Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2025 121
Strategic report
Governance
Financials
Other information
Independent auditor’s report to the members of Vodafone Group Plc continued
In planning and performing our audit we assessed the potential impacts of climate change on the Group’s business and any consequential material impact on its financial statements. The Group has explained in Note 1 Basis of Preparation to the consolidated financial statements, environmental, regulatory and other factors responsive to climate change risks are still developing, and are outside of the Group’s control, and consequently financial statements cannot capture all possible future outcomes as these are not yet known. The degree of certainty of these changes may also mean that they cannot be taken into account when determining asset and liability valuations and the timing of future cash flows under the requirements of UK adopted international accounting standards. The significant accounting estimates and judgements assessed by management to be potentially impacted by climate risks have been described in Note 1. Our audit effort in considering the impact of climate change on the consolidated financial statements was focused on evaluating management’s assessment of the impact of climate risk, physical and transition, their climate commitments, the effects of material climate risks disclosed on pages 61 to 66 and the significant judgements and estimates disclosed in note 1 and whether these have been appropriately reflected in asset values and associated disclosures where values are determined through modelling future cash flows, being ‘Goodwill’, ‘Other intangible assets’ and ‘Deferred tax assets’, and in the timing and nature of liabilities recognised, being ‘Asset Retirement Obligations’. As part of this evaluation, we performed our own risk assessment, supported by our climate change internal specialists, to determine the risks of material misstatement in the financial statements from climate change which needed to be considered in our audit. We also challenged the Directors’ considerations of climate change risks in their assessment of going concern and viability and associated disclosures. Where considerations of climate change were relevant to our assessment of going concern, these are described above. Based on our work we have not identified the impact of climate change on the financial statements to be a key audit matter or to materially impact a key audit matter. Key audit matters Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgment, 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 our opinion thereon, and we do not provide a separate opinion on these matters.
financial information of the component (“specific scope components”). For the remaining 3 components, we performed specified audit procedures to obtain evidence for one or more relevant assertions on specific account balances. Our scoping to address the risk of material misstatement for each key audit matter is set out in the Key audit matters section of the report. Involvement with component teams In establishing our overall approach to the Group audit, we determined the type of work that needed to be undertaken at each of the components by us, as the Group audit engagement team, or by component auditors operating under our instruction. Of the 7 full scope components, audit procedures were performed on 2 of these directly by the Group audit team with the remaining 5 being performed by component audit teams. For the 6 specific scope components, the audit procedures were performed on 4 of these directly by the Group audit team with the remaining 2 being performed by component audit teams. For the 3 specified procedures scope components, audit procedures were performed directly by the Group audit team for 2 components and by a component audit team for the remaining component. Where the work was performed by component auditors, we determined the appropriate level of involvement to enable us to determine that sufficient audit evidence had been obtained as a basis for our opinion on the consolidated financial statements as a whole. The Group audit team continued to follow a programme of planned visits that has been designed to ensure that the Senior Statutory Auditor, or another Group audit partner, visits all full and specific scope locations each year. During the current year’s audit cycle, visits were undertaken by the Group audit team to the component teams in Germany, UK, South Africa, Türkiye and Egypt as well as to VOIS in India. These visits involved meetings with local management, understanding the overall audit approach, including key issues and responses as well as reviewing key work papers on risk areas. The Senior Statutory Auditor, also remotely attended audit closing meetings with component teams and management of all full scope and specific scope locations. The Group audit team interacted regularly with the component teams where appropriate, during various stages of the audit, were responsible for the scope and direction of the audit process and reviewed relevant working papers. Where relevant, the section on key audit matters details the level of involvement we had with component auditors to enable us to determine that sufficient audit evidence had been obtained as a basis for our opinion on the Group as a whole. This, together with the additional procedures performed at Group level, gave us appropriate evidence for our opinion on the consolidated financial statements. Climate change Stakeholders are increasingly interested in how climate change will impact Vodafone Group Plc. The Group has determined that the most significant future impacts from climate change on its operations will be from its Planet activities and commitments set out on pages 34 to 38 and the material climate-related physical and transitional risks explained on pages 61 to 66 in the required Task Force for Climate related Financial Disclosures, both of which form part of the “Other information,” rather than the audited consolidated financial statements. Our procedures on these unaudited disclosures therefore consisted solely of considering whether they are materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit or otherwise appear to be materially misstated, in line with our responsibilities on “Other information”.
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