulations. We also enquired of management, the directors 
and internal audit about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities including those that are specific
to Centrica’s business sector. 

We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that the Group operates in, and identified the key laws and 
regulations that: 

• had a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the CSS. These included UK Companies Act and 

Ofgem’s Standard Condition 19A of the Electricity and Gas Supply Licences and Standard Condition 16B of the Electricity Generation 
Licences; and

• do not have a direct effect on the CSS but compliance with which may be fundamental to the Group’s ability to operate or to avoid a 

material penalty.

We discussed among the audit engagement team including significant component audit teams regarding the opportunities and incentives 
that may exist within the organisation for fraud and how and where fraud might occur in the CSS.

As a result of performing the above, we identified the greatest potential for fraud in the following area, and our specific procedures 
performed to address it are described below:

• Credit losses on financial assets within the Group’s energy supply businesses (‘Bad debt provisions’). Our audit approach for bad debt 

provisions was a combination of data analytics, substantive audit procedures and tests of internal control.

• Accuracy and completeness of customer revenue processed through the ENSEK platform. Given the significant quantum of revenue, 
the developing controls environment and the difference from legacy SAP systems in the methodology used to derive unbilled revenue 
related to customers on ENSEK, there is a risk, including a fraud risk over the accuracy and completeness of the revenue recognised.

In common with all audits under ISAs (UK), we are also required to perform specific procedures to respond to the risk of management 
override. In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and 
other adjustments; assessed whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias; and 
evaluated the business rationale of any significant transactions that are unusual or outside the normal course of business.

In addition to the above, our procedures to respond to the risks identified included the following:

• reviewing financial statement disclosures by testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with provisions of relevant laws 

and regulations described as having a direct effect on the CSS;

• performing analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement 

due to fraud; 

• enquiring of management, internal audit and in-house legal counsel concerning actual and potential litigation and claims, and instances 

of non-compliance with laws and regulations; and 

• reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance, and reviewing internal audit reports.

Use of this report
This report is made solely to the Group’s Directors, as a body, in accordance with our engagement letter dated 15 February 2023 and 
solely for the purpose of assisting the Directors in reporting on the CSS to the regulator Ofgem. We permit this report to be displayed on 
the Centrica plc website centrica.com and within the December 2022 Annual Report & Accounts (see footnote (ii)) to enable the Directors 
to show they have addressed their governance responsibilities by obtaining an independent assurance report in connection with the CSS. 
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Directors as a body and 
Centrica plc, for our work or this report, or for the opinions we have formed. The materiality level we used in planning and performing our 
audit was £50 million. 

The engagement partner on the audit resulting in this independent auditor’s report is Jane Boardman.

Deloitte LLP
15 February 2023

London

(i) British Gas Trading Limited, Neas Energy Limited, Centrica Brigg Limited (which changed its name to CBS Energy Storage Assets UK Limited on 15 February 2023), 

Centrica Distributed Generation Limited, Centrica KPS Limited, and EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Limited.

(ii) The maintenance and integrity of Centrica plc’s website is the responsibility of the Directors of Centrica plc; the work carried out by the auditors does not involve 

consideration of these matters and accordingly, the auditors accept no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the CSS since it was initially presented 
on the website.

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

241

Introduction

The Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement (CSS) and required regulatory information on pages 241 to 251 are 
provided in order to comply with Standard Condition 16B of the Electricity Generation Licences and Standard Condition 
19A of the Electricity and Gas Supply Licences.

The CSS and supporting information is prepared by the Directors in accordance with the Segmental Statements Guidelines issued by 
Ofgem. The CSS has been derived from and reconciled to the Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 
2022, which have been prepared in accordance with the United Kingdom adopted International Accounting Standards, with International 
Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the IASB and in conformity with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Centrica plc operational reporting structure 
Below is a summary of the Centrica plc Group’s (Group) operational reporting structure. The CSS financial data has been extracted from 
the Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 operating segments rather than with reference to specific legal entities. Certain 
activities included in the Group’s operating segments have been excluded from the Generation and Supply segments of the CSS on the 
basis they are non-licensed activities (for example Services and Solutions and other trading activity unrelated to Generation or Supply) as 
illustrated below. The Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 provides operating segment results in note 4. A full reconciliation 
between the relevant operating segment results and those disclosed for ‘Domestic Supply’, ‘Non-Domestic Supply’ and ‘Generation’ in 
this CSS is provided at the end of the report.

242 Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Centrica plc operational reporting structure 
Centrica plc is the ultimate parent company of all 100% owned licensees. The individual supply and generation licences are held in legal 
entities whose licensed activities are reported as part of the Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 within the operating segments 
shown above. The individual supply and generation licences held in subsidiaries, joint ventures or associates of Centrica plc at 
31 December 2022 are detailed below:

Licensee

British Gas Trading Limited
Neas Energy Limited (i)
Centrica Brigg Limited (ii)

Centrica KPS Limited

Centrica Distributed Generation Limited
EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Limited (iii)

Licence

Supply

Supply

Exempt

Generation

Exempt

Generation

Ownership

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

20% Associate

(i) Neas Energy Limited holds supply licences but currently does not supply any UK customers.
(ii) Centrica Brigg Limited changed its name to CBS Energy Storage Assets UK Limited on 15th February 2023.
(iii) The Group holds a 20% investment in Lake Acquisitions Limited which indirectly owns 100% of EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Limited.

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

243

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement

Year ended 31 December 2022

Electricity Generation

Unit

Nuclear

Thermal

Aggregate 
Generation 
Business

Average customer numbers/sites

‘000s

5,883.7

433.6

Total revenue

Sales of electricity & gas

Other revenue

Total operating costs

Direct fuel costs

Direct costs

Transportation costs

Environmental and social 
obligation costs

Other direct costs

Indirect costs
WACOF/E/G (i)

EBITDA

DA

EBIT

Volume

£m  

£m  

£m  

£m  

£m  

£m  

£m  

£m  

£m   1,231.4   

27.0    1,258.4 

5,904.9

£m   1,203.7   

24.7    1,228.4 

5,900.0

2,902.2

5,876.0

1,124.8

15,803.0

Electricity Supply

Gas Supply

Domestic

Non-
Domestic

2,902.2

Domestic

5,879.7

Non-
Domestic

Aggregate 
Supply 
Business

1,124.8

15,811.6

27.7   

2.3   

30.0 

4.9

—

3.7

—

8.6

(321.6)   

(20.2)   

(341.8) 

(5,799.1)

(2,838.2)

(5,886.1)

(1,048.7)

(15,572.1)

(78.0)   

(10.2)   

(88.2) 

(3,351.3)

(1,609.0)

(3,832.4)

(828.4)

(9,621.1)

(206.2)   

(6.6)   

(212.8) 

(1,911.9)

(1,023.4)

(1,390.0)

(134.4)

(4,459.7)

(85.9)   

(1.1)   

(87.0) 

(1,136.6)

(548.5)

(1,200.4)

(99.7)

(2,985.2)

—   

(120.3)   

(37.4)   

(2.2)   

(3.3)   

(3.4)   

(2.2) 

(682.0)

(123.6) 

(93.3)

(40.8) 

(535.9)

£/MWh, P/th  

(9.1)   

(259.9) 

N/A

(192.6)

£m  

£m  

£m  

TWh, MThms  

909.8   

(156.7)   

753.1   

8.7   

N/A

6.8   

916.6 

(1.7)   

(158.4) 

5.1   

758.2 

— 

N/A

N/A

N/A

105.8

(37.5)

68.3

17.4

— (1,201.0)

(34.7)

(273.5)

(85.9)

(1,491.3)

(415.6)

(59.3)

(205.8)

(141.1)

64.0

(12.3)

51.7

11.4

(103.4)

(86.2)

(663.7)

(160.3)

(6.4)

(43.0)

(49.4)

2,390.3

6,733.6

(137.6)

76.1

(5.2)

70.9

601.9

183.4

Supply EBIT

Supply PAT

Supply PAT

margin

£m

margin

 1.2% 

52.2

 0.9% 

 1.8% 

40.0

 1.4% 

 (0.8) %

(37.6)

 (0.6) %

 6.3% 

55.0

 4.9% 

N/A

239.5

(98.0)

141.5

N/A

N/A

 0.9% 

109.6

 0.7% 

Aggregate
 Supply
 Business

2021 Summarised CSS

Year ended 31 December 2021

Electricity Generation

Unit

Nuclear

Thermal

Aggregate 
Generation 
Business

Total revenue

EBIT

£m  

£m  

415.5   

187.3   

602.8 

3,410.3

(59.5)   

18.2   

(41.3) 

(106.9)

(43.4)

Electricity Supply

Gas Supply

Domestic

Non-
Domestic

1,872.1

Domestic

3,253.7

222.2

Non-
Domestic

621.9

9,158.0

46.1

118.0

Supply EBIT

Supply PAT

Supply PAT

margin

£m

margin

 (3.1) %

(85.8)

 (2.5) %

 (2.3) %

(35.1)

 (1.9) %

 6.8% 

178.4

 5.5% 

 7.4% 

37.1

 6.0% 

 1.3% 

94.6

 1.0% 

Notes:

(i) WACOF/E/G is calculated using Volumes to 2 decimal places.

