Our Corporate Assurance function has accountability and responsibility for providing assurance to the board that:

• Rio Tinto’s policies, standards and controls are adequately designed and effective for their intended purpose; and that
• These policies, standards and controls are consistently implemented by all Rio Tinto sites on a timely basis and as designed.

In addition, we engaged an independent external assurance organisation, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), to provide the board of directors of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited assurance on selected sustainable development subject matter, as explained below.

PwC’s assurance statement satisfies the requirements of subject matters one through four of the ICMM assurance procedure while our online GRI report has been checked by GRI, satisfying subject matter five of the ICMM procedure.