The presentation of this year's results and comparisons with last year are impacted by both the reorganisation of our UK businesses during the second half of the year and the decision to exit Emergency Services. In this section, we are therefore providing additional analysis in order to show the impact of these organisational changes to assist with comparison of the Group's performance in prior years and to present the results of the business as it will look going forward following the disposal of the Emergency Services division.

Group reported results

The headline statutory financial results are presented here for the Group as a whole and further split between core and non-core operations.

In accordance with IFRS, statutory operating profit for the Group, which has decreased by 123% to a loss of £17.5m (2008: profit of £77.5m), includes an impairment charge of £97m, amortisation of acquisition intangibles, £6.5m of exceptional costs from the aborted second hub deal and reorganisation of businesses in the UK and our share of the operating result of our joint venture in France.

The amortisation of acquisition intangibles amounts to £12.1m (2008: £10.3m) and principally relates to customer and other contracts held by the acquired entities at the date of acquisition. The year-on-year increase principally reflects the full year impact of the Anglia, California Water and Reparalia acquisitions. For our French joint venture, the operating result is defined as profit after tax and hence £1.9m (2008: £1.0m) of taxation is reported within operating profit and profit before tax.

Statutory operating profit, after deducting the impairment charge, amortisation of acquisition intangibles, tax on joint ventures and exceptional operating costs, were: UK Membership £83.9m (2008: £73.4m); Continental Europe £2.2m (2008: £0.1m); and USA an operating loss of £1.7m (2008: loss of £3.1m) resulting in a statutory operating profit for the core operations of £84.4m. The non core UK Emergency Services business reported a statutory operating loss of £101.9m (2008: operating profit £7.1m).

The Group's net interest charge decreased in the year to £4.2m (2008: £5.7m) due to continued strong cash conversion, a lower spend in the year on acquisitions of £23.4m (2008: £46.1m) and no expenditure on share purchases (2008: £7.3m). The interest charge was covered 24 times by operating profit¹.

The effective rate of corporation tax, prior to the impact of the impairment of UK Emergency Services assets, is 29.9% (2008: 31.4%). The reduction in rate is primarily due to a decrease in the UK tax rate to 28% which came into effect on 1 April 2008. The effective rate applicable to our core operations is consistent with the rate for the Group overall.

1. 1 Excluding amortisation of acquisition intangibles, impairment charge, joint venture taxation and exceptional operating    costs, see Financial review and notes 5 and 14.

2. 2 Excluding amortisation of acquisition intangibles, impairment charge and exceptional operating costs, see Financial review    and notes 5 and 14.

3. 3 Non-cash items are depreciation, amortisation of other intangibles, share-based payments expense, share of results of    joint venture (before tax) and loss/(gain) on disposal of property, plant and equipment and software licenses.