244 Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Glossary of terms
• ‘WACOF/E/G’ is weighted average cost of fuel (nuclear), electricity (supply) and gas (thermal and supply) calculated by dividing direct 
fuel costs by volumes. For the Thermal sub-segment, the cost of carbon emissions is added to direct fuel costs before dividing by the 
generated volume.

• ‘EBITDA’ is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, and is calculated by subtracting total operating costs from 

revenue.

• ‘DA’ is depreciation and amortisation.
• ‘EBIT’ is earnings before interest and tax, and is calculated by subtracting total operating costs, depreciation and amortisation from 

total revenue.

• ‘Supply EBIT margin’ is a profit margin expressed as a percentage and calculated by dividing EBIT by total revenue and multiplying by 

100 for the Supply segment.

• ‘Supply PAT’ is profit after tax but before interest and is calculated by subtracting Group adjusted tax from EBIT for the Supply 

segment.

• ‘Supply PAT margin’ is a profit margin expressed as a percentage and calculated by dividing Supply PAT by total revenue and 

multiplying by 100 for the Supply segment. 

• ‘Volume’ for Supply is supplier volumes at the meter point (i.e. net of losses); Generation volume is the volume of power that can 
actually be sold in the wholesale market (i.e. generation volumes after losses up to the point where power is received under the 
Balancing and Settlement Code but before subsequent losses).

• ‘Average customer numbers/sites’ are calculated by adding average monthly customer numbers/sites (as defined in the basis of 

preparation) and dividing by 12. 

• ‘Scheduling decisions’ means the decision to run individual generation units.
• ‘Responsible for interactions with the Balancing Market’ means interactions with the Balancing Mechanism in electricity.
• ‘Interacts with wider market participants to buy/sell energy’ means the business unit is responsible for interacting with wider market 

participants to buy/sell energy, not the entity responsible for the buy/sell decision itself, which falls under ‘Responsible for implementing 
hedging policy/makes decisions to buy/sell energy’.

• ‘Matches own generation with own supply’ means where there is some internal matching of generation and supply before either 

generation or supply interact with the wider market. 

• ‘Forecasts total system demand’ means forecasting total system electricity demand or total system gas demand.
• ‘Forecasts customer demand’ means forecasting the total demand of own supply customers.
• ‘Bears shape risk after initial hedge until market allows full hedge’ means the business unit which bears financial risk associated with 

hedges made before the market allows fully shaped hedging.

• ‘Bears short-term risk for variance between demand and forecast’ means the business unit which bears financial risk associated with 

too little or too much supply for own customer demand.

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

245

Business functions table
Year ended 31 December 2022 – analysis of business functions (i)

The table below illustrates where the business functions reside.

Operates and maintains generation assets

Responsible for scheduling decisions

Responsible for interactions with the Balancing Market

Responsible for determining hedging policy

Responsible for implementing hedging policy/makes decision to buy and sell energy

Interacts with wider market participants to buy/sell energy

Holds unhedged positions (either short or long)

Procures fuel for generation

Procures allowances for generation

Holds volume risk on positions sold (either internal or external)

Matches own generation with own supply

Forecasts total system demand

Forecasts wholesale price

Forecasts customer demand

Determines retail pricing and marketing strategies

Bears shape risk after initial hedge until market allows full hedge

Bears short-term risk for variance between demand and forecast

Generation

Supply

Another part 
of business

ü

ü

–

–

ü
ü (output)

ü (output)

ü
ü (demand)

ü (demand)

ü (bilateral)

ü (market and 
bilateral)

ü

ü

ü

ü
–

–
ü (iv)

–

–

ü
–

ü
–

–

ü
–

ü
ü (iv)

ü

ü

ü

ü

–

–

–

–

–

ü (market and
bilateral) (ii)
ü (ii)

–

–

–
ü (ii) (iii)

–
ü (iv)

–

–

–

–

(i) The table reflects the business functions that impact our UK segments.
(ii) The Group’s Supply and Generation businesses are separately managed. Both businesses independently enter into commodity purchases and sales with the market via 
Centrica Energy Limited (CEL), our market-facing legal entity. CEL forms part of our non-licensed element of Energy Marketing & Trading function and also conducts 
trading for the purpose of making profits in its own right. The Supply segment is also able to enter into market trades directly as part of its within day balancing activities 
(as well as external bilateral contracts).
‘Matches own generation with own supply’ is undertaken in ‘Another part of the business’ (by CEL at market referenced prices), outside of the Generation and Supply 
segments.

(iii)

(iv) A separate team forecasts the wholesale price for the benefit and use of the entire Group. This team does not formally reside in any particular segment but their costs are 

recharged across the Group. 

Key:
ü Function resides and profit/loss recorded in segment.
–   Neither function nor profit/loss reside in segment.

246 Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Basis of preparation

The following notes provide a summary of the basis of preparation of the 2022 submission.

The Ofgem CSS segments our Supply and Generation activities and provides a measure of profitability, weighted average cost of fuel, and 
volumes, in order to increase energy market transparency for consumers and other stakeholders.

These statements have been prepared by the Directors of Centrica plc and its Licensees in accordance with Standard Condition 16B of 
the Electricity Generation Licences and Standard Condition 19A of the Electricity and Gas Supply Licences and the basis of preparation. 
Throughout the basis of preparation the first paragraph number relates to the generation licence and the second to the supply licence 
conditions respectively. 

The financial data provided has been taken from the relevant licensee’s and affiliate’s financial information for the year ended 31 December 
2022, included in the Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 which have been prepared under IFRS as adopted by the United 
Kingdom (in accordance with paragraph 3/19A.3).

The CSS has been prepared on a going concern basis, as described in the Directors’ Report and notes 1 and 24 in the Centrica plc 
Annual Report and Accounts 2022.

For the Generation segment, we have included the financial results from all activities that relate to our generation licences. For clarity, the 
following judgements have been made:

• the Group has a 20% equity interest in Lake Acquisitions Limited, which owns eight nuclear power stations (through its indirect 

investment in EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Limited), of which five were operational at year-end. Although we do not specifically hold 
a generation licence for any of the nuclear stations, our gross share of the financial result from this business (including any contractual 
arrangements) has been included in the Nuclear sub-segment and hence within the Generation segment; 

• Brigg and Roosecote power stations had their licences revoked on 2 July 2015 (at their request) because they no longer required an 

electricity generation licence and are now exempt. Whilst we do not specifically hold a generation licence for these power stations (and 
note that Roosecote is now a battery storage site), the financial results from these businesses have been included in the Thermal sub-
segment and hence within the Generation segment; and

• where power is purchased from third parties (for example from wind farms, power stations or other bilateral arrangements) and we do 
not have an equity interest in, or a leasing arrangement (from an IFRS perspective) over the assets that generate this power, the result 
related to these activities is excluded from the Generation segment. In all cases, the Generation segment reports direct fuel costs and 
generation volumes on a consistent basis (if the purchase cost is a direct fuel cost, then the electricity generated is reported in volume).

Domestic Supply represents the revenue and associated costs in supplying gas and electricity to residential customers in the UK. Non-
Domestic Supply represents the revenue and associated costs in supplying gas and electricity to business customers in the UK.

As a voluntary disclosure, to aid comparability, a summarised 2021 CSS with margins has been included within the report. 
Revenues
Revenues, costs and profits of the Licensees have been defined below and prepared in compliance with the Group’s accounting policies 
as detailed in notes 2, 3 and S2 of the Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022, except for joint ventures and associates which are 
presented gross (in accordance with paragraph 4(a)/19A.4(a)).

• Revenue from sales of electricity and gas for the Supply segment is recognised on the basis of electricity and gas supplied during the 

year to both domestic and non-domestic customers. 

• Revenue from sales of electricity and gas includes an assessment of energy supplied to customers between the date of the last meter 
reading and the year end (unread). For the respective Supply segments this means electricity and gas sales. Revenue for domestic 
supply is after deducting dual fuel discounts where applicable, with the discount split evenly between electricity and gas. Government 
mandated social tariffs and discounts, such as the Warm Home Discount, and other social discounts, have also been deducted from 
Domestic Supply revenues directly, charged specifically to each fuel.

