We have reported separately on the Group financial statements of Smiths Group plc for the year ended 5 August 2006.

Respective responsibilities of directors and auditors
The directors' responsibilities for preparing the Annual Report, the Directors' Remuneration Report and the Parent Company financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice) are set out in the Statement of Directors' Responsibilities.

Our responsibility is to audit the Parent Company financial statements and the part of the Directors' Remuneration Report to be audited in accordance with relevant legal and regulatory requirements and International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland). This report, including the opinion, has been prepared for and only for the Company's members as a body in accordance with Section 235 of the Companies Act 1985 and for no other purpose. We do not, in giving this opinion, accept or assume responsibility for any other purpose or to any other person to whom this report is shown or into whose hands it may come save where expressly agreed by our prior consent in writing.

We report to you our opinion as to whether the Parent Company financial statements give a true and fair view and whether the Parent Company financial statements and the part of the Directors' Remuneration Report to be audited have been properly prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 1985. We also report to you if, in our opinion, the Directors' Report is not consistent with the Parent Company financial statements, if the Company has not kept proper accounting records, if we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit, or if information specified by law regarding directors' remuneration and other transactions is not disclosed.

We read other information contained in the Annual Report and consider whether it is consistent with the audited Parent Company financial statements. The other information comprises only the Chairman's Statement, the Chief Executive's Statement, the Summary Performance Statement, the Operating and Financial Review, the Directors' Report, the Corporate Governance Statement, the unaudited part of the Directors' Remuneration Report, the Statement of Directors' Responsibilities and the Five Year Review. We consider the implications for our report if we become aware of any apparent misstatements or material inconsistencies with the Parent Company financial statements. Our responsibilities do not extend to any other information.

Basis of audit opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) issued by the Auditing Practices Board. An audit includes examination, on a test basis, of evidence relevant to the amounts and disclosures in the Parent Company financial statements and the part of the Directors' Remuneration Report to be audited. It also includes an assessment of the significant estimates and judgments made by the directors in the preparation of the Parent Company financial statements, and of whether the accounting policies are appropriate to the Company's circumstances, consistently applied and adequately disclosed.

We planned and performed our audit so as to obtain all the information and explanations which we considered necessary in order to provide us with sufficient evidence to give reasonable assurance that the Parent Company financial statements and the part of the Directors' Remuneration Report to be audited are free from material misstatement, whether caused by fraud or other irregularity or error. In forming our opinion we also evaluated the overall adequacy of the presentation of information in the Parent Company financial statements and the part of the Directors' Remuneration Report to be audited.

Opinion
In our opinion:

• the Parent Company financial statements give a true and fair view, in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice, of the state of the Company's affairs as at 5 August 2006;
• the Parent Company financial statements and the part of the Directors' Remuneration Report to be audited have been properly prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 1985; and
• the information given in the Directors' Report is consistent with the parent company financial statements.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Chartered Accountants and Registered Auditors

London

29 September 2006

Notes
(a) The maintenance and integrity of the Smiths Group plc website is the responsibility of the directors; the work carried out by the auditors does not involve consideration of these matters and, accordingly, the auditors accept no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the financial statements since they were initially presented on the website.

(b) Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.