BP Annual Review 2003 Introduction Performance highlights Chairman's letter Group chief executive's review It starts here Financial performance Business performance Environmental and social performance Summary accounts Summary corporate governance Summary directors' remuneration report Board of directors Annual general meeting and information for shareholders Further information	The chairman, senior independent director and company secretary Between board meetings, the chairman has responsibility for ensuring the integrity and effectiveness of the board/executive relationship. The board governance policies require the chairman and deputy chairman to be non-executive directors; throughout 2003 the posts were held by Mr Sutherland and Sir Ian Prosser respectively. Sir Ian acts as the senior independent director. The company secretary reports to the chairman and is not part of the executive management. The company secretary's office provides support to all the non-executive directors, ensuring that board and board committee processes are demonstrably independent of the executive management of the group. In this section   Accountability to shareholders   Shareholder communications, meetings and voting   The work of the board in governance The chairman, senior independent director and company secretary   Board succession planning   Independence   Induction, training and evaluation   Combined Code compliance   Internal control review   Related links   A letter from BP chairman, Peter Sutherland   Chairman's letter

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