• Revenue from sales of electricity and gas for the Supply segment include revenues ultimately due from the Government support 

schemes (Energy Price Guarantee and Energy Bill Relief Scheme). In 2022, these amount to: Domestic Electricity Supply of £705.7 
million and Domestic Gas Supply of £832.6 million; Non-Domestic Electricity Supply of £164.2 million and Non-Domestic Gas Supply of 
£55.2 million 

• Revenue from sales of electricity for the Generation segment is recognised on the basis of power supplied during the year. Power 

purchases and sales entered into to optimise the performance of each of the power Generation segments are presented net 
within revenue.

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

247

Basis of preparation
• The financial risks and rewards of owning and using the Group’s power stations reside entirely in the reported Generation segment.
• Other respective segmental revenues not related to the sale of gas or power have been separately disclosed. Other revenues include:

– £4.9 million (2021: £6.4 million) in Domestic Electricity Supply and £3.7 million (2021: £5.8 million) in Domestic Gas Supply primarily 

relating to New Housing Connections and smart meter installations; 

– £2.3 million (2021: £22.0 million) in Thermal principally relating to Supplementary Balancing Reserve (SBR), Short Term Operating 

Reserve (STOR), Triad revenue and Capacity Market income; and

– £27.7 million (2021: £32.1 million) revenue in Nuclear not directly related to energy sales, such as capacity market income and 

provision of miscellaneous services.

Direct fuel costs
Direct fuel costs for both Generation and Supply include electricity, gas, nuclear fuel and imbalance costs. 

• Energy supply to Domestic and Non-Domestic energy customers is procured at a market referenced price, through a combination of 
bilateral, over-the-counter (OTC) and exchange-based trades/contracts (see table below). Where energy is procured from within the 
Group it is also at a market referenced price on an OTC basis. The market referenced prices used are those prevailing at the time of 
procurement, which may differ from the price prevailing at the time of supply.

• Domestic and Non-Domestic fixed price products are hedged based upon anticipated demand at the start of the contract period. The 
majority of the gas and power for Non-Domestic energy and Domestic energy tariff products is purchased in advance (see table below).

• The exact Domestic and Non-Domestic purchasing patterns vary in response to the outlook for commodity markets and commercial 

factors.

• The Generation segment purchases gas and sells all of its energy at market referenced prices. Gas for turbines/engines is procured at 
market referenced prices through a combination of OTC and exchange-based trades/contracts. The cost to the power stations will 
reflect market referenced prices at the time of procurement, and so may differ from the price prevailing at the time of physical supply. 

How we procure electricity, gas and carbon:

Long form bilateral 
contracts (‘bilateral’)

Individually negotiated contracts with non-standardised terms and conditions which may relate to size, 
duration or flexibility. Pricing is predominantly indexed to published market referenced prices, adjusted for 
transfer of risks, cost of carry and administration.

OTC

Exchange

Broker supported market of standardised products, predominantly performed via screen-based trading. These 
transactions are between two parties, leaving both parties exposed to the other’s default with no necessary 
intermediation of any exchange. An internal OTC price may be provided where market liquidity prevents 
external trading, with prices that are reflective of market conditions at the time of execution.

Regulated electronic platform (notably ICE, APX, and N2EX) where standardised products are traded on 
exchange through the intermediary of the clearing house which becomes the counterparty to the trade. 
Membership of a clearing house is required which entails posting of cash or collateral as margin.

WACOF/WACOE/WACOG
• For Generation this represents a proxy for the weighted average input cost of gas, carbon and nuclear fuel, shown as £/MWh, used by 

the Generation business. Gas for turbines/engines is procured at market referenced prices through a combination of OTC and 
exchange-based trades/contracts. The cost to the power stations will reflect market referenced prices at the time of procurement, and 
so may differ from the price prevailing at the time of physical supply. 

• For Supply this covers the wholesale energy cost, the energy element of reconciliation by difference (RBD) costs and balancing and 

shaping costs incurred by the Supply licensees. Again, gas and electricity is procured at market referenced prices through a 
combination of bilateral, OTC and exchange-based trades/contracts. The cost for the Supply business will reflect market referenced 
prices at the time of procurement, and so may differ from the price prevailing at the time of physical supply. Where gas is procured 
using (predominantly indexed) bilateral contracts, the fuel cost is then allocated between Domestic and Non-Domestic Supply using 
annually updated fixed percentages based on the historical split of tariff book volumes. Gas and Electricity balancing costs are allocated 
between Domestic and Non-Domestic Supply based on their respective volumes multiplied by an appropriate industry referenced price 
(for example APX or SAP).

• For electricity Supply the weighted average cost of electricity is shown as £/MWh. For gas Supply, the weighted average cost of gas is 

shown as p/th.

248 Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Basis of preparation
Direct costs
Direct costs for Supply and Generation are broken down into transportation (network) costs, environmental and social obligation costs and 
other direct costs. 

• Transportation costs for Supply and Generation include network transportation costs, BSUOS and the transport element of RBD costs. 

Supply transportation costs include transportation and LNG costs, including £37.1 million (2021: £37.5 million) incurred by Gas 
Domestic Supply, which enables the segment to secure supply by giving the ability to bring gas into the UK from overseas.

• Environmental and social obligation costs for Domestic Supply include ROCs, FIT, ECO and UK Capacity Market costs. Non-Domestic 
Supply includes the cost of LECs, ROCs, FIT and UK Capacity Market costs. Within the Domestic and Non-Domestic segments, the 
costs of LECs, FIT, ROCs and UK Capacity Market costs are included within Electricity, and ECO is allocated between Electricity and 
Gas based on the relevant legislation. Environmental and social obligation costs for the Generation segment relate to EU ETS carbon 
emission costs and carbon tax.

• Other direct costs for Generation include employee and maintenance costs.
• Other direct costs for Supply include brokers’ costs and sales commissions when the costs have given rise directly to revenue, that is, 

producing a sale. They also include Elexon and Xoserve market participation and wider smart metering programme costs.

Indirect costs
Indirect costs for Supply and Generation include operating costs such as sales and marketing, bad debt, costs to serve, IT, HR, finance, 
property, staffing and billing and metering costs (including smart meter costs).

• Indirect costs for the Generation, Domestic and Non-Domestic Supply segments (including corporate and business unit recharges) are 

allocated based on relevant drivers, which include turnover, headcount, operating profit, net book value of fixed assets and 
proportionate use/benefit. For Supply, indirect costs (including corporate recharges but excluding bad debt costs) are primarily allocated 
between Electricity and Gas on the basis of customer numbers (Domestic) and sites (Non-Domestic). Bad debt costs are allocated 
between Electricity and Gas on the basis of actual bad debt cost by individual contract in the billing system (Domestic) and on the basis 
of revenues (Non-Domestic).

Other 
• For Supply, depreciation and amortisation is allocated between Electricity and Gas on the basis of customer numbers (Domestic) and 

sites (Non-Domestic).

• For the purposes of Supply PAT, tax is allocated between Gas and Electricity within both Domestic and Non-Domestic Supply based on 

their relative proportions of EBIT. 

• For the Domestic Supply segment, customer numbers are stated based on the number of district meter point reference numbers 

(MPRNs) and meter point administration numbers (MPANs) in our billing system (for gas and electricity respectively), where it shows an 
active point of delivery and a meter installation. As a result, our customer numbers do not include those meter points where a meter 
may recently have been installed but the associated industry registration process has yet to complete, as the meter information will not 
be present in our billing system.

• For the Non-Domestic Supply segment, sites are based on the number of distinct MPRNs and MPANs in our billing system for gas and 

electricity respectively.

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

249

Basis of preparation

Transfer pricing for electricity, gas and generation licensees in accordance with paragraph 4(d)/19A.4(d)
There are no specific energy supply agreements between the Generation and Supply segments.

The Group continues to ensure transfer pricing methodologies are appropriate and up to date. In order to meet this requirement, the 
Group ensured all transfer pricing and cost allocation methodologies were internally reviewed, updated and collated in a central repository. 
Treatment of joint ventures and associates
The share of results of joint ventures and associates for the year ended 31 December 2022 principally arises from the Group’s interests in 
the entities listed on page 242.

Under paragraph 5 of the Conditions, the information provided in the CSS includes our gross share of revenues, costs, profits and 
volumes of joint ventures and associates. In preparing the CSS, joint ventures and associates (which hold a UK generation licence or 
exemption) are accounted for as follows:

• our proportionate share of revenues of joint ventures and associates has been included within revenue;
• our proportionate share of the profit before tax of joint ventures and associates has been included within EBIT and EBITDA; and
• our proportionate share of the generation volumes of joint ventures and associates has been included within the generation volumes.

