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Costs of services and general and administrative costs - Summary of Operating Costs (Detail) - GBP (£) £ in Millions | 6 Months Ended | 12 Months Ended
--- | --- | ---
Jun. 30, 2020 | Jun. 30, 2019 | [1] | Dec. 31, 2019
Analysis of income and expense [abstract] |  |  |  |  |
Costs of services | £ 4,804.7 |  | £ 5,328.8 | £ 10,825.1 |
General and administrative costs | 3,231.4 |  | 443.1 | 1,113.1 |
Costs of services and general and administrative costs | 8,036.1 |  | 5,771.9 | 11,938.2 |
Costs of services and general and administrative costs include: |  |  |  |  |
Staff costs | 3,330.0 |  | 3,501.7 | 7,090.6 |
Establishment costs | 314.4 |  | 331.7 | 672.9 |
Media pass-through costs | 613.7 |  | 818.8 | 1,656.2 |
Other costs of services and general and administrative costs | 3,778.0 | [2] | 1,119.7 | 2,518.5 | [2]
Wages and salaries | 2,417.5 |  | 2,442.5 | 4,946.2 |
Cash-based incentive plans | 17.2 |  | 64.8 | 227.6 |
Share-based incentive plans | 30.6 |  | 30.0 | 66.0 |
Social security costs | 304.6 |  | 304.9 | 591.7 |
Pension costs | 86.4 |  | 83.5 | 169.7 |
Severance | 18.8 |  | 16.1 | 42.6 |
Other staff costs | 454.9 |  | 559.9 | 1,046.8 |
Staff costs | 3,330.0 |  | 3,501.7 | 7,090.6 |
Amortisation and impairment of acquired intangible assets | 53.1 |  | 52.8 | 121.5 |
Goodwill impairment | 2,520.8 |  |  | 47.7 |
Gains on disposal of investments and subsidiaries | (16.0) |  | (40.6) | (40.4) |
Gains on remeasurement of equity interests arising from a change in scope of ownership |  |  | (0.4) | (0.4) |
Investment and other write-downs | 220.6 |  |  | 7.5 |
Restructuring and transformation costs | 17.9 |  | 33.9 | 153.5 |
Restructuring costs in relation to COVID-19 | 39.3 |  |  |  |
Litigation settlement |  |  | (16.8) | (16.8) |
Gain on sale of freehold property in New York |  |  | (7.9) | (7.9) |
Depreciation of property, plant and equipment | 88.2 |  | 88.5 | 185.5 |
Amortisation of other intangible assets | 9.6 |  | 9.9 | 21.2 |
Depreciation of right-of-use assets | 155.4 |  | 152.1 | 301.6 |
Short-term lease expense | 19.7 |  | 49.9 | 83.8 |
Low-value lease expense | £ 1.1 |  | £ 1.2 | £ 2.9 |
[1] | Figures for the period ended 30 June 2019 have been re-presented in accordance with IFRS 5: Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations, as described in note 13.
[2] | Other costs of services and general and administrative costs include £301.3 million (period ended 30 June 2019: £350.0 million; year ended 31 December 2019: £731.4 million) of other pass through costs.

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- Definition The amount of costs relating to expenses directly or indirectly attributed to the goods or services sold, which may include, but are not limited to, costs previously included in the measurement of inventory that has now been sold, unallocated production overheads and abnormal amounts of production costs of inventories. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef -Name IAS -Number 1 -IssueDate 2019-01-01 -Paragraph 99 -URI http://eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/xifrs-link?type=IAS&num=1&code=ifrs-tx-2019-en-r&anchor=para_99&doctype=Standard -URIDate 2019-03-27 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef -Name IAS -Number 1 -IssueDate 2019-01-01 -Paragraph 103 -URI http://eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/xifrs-link?type=IAS&num=1&code=ifrs-tx-2019-en-r&anchor=para_103&doctype=Standard -URIDate 2019-03-27 + Details
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