Costs of services and general and administrative costs (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019


Continuing operations	2019 £m		2018 1 £m		2017 1 £m
Costs of services		10,825.1		10,559.1		10,481.6
General and administrative costs		1,113.1		1,249.7		1,086.9
		11,938.2		11,808.8		11,568.5
Costs of services and general and administrative costs include:
Continuing operations	2019 £m		2018 1 £m		2017 1 £m
Staff costs (note 5)		7,090.6		6,950.6		7,065.1
Establishment costs		672.9		756.6		769.5
Media pass-through costs		1,656.2		1,458.0		1,429.4
Other costs of services and general and administrative costs 2		2,518.5		2,643.6		2,304.5
		11,938.2		11,808.8		11,568.5

Other costs of services and general and administrative costs include:


Continuing operations	2019 £m		2018 1 £m		2017 1 £m
Goodwill impairment (note 14)	47.7		183.9		27.1
Investment write-downs	7.5		2.0		91.7
Restructuring and transformation costs	153.5		265.5		56.8
Litigation settlement	(16.8	)	–		–
Gain on sale of freehold property in New York	(7.9	)	–		–
Amortisation and impairment of acquired intangible assets	121.5		201.8		138.0
Amortisation of other intangible assets	21.2		20.7		20.1
Depreciation of property, plant and equipment	185.5		188.6		189.0
Depreciation of right-of-use assets	301.6		–		–
Losses on sale of property, plant and equipment	3.2		0.6		1.2
Gains on disposal of investments and subsidiaries	(40.4	)	(237.9	)	(98.7	)
(Gains)/losses on remeasurement of equity interests arising from a change in scope of ownership	(0.4	)	(2.0	)	0.3
Net foreign exchange losses/(gains)	6.1		(13.0	)	8.0
Short-term lease expense	83.8		–		–
Low-value lease expense	2.9		–		–

Auditors’ remuneration:


	2019 £m		2018 £m			2017 £m
Fees payable to the Company’s auditors for the audit of the Company’s annual accounts		1.5		1.4			1.4
The audit of the Company’s subsidiaries pursuant to legislation		28.0		25.2	1		20.7
Other services pursuant to legislation		5.0		4.2			4.0
Fees payable to the auditors pursuant to legislation		34.5		30.8			26.1
Tax advisory services		–		–			0.1
Tax compliance services		–		0.1			0.1
Other services 1		8.2		4.7			4.6
Total non-audit fees		8.2		4.8			4.8
Total fees		42.7		35.6			30.9

Note

Includes a true-up of £3.5 million.

Other services include audits for earnout purposes.