For each of the above items, our share of the income and expenses of the joint ventures or associates has been combined line-by-line 
within the relevant item of the CSS.
Exceptional items and certain re-measurements
Impairment reversals that have been identified as exceptional items, and mark-to-market adjustments (alongside onerous supply contract 
provisions) in the Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022, are excluded from the CSS. For further details of excluded exceptional 
items and certain re-measurements see note 7 in the Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022. 

A reconciliation of the Segmental Statement revenue, EBIT and depreciation to the 2022 audited Centrica plc Annual Report and 
Accounts has been included in accordance with paragraphs 4(b) & (c)/19A.4 (b) & (c) and 6/19A.6.

250 Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Reconciliation to Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts
The reconciliation refers to the segmental analysis of the 2022 Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts in note 4. 

Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 
Segmental Analysis (i)

Segment revenue

Less non-UK and non-Generation/Supply

Segment revenue after non-UK and non-Generation/Supply

Reallocate British Gas Non-Domestic Supply element

Reallocate Centrica Business Solutions Generation element

Segment revenue after non-UK and non-Generation/Supply and 
reallocation of Generation element from Centrica Business Solutions to 
Upstream

)

m
£

(

e
u
n
e
v
e
R

Electricity and Gas allocation

Include share of JVs and associates

Exclude intra-segment revenues

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement

Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 
Segmental Analysis (i)

Segment EBIT

Less non-UK and non-Generation/Supply

Segment EBIT after non-UK and non-Generation/Supply

Reallocate British Gas Non-Domestic Supply element

Reallocate Centrica Business Solutions Generation element

Less Employee Profit share excluded from Segment EBIT

Segment EBIT after non-UK and non-Generation/Supply and reallocation of 
Generation element from Centrica Business Solutions to Upstream

Electricity and Gas allocation

Exclude share of JVs’ and associates’ interest and tax

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement

)

m
£
(
T
B
E

I

Supply segment

Domestic

Non-Domestic

Generation 
segment

Electricity

Notes

2022

2022

Gas

2022

Electricity

2022

Gas

2022

Upstream

British Gas Energy

  3,351.0 

13,096.0

1  

(2,147.3) 

—

  1,203.7 

2  

2  

— 

27.0 

13,096.0

(1,311.4)

—

Centrica Business 
Solutions

3,000.0

(257.4)

2,742.6

1,311.4

(27.0)

  1,230.7 

11,784.6

4,027.0

3  

4  

5  

—    5,904.9    5,879.7 

  2,902.2    1,124.8 

592.0   

(564.3)   

—   

—   

— 

— 

—   

—   

— 

— 

  1,258.4    5,904.9    5,879.7 

  2,902.2    1,124.8 

  1,793.0 

1  

(1,068.5) 

724.5 

— 

5.2 

2  

2  

3  

4  

72.0

—

72.0

(48.4)

—

(4.7)

44.0

36.8

80.8

48.4

(5.2)

(1.4)

729.7 

18.9

122.6

—   

68.3   

(49.4) 

51.7   

70.9 

28.5   

—   

— 

—   

— 

758.2   

68.3   

(49.4) 

51.7   

70.9 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

251

Reconciliation to Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts

Generation 
segment

)

m
£
(
n
o
i
t
a
s
i
t
r
o
m
a
d
n
a
n
o
i
t
a
c
e
r
p
e
D

i

Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 
Segmental Analysis (i)

Segment depreciation and amortisation

Less non-UK and non-Generation/Supply

Segment depreciation and amortisation after non-UK and                 
non-Generation/Supply

Reallocate British Gas Non-Domestic Supply element

Reallocate Centrica Business Solutions Generation element

Segment depreciation and amortisation after non-UK and                  
non-Generation/Supply and reallocation of Generation element 
from Centrica Business Solutions to Upstream

Electricity and Gas allocation

Include share of JVs and associates

Ofgem Consolidated Segmental Statement

Supply segment

Domestic

Non-Domestic

Notes

2022

2022

Electricity

Gas

2022

Electricity

2022

Gas

2022

Upstream

British Gas Energy

Centrica Business 
Solutions

(82.0)

—

(82.0)

1.5

—

(481.0) 

1  

481.0 

— 

— 

(1.7) 

2  

2  

3  

4  

(1.7) 

(80.5)

—   

(37.5)   

(43.0) 

(12.3)   

(156.7)   

—   

— 

—   

(158.4)   

(37.5)   

(43.0) 

(12.3)   

(5.2) 

— 

(5.2) 

(45.0)

27.3

(17.7)

(1.5)

1.7

(17.5)

(i) The tables reconcile the Generation segment to Upstream, the Domestic Supply segment to British Gas and the Non-Domestic Supply segment to Centrica Business 

Solutions from note 4 to the 2022 Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts. Also included in note 4 is a reconciliation to the IFRS compliant statutory result reported by 
the Centrica plc Group.

Notes:
1. Centrica Business Solutions includes Business Services and Solutions and Upstream includes Exploration and Production, which are 

non-licensed activities and have been deducted to reconcile these CSS numbers.

2. British Gas Energy includes supply activity to certain companies fulfilling the Non-Domestic definition. Centrica Business Solutions 

includes generation activity from the Group’s turbines, engines and battery assets.

3. The share of Domestic and Non-Domestic Revenues, Operating Profit (EBIT) and Depreciation (including amortisation) as provided in 

note 4 of the Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022, has been split between Electricity and Gas.

4. £592.0 million of revenues relating to the Group’s share of joint ventures and associates in Generation are included in the CSS for 

Nuclear revenues. £120.5 million of EBIT in the Generation segment relates to profits from associates for Nuclear. Additionally, costs 
relating to the Group’s share of joint ventures and associates: £78.0 million direct fuel costs, £194.4 million direct costs, £42.4 million 
indirect costs and £156.7 million depreciation and amortisation are included. Also, note that financing costs and tax of £(28.5) million 
are initially included in the Upstream segmental EBIT associated with nuclear. The results of joint ventures and associates are shown 
separately in the Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022 in notes 6 and 14. (Note that overall Nuclear indirect costs are less 
than the Nuclear associate indirect costs as a result of credits from recharges and provision releases in the non-associate books.) 

5. £564.3 million of intra-segment revenues between the joint ventures and associates and the Generation segment (included in the 

£592.0 million of joint venture and associate revenues) are excluded from the CSS.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
252 Other Information | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Shareholder Information

General enquiries
Centrica’s share register is administered and maintained by 
Equiniti, our Registrar, whom you can contact directly if you 
have any questions about your shareholding which are not 
answered here or on our website. You can contact Equiniti 
using the following details:

Address: Equiniti, Aspect House, Spencer Road, Lancing, 
West Sussex BN99 6DA, UK

Telephone: 0371 384 2985* 
Outside the UK: +44 (0)371 384 2985

Contact: help.shareview.co.uk

Website: equiniti.com

You can also contact Equiniti using the Relay UK website 
at relayuk.bt.com

*  Calls to an 03 number cost no more than a national rate call to an 01 or 

02 number. Lines open 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday (UK time), 
excluding public holidays in England and Wales.

When contacting Equiniti or registering via shareview.co.uk, you 
should have your shareholder reference number to hand. This can 
be found on your share certificate, dividend confirmation or any 
other correspondence you have received from Equiniti.

Together with Equiniti, we have introduced an electronic queries 
service to enable our shareholders to manage their investment at 
a convenient time. Details of this service can be found at 
shareview.co.uk.

Dividend
As communicated previously, dividends are now paid only by direct 
transfer to your bank or building society account, rather than by 
cheque. This is faster, more secure and better for the environment. 

If you have not already done so, please therefore provide Equiniti 
with your bank or building society account details. You can do 
this online at www.shareview.co.uk OR by telephoning Equiniti 
on +44 (0)371 384 2985.

American Depositary Receipt (ADR)
We have an ADR programme, trading under the symbol CPYYY. 
Centrica’s ratio is one ADR being equivalent to four ordinary 
shares. Further information is available on our website or 
please contact: 

Regular mail delivery address: BNY Mellon Shareowner Services, 
PO Box 505000, Louisville, KY 20233-5000, USA

Overnight, certified, registered delivery address: BNY Mellon 
Shareowner Services, 462 South 4th Street, Suite 1600, Louisville, 
KY 40202, USA

Email: shrrelations@cpshareownerservices.com

Website: mybnymdr.com

Telephone: +1 888 269 2377 (toll-free in the US) 

Outside the US: +1 201 680 6825

Manage your shares online
We actively encourage our shareholders to receive communications 
via email and view documents electronically via our website, 
centrica.com. Receiving communications and documents 
electronically saves your Company money and reduces our 
environmental impact. If you sign up for electronic communications, 
you will receive an email to notify you that new shareholder 
documents are available to view online, including the Annual Report 
and Accounts, on the day it is published.

