Notes to the company accounts

7 Provisions for liabilities and charges

	At 31 July 2007 £m	Provisions charged £m	Provisions released £m	Utilisation £m	At 31 July 2008 £m
Property	1.2		(1.0)	(0.2)
Disposals	23.9	5.1	(3.1)	(17.6)	8.3
	25.1	5.1	(4.1)	(17.8)	8.3

The opening disposals provisions included £20.7m in respect of the costs of transferring aerospace active pensioners. In 2008 the pensioners were transferred, utilising £17.6m of this provision. The balance of £3.1m has been released.

A provision has been made in 2008 in respect of obligations of the Company arising from the disposal of the Group’s Marine Systems business. See note 30 relating to the Group accounts for details of this disposal. Most of the balance is expected to be utilised within the next five years.

Smiths Group divisions:
Smiths Detection, Smiths Medical, John Crane, Smiths Interconnect, Flex-Tek