Financial Statements

Notes to the Group financial statements

for the year ended 31 March 2006

7. Employee benefit costs and employee numbers

The aggregate employee costs for the continuing operations of the Group were as follows:

	Notes	2006 £m	2005 £m
Wages and salaries		1,138	974
Social security costs		124	115
Share-based payments	31	29	24
Pension costs – defined benefit plans	25	39	29
Pension costs – defined contribution plans	25	20	14
Total continuing operations		1,350	1,156

The average number of employees (including executive directors) in the continuing operations of the Group during the year was:

	2006				2005
			Full time				Full time
	Full time	Part time	equivalent		Full time	Part time	equivalent
Argos Retail Group
Argos	9,365	23,067	18,694		8,541	22,093	17,045
Homebase	6,442	12,342	11,463		6,353	11,488	11,061
Financial Services	168	39	190		104	20	116
	15,975	35,448	30,347		14,998	33,601	28,222
Experian	11,502	597	11,799		11,738	858	12,174
Central activities	74	–	74		70	–	70
Total continuing operations	27,551	36,045	42,220		26,806	34,459	40,466

Remuneration of key management personnel

Key management personnel is represented by the Board of Directors, shown on pages 28 and 29, and certain senior management at ARG and Experian.

Key management compensation	2006 £m	2005 £m
Salaries and short-term employee benefits	11	11
Retirement benefits	3	2
Other long-term benefits	1	–
Share-based payments	9	7
	24	20

Further details of the remuneration of Directors are given in the auditable part of the Report on directors’ remuneration and related matters on pages 45 to 48. Information on transactions with related parties is set out in note 35.