You will also receive alerts to let you know that you can cast your 
Annual General Meeting (AGM) vote online. You can manage your 
shareholding online by registering at shareview.co.uk, a free online 
platform provided by Equiniti, which allows you to:

• view information about your shareholding;
• have your dividend paid into your bank account;
• update your personal details; and
• appoint a proxy for the AGM.

Centrica FlexiShare
FlexiShare is an easy way to hold Centrica shares without a share 
certificate. Your shares are held by a nominee company, Equiniti 
Financial Services Limited. However, you are able to attend and 
vote at general meetings as if the shares were held in your own 
name. Holding your shares in this way is free and gives you:

• low cost share dealing rates (full details of which are available 

on centrica.com, together with dealing charges);

• quicker settlement periods for buying and selling shares; and
• no paper share certificates to lose.

centrica.com
The Shareholder Centre on our website contains a wide range of 
information including a dedicated investors section where you can 
find further details about shareholder services including:

• share price information;
• dividend history; 
• telephone and internet share dealing;
• downloadable shareholder forms; and 
• taxation.

This Annual Report and Accounts can also be viewed online by 
visiting centrica.com/ar22.

ShareGift
If you have a small number of shares and the dealing costs or the 
minimum fee make it uneconomical to sell them, it is possible to 
donate them to ShareGift, a registered charity, which provides a 
free service to enable you to dispose charitably of such shares.

More information on this service can be found at sharegift.org or by 
calling +44 (0)20 7930 3737.

Financial calendar

Ex-dividend date for 2022 final dividend

Thursday, 8 June 2023

Record date for 2022 final dividend

Friday, 9 June 2023

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Tuesday, 13 June 2023

Payment of 2022 final dividend

Thursday, 20 July 2023

For more information on Centrica’s financial calendar please 
visit centrica.com/investors/financial-calendar

Additional Information – Explanatory Notes (Unaudited)

Other Information | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

253

Definitions and reconciliation of adjusted performance measures
Centrica’s 2022 consolidated Financial Statements include a number of non-GAAP measures. These measures are chosen as they 
provide additional useful information on business performance and underlying trends. They are also used to measure the Group’s 
performance against its strategic financial framework. They are not however, defined terms under IFRS and may not be comparable with 
similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Where possible they have been reconciled to the statutory equivalents from the 
primary statements (Group Income Statement (‘I/S’), Group Balance Sheet (‘B/S’), Group Cash Flow Statement (‘C/F’)) or the notes to the 
Financial Statements.

Adjusted revenue, adjusted gross margin, adjusted operating profit, adjusted earnings and free cash flow have been defined and 
reconciled separately in notes 2, 4 and 10 to the Financial Statements where further explanation of the measures is given. The Group has 
updated in the year its net debt adjusted performance measure to adjusted net debt, as the net debt adjusted performance measure now 
includes a loan of £400 million provided to the UK registered pension schemes. Additional performance measures are used within these 
Financial Statements to help explain the performance of the Group and these are defined and reconciled below. Further information has 
been provided to help readers when reconciling between different parts of the consolidated Group Financial Statements, and when 
reconciling cash flow measures to the Group Cash Flow Statement. 
Adjusted EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA is a business performance measure of operating profit, after adjusting for depreciation and amortisation. It provides 
a performance measure in its own right, and provides a bridge between the Income Statement and the Group’s key cash metrics. Further, 
a reconciliation excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets is provided.

Year ended 31 December 

Group operating (loss)/profit

Exceptional items included within Group operating loss/profit and certain re-measurements 
before taxation

Certain re-measurements before taxation
Share of (profits)/losses of joint ventures and associates, net of interest and taxation (i)
Depreciation and impairments of PP&E (i)
Amortisation, write-downs and impairments of intangibles (i)

Group total adjusted EBITDA

(i) These line items relate to business performance only.

Adjusted EBITDA excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets

Year ended 31 December 

Group total adjusted EBITDA

Less disposed assets adjusted EBITDA (including associated hedges)

Adjusted EBITDA excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets

Adjusted operating profit excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets

Year ended 31 December 

Group total adjusted operating profit

Less disposed assets adjusted operating profit (including associated hedges)

Adjusted operating profit excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets

Notes

I/S  

Change

Notes

I/S  

7  

7  

I/S  

4  

4  

2022
£m

(240)   

155   

3,393   

(92)   

598   

179   

2021
£m

954 

(1,247) 

1,241 

103 

583 

216 

3,993   

1,850 

 116% 

2022
£m

3,993   

(485)   

3,508   

2022
£m

3,308   

(485)   

2,823   

2021
£m

1,850 

(803) 

1,047 

2021
£m

948 

(556) 

392 

Change

 235% 

Change

 620% 

 
 
 
 
 
 
254 Other Information | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

The below table shows how adjusted EBITDA reconciles to free cash flow:

Year ended 31 December 

Adjusted EBITDA

Notes

2022
£m

2021
£m

3,993   

1,850 

Group operating (loss)/profit including share of joint ventures and associates, from exceptional items and certain 
re-measurements

I/S  

(3,548)   

Share of profits of joint ventures and associates, net of interest and taxation, from exceptional items and certain 
re-measurements

Depreciation, amortisation, write downs, impairments and write-backs, from exceptional items and certain re-
measurements

Loss on disposals

(Decrease)/increase in provisions

Cash contributions to defined benefit schemes in excess of service cost income statement charge

Employee share scheme costs

Unrealised losses/(gains) arising from re-measurement of energy contracts

Exceptional charges reflected directly in operating profit

Net movement in working capital

Taxes paid

Operating interest paid

Payments relating to exceptional charges in operating profit

Net cash flow from operating activities

Purchase of businesses, net of cash acquired

Sale of businesses

Purchase of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets

Sale of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets

(Investment in)/disposal of joint ventures and associates

Dividends received from joint ventures and associates

UK Pension deficit payments

Movements in variation margin and collateral

Free cash flow from continuing operations

I/S  

I/S  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

4  

4  

4  

6 

— 

(1,214) 

28 

(1)   

(207)   

343   

(1,903)   

2,434 

(184)   

10   

(388) 

12 

4,095   

(1,159) 

—   

(656)   

(574)   

(30)   

(24)   

12 

246 

(140) 

— 

(76) 

1,314   

1,611 

12   

92   

(371)   

11   

(18)   

60   

214   

1,173   

2,487   

(14) 

70 

(420) 

36 

2 

2 

368 

(481) 

1,174 

Adjusted earnings attributable to shareholders excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets

Year ended 31 December 

Adjusted earnings attributable to shareholders

Less disposed assets adjusted earnings attributable to shareholders (including associated hedges) 

Adjusted earnings attributable to shareholders excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets

Notes

2022
£m

I/S  

2,050   

(45)   

2,005   

2021
£m

237 

(75) 

162 

Change

 1,138% 

Adjusted basic earnings per share excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets

Year ended 31 December 

Adjusted earnings attributable to shareholders excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets (£m)

Weighted average of ordinary shares in issue during the period (million shares) 

Adjusted basic earnings per share excluding Spirit Energy disposed assets

Notes

10  

2022

2,005   

5,869   

34.2p

2021

162 

5,836 

2.8p

Change

 1,121% 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Other Information | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

255

Definitions and reconciliation of adjusted performance measures
Loss on disposals 

Year ended 31 December 

Loss on disposals

Less: exceptional loss on disposals

Profit on disposals relating to business performance

Notes

C/F  

7  

2022
£m

343   

(362)   

(19)   

2021
£m

28 

(31) 

(3) 

Group net investment
With an increased focus on cash generation, capital discipline and managing net debt/cash, Group net investment provides a measure of 
the Group’s capital expenditure from a cash perspective and allows the Group’s capital discipline to be assessed.

Year ended 31 December 
Capital expenditure (including small acquisitions) (i)
Net disposals (ii)

Group net investment

Dividends received from joint ventures and associates

Interest received

Net purchase of securities

Net cash flow used in continuing investing activities

Notes

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

2022
£m

377   

(103)   

274   

(60)   

(46)   

398   

566   

Change

 (16) %

2021
£m

434 

(108) 

326 

(2) 

(2) 

3 

325 

 74% 

(i) Capital expenditure is the net cash flow on capital expenditure, purchases of businesses and investments in joint ventures and associates (less than £100 million). See 

table (a).

(ii) Net disposals is the net cash flow from sales of businesses, property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, and disposals of investments in joint ventures and 

associates. See table (b).

Group net investment is capital expenditure including acquisitions less net disposals. It excludes cash flows from investing activities not 
associated with capital expenditure as detailed in the table above.

(a) Capital expenditure (including small acquisitions)

Year ended 31 December 

Purchase of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets

Purchase of businesses, net of cash acquired

Investment in joint ventures and associates

Less: material acquisitions (>£100 million)

Capital expenditure (including small acquisitions)

(b) Net disposals

Year ended 31 December 

Sale of businesses

Sale of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets

Disposal of joint ventures and associates

Net disposals

Notes

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

Notes

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

2022
£m

371   

(12)   

18   

—   

377   

2022
£m

(92)   

(11)   

—   

2021
£m

420 

14 

— 

— 

434 

2021
£m

(70) 

(36) 

(2) 

Change

 (13) %

Change

(103)   

(108) 

 (5) %

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
256 Other Information | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Definitions and reconciliation of adjusted performance measures
The following tables provide additional information to help readers when reconciling between different parts of the consolidated Group 
Financial Statements, and the Group Cash Flow Statement.

Reconciliation from free cash flow to change in adjusted net cash/(debt) 

Year ended 31 December 

Free cash flow from continuing operations

Free cash flow from discontinued operations

Group total free cash flow

Financing interest paid

Interest received

UK Pension deficit payments

Payments for own shares

Share buyback programme

Distributions to non-controlling interests

Equity dividends paid

Proceeds from sale of forfeited share capital

Movements in variation margin and collateral

Cash flows affecting adjusted net cash/debt

Discontinued operations non-cash movements in adjusted net cash/debt

Non-cash movements in adjusted net cash/debt

Change in adjusted net cash/debt

Opening adjusted net cash/(debt)

Closing adjusted net cash

Notes

4  

4  

4  

C/F  

C/F  

4  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

C/F  

4  

24  

24  

2022
£m

2,487   

—   

2,487   

(172)   

46   

(214)   

(5)   

(43)   

(273)   

(59)   

—   

(1,173)   

594   

—   

(75)   

519   

680   

1,199   

Reconciliation of adjusted net cash to unadjusted net cash
Adjusted net cash/(debt) is a business performance measure used by management to assess the underlying indebtedness of the 
business.

Year ended 31 December 

Adjusted net cash

Less: current and non-current securities

Less: sub-lease assets

Unadjusted net cash

Payments relating to exceptional charges in operating costs

Year ended 31 December 

Restructuring costs incurred during the year and utilisation of prior year liabilities

Payments relating to exceptional charges in continuing operating costs

Notes

24  

24  

24  

Notes

C/F  

2022
£m

1,199   

(525)   

(2)   

672   

2022
£m

24   

24   

2021
£m

1,174 

2,588 

3,762 

(233) 

2 

(368) 

— 

— 

— 

— 

1 

481 

3,645 

32 

1 

3,678 

(2,998) 

680 

2021
£m

680 

(156) 

(2) 

522 

2021
£m

76 

76 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Other Information | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

257

Definitions and reconciliation of adjusted performance measures
Depreciation, amortisation, write-downs, impairments and write-backs

Year ended 31 December 

Movement from depreciation, amortisation, write-downs, impairments and write-backs, from exceptional 
items included in the Group Cash Flow Statement

Made up of:

Write-back of E&P assets

Write-back of power assets

Impairment of Centrica Business Solutions goodwill and other assets

Impairment of property

Movement from depreciation, amortisation, write-downs, impairments and write-backs, from business 
performance included in the Group Cash Flow Statement

Made up of:

Business Performance PP&E depreciation

Business Performance PP&E impairments

Business Performance intangibles amortisation

Business Performance intangibles impairments and write-downs

Business Performance E&E write-downs

Notes

2022
£m

2021
£m

7   

7   

7   

7   

7   

4   

4   

4   

4   

4   

(207)   

(1,214) 

—   

(207)   

—   

—   

(598) 

(747) 

123 

8 

777   

799 

510   

88   

159   

20   

—   

580 

3 

188 

3 

25 

Movement from depreciation, amortisation, write-downs, impairments and write-backs included in the 
Group Cash Flow Statement

570   

(415) 

Reconciliation of receivables and payables to Group Cash Flow Statement

Year ended 31 December 

Receivables opening balance

Less: receivables closing balance

Payables opening balance

Less: payables closing balance

Net increase in receivables and payables

Non-cash changes, and other reconciling items:

Share buyback liability

Transferred to held for sale and business disposals

Movement in capital creditors

Movement in ROCS and emission certificate intangible assets

Other movements (including foreign exchange movements)

Non-cash charges, and other reconciling items

Notes

B/S  

B/S  

B/S  

B/S  

2022
£m

6,114   

(8,579)   

(7,633)   

10,341   

243   

(207)   

(22)   

6   

(67)   

(16)   

(306)   

2021
£m

2,946 

(6,114) 

(3,836) 

7,633 

629 

— 

(29) 

10 

(8) 

5 

(22) 

Movement in trade and other receivables, trade and other payables and contract-related assets relating 
to business performance

C/F  

(63)   

607 

Pensions

Year ended 31 December 

Cash contributions to defined benefit schemes in excess of service cost income statement charge

Ordinary employer contributions

UK Pension deficit payments

Contributions by employer in respect of employee salary sacrifice arrangements

Total current service cost

Past service credit

Termination benefit

Notes

C/F  

22  

22  

22  

22  

22  

22  

2022
£m

(184)   

50   

214   

21   

(105)   

—   

4   

2021
£m

(388) 

52 

368 

20 

(105) 

1 

52 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
258 Other Information | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

People and Planet –
Performance Measures

In 2022, we engaged DNV Business Assurance Services UK Limited (DNV) to conduct an independent limited assurance engagement 
using the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): ‘Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits or 
Reviews of Historical Financial Information’. DNV has provided an unqualified opinion in relation to five KPIs that are identified with the 
symbol ‘†’ and feature on pages 1, 27, 43, 52 to 53, 258 and 260. It is important to read the responsible business information in the 
Annual Report and Accounts 2022 in the context of DNV’s full limited assurance statement and Centrica’s Basis of Reporting, which are 
available at centrica.com/assurance 

+  Read more about our People & Planet Plan on Pages 39 to 45

+  Read more about our wider non-financial performance at centrica.com/datacentre

+  Read more about our SASB disclosure at centrica.com/peopleandplanet

Progress against our People & Planet Plan     

  Key: Progress against goals   On track l  Behind ¢

Goal 

Create an engaged team that reflects the 
full diversity of the communities we serve 
by 2030 – this means all company and 
senior leaders to be(i): 
• 47% women
• 14% ethnically diverse
• 15% disability
• 3% LGBTQ+
• 3% ex-service 

Milestone 

By the end of 2022: 
• 30% women
• 13% ethnically diverse
• 4% disability
• 3% LGBTQ+ 
• 3% ex-service 

2022 Progress
All company:(ii)

• 30% women

– 41% excluding 
field engineers

• 14% ethnically diverse

• 3% disability

• 3% LGBTQ+

• 2% ex-service

2021 Progress
All company:(ii)
l • 28% women
l

– 44% excluding 
field engineers
l • 12% ethnically diverse
¢ • 1% disability
l • 2% LGBTQ+
¢ • 2% ex-service

Senior leaders:(ii)

• 33%women

– 32%excluding 
field engineers

• 9% ethnically diverse

• 3% disability

• 0% LGBTQ+

• 3% ex-service

1,033 apprentices

Senior leaders:(ii)
l • 28% women
l

– 29%excluding 
field engineers

¢ • 9% ethnically diverse
¢ • 1% disability
¢ • 1% LGBTQ+
l • 2% ex-service
l 666 apprentices(iii) 

¢

l

¢

¢

l
l

¢
l

¢

¢

¢
l
l

¢

l

l

1,000 apprentices by the end 
of 2022

Recruit 3,500 apprentices and provide 
career development opportunities for 
under-represented groups by 2030
(base year 2021)

Inspire colleagues to give 100,000 days 
to build inclusive communities by 2030
(base year 2019) 
Help our customers be net zero by 2050(iv) 
(base year 2019) 
Be a net zero business by 2045(vi)
(base year 2019) 

20,000 days by the end of 2022

12,987 days

¢ 10,889 days

28% carbon intensity reduction by 
the end of 2030

40% carbon reduction by the end 
of 2034 

6% reduction

¢ 17% reduction(iii)(v)

6%† reduction

l 53% reduction(vii)

Included in DNV’s independent limited assurance report referenced at the top of this page.

† 
(i) Our 2030 goal was based on 2011 Census data for working populations. For 2023 annual reporting onwards, our goal will be re-aligned to the recently released 2021 

Census data of 48% women, 18% ethnically diverse, 20% disability, 3% LGBTQ+ and 4% ex-service.

(ii) Beyond gender, 2021 disclosure is based on 65% of colleagues disclosing their diversity data and 70% in 2022. Senior leaders include colleagues above general 

management and spans senior managers, the Centrica Leadership Team and the Board.

(iii) Restated due to availability of improved data. 
(iv) Net zero goal measures the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of our customers’ energy use including electricity and gas with a 2019 base year of 183gCO2e/kWh, 

normalised to reflect acquisitions and divestments in line with changes in Group customer base. Target aligned to the Paris Agreement and based on science to limit 
global warming, corresponding to a well below 2°C pathway initially and 1.5°C by mid-century. 

(v) Previous figure included in DNV’s limited assurance scope for the Annual Report 2021 was an 18% reduction. 
(vi) Net zero goal measures scope 1 (direct) and 2 (indirect) GHG emissions based on operator boundary, which now includes all emissions from our shipping activities 

relating to Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) alongside the retained Spirit Energy assets in the UK and Netherlands. Non-operated nuclear emissions are excluded. Target is 
normalised to reflect acquisitions and divestments in line with changes in Group structure against a 2019 base year of 2,132,680mtCO2e. It’s also aligned to the Paris 
Agreement and based on science to limit global warming, corresponding to a well below 2°C pathway initially and 1.5°C by mid-century.

(vii) Restated due to LNG shipping and Spirit Energy’s remaining assets moving into scope in 2022. 

Other Information | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

259

Progress against our Foundations
People

Metric

Customers

British Gas Services & Solutions – 
Services Engineer Net Promoter 
Score (NPS)(i)

British Gas Energy – Energy 
Touchpoint NPS(ii)

Bord Gáis Energy – Journey 
NPS(iv)

British Gas Services & Solutions – 
Services complaints per 
customer(v) 

British Gas Energy – Energy 
complaints per customer(vi)

Bord Gáis Energy – Complaints 
per customer(v)

Vulnerable customers helped 
through the UK Warm Home 
Discount scheme

Customer safety incident 
frequency rate per 1,000,000 jobs 
completed

2022

+64

+13

+19

2021

+60

 +11(iii)

+30

What’s next 

Continue to deliver energy, services and solutions that help our 
customers live sustainably, simply and affordably

12.6%

12.1%

Maintain focus on driving down complaints by improving customer 
experience 

14.4%

2.2%

8.5%

1.6%

589,460

535,866

Ensure customers in vulnerable circumstances receive the help they 
need with their energy bills

3.64

3.03

Consistently follow existing controls as well as encourage customers to 
maintain distance from work areas

(i) Measured independently, through individual questionnaires, the customer’s willingness to recommend British Gas following an engineer visit.
(ii) Measured independently, through individual questionnaires and the customer’s willingness to recommend British Gas following contact.
(iii) Restated to reflect the average weighted score by channel across the year. 
(iv) Weighted NPS for the main customer interaction channels.
(v) Total complaints, measured as any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, as a percentage of average customers over the year. 
(vi) Total complaints, measured as an expression of dissatisfaction in line with submissions made to Ofgem, as a percentage of average customers over the year. 

Metric

Colleagues
Colleague engagement(i)

2022

73%

2021

55%

Gender pay gap(ii)

23% median

30% median

15% mean

20% mean

Gender bonus gap(iii)

12% median

10% median

Ethnicity pay gap(ii)(iv)

10% median

13% median

30% mean

31% mean

Ethnicity bonus gap(iii)(iv)

23% median

12% median

3% mean

0% mean

Retention 

Absence(v)

0% mean

4% mean

88%

72%

10 days 

12 days 

Total recordable injury frequency 
rate (TRIFR) per 200,000 hours 
worked 

1.12

Lost time incident frequency rate 
(LTIFR) per 200,000 hours worked

0.67

Process safety incident frequency 
rate (Tier 1 and 2) per 200,000 
hours worked 

Significant process safety events 
(Tier 1)

Fatalities

0

0

1

1.07

0.72

0.20

0

0

What’s next 

Continue to improve colleague experience by connecting colleagues 
with our Purpose and leaders, whilst supporting everyone to perform 
at their best 

Drive action through our People & Planet Plan to create an engaged 
team that reflects the full diversity of the communities we serve 

Improve retention through our focus on talent development whilst 
providing a supportive and inclusive culture 

Reduce absence through good management practices alongside 
proactive support and education via our health and wellbeing suite 
of support 

Drive down TRIFR and LTIFR by keeping safety front-of-mind 
and reinforcing a strong safety culture whilst advancing controls 
and monitoring

Continue to ensure robust operational controls and operator 
competencies, timely safety-critical maintenance programmes 
and effective performance management

Return to zero fatalities

(i) Measured through colleague responses to a survey asking them to rate how they feel about the company. 
(ii) Based on hourly rates of pay for all employees at full pay (including bonus and allowances) at the snapshot dates of 5 April 2021 and 2022. Read our Gender and Ethnicity 

Pay Statement to find out more at centrica.com/paygap. 
Includes anyone receiving a bonus during the 12-month period leading up to the pay gap snapshot date and who are still employed on the snapshot date. 

(iii)
(iv) Based on 65% of colleagues who confirmed whether they are from a Black, Asian, Mixed/Multiple or other ethnic group in 2021 and 70% in 2022.
(v) Relates to absence from sickness rather than wider forms of absence such as bereavement. 

 
260 Other Information | Centrica plc Annual Report and Accounts 2022

Metric

Communities

Total community
contributions 

2022

2021

What’s next 

£293.4 million(i)

£307.8 million(ii)

On the ground site audits 
completed

Sites completing remote 
worker surveys

Colleagues committed to 
Our Code 

9

6

98%

7

7

98%

Make a big difference in our local communities – from helping 
people with their energy bills and energy efficiency, to 
volunteering and fundraising for causes colleagues feel 
passionately about 

Continue to monitor and raise standards across our supply 
chain to reduce risk and guard against modern slavery, 
focusing on enhancing engagement and controls

Ensure all colleagues uphold Our Code as part of our 
commitment to doing the right thing and acting with integrity 

(i) Comprises £243.8 million in mandatory and £45.1 million in voluntary contributions to support vulnerable customers, alongside £4.5 million in charitable donations 

which includes £0.23 million in contributions from third parties such as colleague fundraising. 

(ii) Comprises £304.8 million in mandatory and £2.0 million in voluntary contributions to support vulnerable customers, alongside £0.96 million in charitable donations 

which includes £0.21 million in contributions from third parties such as colleague fundraising. Restated due to availability of improved data. 

Planet

Metric

Greenhouse gas (GHG) 
and energy 

Total GHG emissions 
(scope 1 and 2)(i)

Scope 1 emissions 

Scope 2 emissions 
Scope 3 emissions(x)

Total GHG intensity
by revenue(xii) 
Total energy use 

Water, waste and
non-compliance

Total water use

2022

2021

What’s next 

2,007,655tCO2e†(ii)

1,032,807tCO2e(iii)(iv)(v)

Measure and reduce our emissions through our People & 
Planet Plan, whereby we’re focused on being a net zero 
business by 2045 and helping our customers be net zero 
by 2050

1,018,888tCO2e(iv)(v)(vii)
13,919tCO2e(iv)(v)(ix)
22,812,989tCO2e(xi)
70tCO2e/£m(iv)(xiv)

1,994,153tCO2e†(vi)
13,502tCO2e†(viii)
24,330,208tCO2e
85tCO2e/£m(xiii)

9,047,097,047kWh†(xv)

317,760m3

Continue to analyse the impact of our strategy on decoupling 
GHG emissions from value creation
3,561,052,815kWh(iv)(v)(xvi) Remain focused on energy efficiency as we strive to be a net 

zero business by 2045

245,242m3(iv)
18,060 tonnes(iv)
12(iv)

Effectively monitor, manage and reduce our water use and 
waste production, as well as our incidence of environmental 
non-compliance

Total waste generated 

18,686 tonnes

Environmental 
non-compliance(xvii) 

22

Included in DNV’s independent limited assurance report. See page 258 or centrica.com/assurance for more. 

Reporting is based on operator boundary which is the more commonly used approach set out by the WRI/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and now includes all emissions 
from our shipping activities relating to LNG alongside the retained Spirit Energy assets in the UK and Netherlands. Non-operated nuclear emissions are excluded. 
† 
(i) Comprises scope 1 and scope 2 emissions as defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
(ii) Comprises UK 737,725tCO2e and non-UK 1,269,930tCO2e. 
(iii) Comprises UK 757,518tCO2e and non-UK 275,289tCO2e. 
(iv) Restated due to LNG shipping and the retained Spirit Energy assets in the UK and Netherlands moving into scope following the transition to become a fully operated 

joint venture in 2022. 

(v) Previous figures included in DNV’s limited assurance scope for the Annual Report 2021 was 226,904tCO2e for total carbon emissions, 222,064tCO2e for scope 1, 

4,840tCO2e for scope 2 and 1,142,249,379kWh for total energy use.

(vi) Comprises UK 725,422tCO2e and non-UK 1,268,731tCO2e.
(vii) Comprises UK 746,243tCO2e and non-UK 272,645tCO2e.
(viii) Market-based. Location-based is 16,261tCO2e. Comprises UK 12,302tCO2e and non-UK 1,200tCO2e
(ix) Market-based. Location-based is 19,592tCO2e. Comprises UK 11,276tCO2e and non-UK 2,643tCO2e.
(x)

Includes emissions from the following scope 3 categories defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol: purchased goods and services, capital goods, fuel and 
energy-related activities, waste generated in operations, business travel, employee commuting, upstream and downstream transportation and distribution, use 
of sold product and investments. All emissions are calculated in line with the methodologies set out by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s technical guidance, apart 
from working from home emissions which are based on methodology set out in EcoAct’s homeworking emissions whitepaper. Other categories spanning upstream 
leased assets, processing of sold products, end-of-life treatment of sold product, downstream leased assets and franchises, are not included because they are 
not relevant to our business.

(xi) Restated due to availability of improved data.  
(xii) Carbon intensity of revenue is employed as our intensity measure because it is the most meaningful intensity measure for our diverse business and is the most widely 

used and understood measure for climate-related stakeholders such as CDP. Based on statutory revenue. 

(xiii) Comprises UK 42tCO2e/£m and non-UK 203tCO2e/£m.
(xiv) Comprises UK 70tCO2e/£m and non-UK 71tCO2e/£m. 
(xv) Comprises UK & Offshore 2,394,832,533kWh and non-UK energy use 6,652,264,514kWh. 
(xvi) Comprises UK & Offshore 2,263,144,251kWh and non-UK energy use 1,297,908,564kWh.
(xvii) Includes breaches of environmental authorisation including permit, licence and consent coupled with wider environmental legislation where we are either required 

to notify the regulator or where an authority or regulator is involved. The majority of incidents relate to offshore activities.

Glossary

$

Refers to US dollars unless specified otherwise

2P reserves

Proven and probable reserves

Acas

AGM

AIP

bcf

CHP
CO2e

CPI

CSS

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service is an independent 
public body that receives funding from the UK Government to provide 
employees and employers with free impartial advice on workplace 
rights and to help resolve disputes

Annual General Meeting

Annual Incentive Plan

Billion cubic feet

Combined heat and power

Universal unit of measurement of the global warming potential (GWP) 
of greenhouse gases (GHG) expressed in terms of the GWP of one 
unit of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent)
Consumer Price Index

Consolidated Segmental Statement

Data analytics

The process of examining data sets to draw conclusions and insights 
about the information they contain

DEEPAC

EBITDA

EBT

EP

EPS

ESG

Direct Energy Employee Political Action Committee

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation

Employee Benefit Trust

Economic profit

Earnings per share

Environmental, Social & Governance

Ethnically diverse Colleagues from a Black, Asian, Mixed or Other ethnic background

EV

EU

FCA

FCF

FRS

GDPR

GHG

GM

GMB

Electric vehicle

European Union

Financial Conduct Authority

Free cash flow

Financial Reporting Standards

General Data Protection Regulation

Greenhouse gas emissions 

Gross margin 

Trade union

Green jobs

Jobs that have a direct positive impact on the planet

GW

GWh

HSES

IAS

IFRS

KPI

kWh

LGBTQ+

Gigawatt

Gigawatt hours

Health, Safety, and Environmental Services

International Accounting Standards

International Financial Reporting Standards

Key performance indicators

Kilowatt hour

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), and 
others. The ‘plus’ is inclusive of other groups such as asexual, 
intersex and pansexual

Designed and produced by 
www.salterbaxter.com
This report is printed on recycled silk papers made from 100% 
pre and post-consumer waste. The paper mills are based in 
the European Union and manufacture papers independently 
audited and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) 
and accredited to the Environmental Management System 14001.

The paper is carbon balanced. Balancing is delivered by World 
Land Trust, an international conservation charity, who offset carbon 
emissions through the purchase and preservation of high 
conservation value land.

Through protecting standing forests, under threat of clearance, 
carbon is locked in that would otherwise be released. These 
protected forests are then able to continue absorbing carbon from 
the atmosphere, referred to as REDD (Reduced Emissions from 
Deforestation and forest Degradation). This is now recognised as 
one of the most cost-effective and swiftest ways to arrest the rise in 
atmospheric CO2 and global warming effects. Additional to the 
carbon benefits is the flora and fauna this land preserves, including 
a number of species identified at risk of extinction on the IUCN Red 
List of Threatened Species.

Printed by Pureprint Group ISO14001, FSC® certified 
and CarbonNeutral®.

CBP00019082504183028

LNG

LTIFR 

mmboe

MThms

Net zero

NGO

NPS

Ofgem

Paris Accord

PP&E

ppt

Process safety

PRA

PRT

PWR

RBD

ROC

RPI

SASB

SAYE

SESC

SIP
tCO2e
T&Cs

TCFD

Liquefied natural gas

Lost time injury frequency rate

Million barrels of oil equivalent

Million therms

The point at which there is a balance between human-related  
carbon dioxide (CO2) being emitted into the atmosphere and  
the CO2 taken out
Non-governmental organisation

Net promoter score

The government regulator for gas and electricity markets in 
Great Britain

A global agreement to keep temperature rise well below 2°C above 
pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C

Property, Plant and Equipment

Percentage point

Process safety is concerned with the prevention of harm to people 
and the environment, or asset damage from major incidents such as 
fires, explosions and accidental releases of hazardous substances

Prudential Regulatory Authority

Petroleum Revenue Tax

Pressurised water reactor

Reconciliation by difference

Renewable Obligation Certificate

Retail Price Index

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board

Save As You Earn

Safety, Environment and Sustainability Committee

Share Incentive Plan

Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent

Terms and Conditions

Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures

The Company

Centrica plc

The Group

Centrica plc and all of its subsidiary entities

TRIFR

TSR

TWh

UAOCF

Under-
represented 
groups 

VIU

WBCSD

WRI

Total recordable injury frequency rate

Total shareholder return

Terawatt hour

Underlying adjusted operating cash flow

A person or group of people who are insufficiently or inadequately 
represented in society such as women apprentices or those who  
are ethnically diverse, have a disability, are LGBTQ+ or carers

Value in use

World Business Council for Sustainable Development

World Resources Institute

Disclaimer
This Annual Report does not constitute an invitation to underwrite, subscribe for, 
or otherwise acquire or dispose of any of the Company’s shares or other securities.

This Annual Report and Accounts contains certain forward-looking statements. 
Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as ‘intend’, 
‘aim’, ‘project’, ‘anticipate’, ‘estimate’, ‘plan’, ‘believe’, ‘expect’, ‘forecasts’, ‘may’, ‘could’, 
‘should’, ‘will’, ‘continue’ or similar words. The forward-looking statements appear in a 
number of places throughout this Annual Report and Accounts and include statements 
regarding the current intentions, beliefs or expectations of the Directors, the Company 
and/or the Group concerning, among other things, the financial condition, goals and 
commitments, prospects, growth, strategies, results, operations and businesses 
of the Company.

Although we make such statements based on assumptions that we believe to be 
reasonable, by their nature, these forward-looking statements are subject to risk and 
uncertainties because they relate to, and may be impacted by, events and circumstances 
that will occur in the future which are beyond the Company’s ability to control or estimate 
precisely. There can be no assurance that the Company’s actual future results, financial 
condition, performance, operations and businesses will not differ materially from those 
expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, 
including, but not limited to, those set out in the ‘Our Principal Risks and Uncertainties’ 
section of the Strategic Report. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking 
statements are not guarantees or predictions of the Company’s future performance 
and undue reliance should not be placed on them when making investment decisions.

At any time subsequent to the publication of the Annual Report and Accounts, neither 
the Company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and 
completeness or undertakes any obligation, to update or revise any of these forward-
looking statements to reflect any new information or any changes in events, conditions 
or circumstances on which any such forward-looking statement is based save in respect 
of any requirement under applicable law or regulation.

Past performance is no guide to future performance and persons needing advice should 
consult an independent financial adviser.

 
Centrica plc

Registered office:
Millstream
Maidenhead Road
Windsor
Berkshire
SL4 5GD

Company registered
in England and Wales
No. 3033654

centrica.com

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