The emoluments of the directors for the year ended 31 March 1996 were, in summary, as follows:

Pensions in respect of the management services of past and present directors paid by the company for the year ended 31 March 1996 were £84,000 (1995 - £82,000). The cumulative provision for present and past directors’ unfunded pension benefits at 31 March 1996 was £4,171,000 (1995 - £3,150,000), including the interest accounted for on the provision, and is based on actuarial advice.

More detailed information concerning directors’ remuneration, shareholdings, options and long-term incentive plans is shown in the report of the Board Committee on Executive Remuneration (Part 1 and Part 2).

Share option schemes
The major share option scheme, the BT Employee Sharesave Scheme, is savings related and the share options are normally exercisable on completion of a five-year Save As You Earn contract; there is a similar savings-related scheme for group employees overseas. Under the other share option schemes, share options are normally exercisable between the third and tenth anniversaries of the date of grant.

Options outstanding under these share option schemes at 31 March, together with their exercise prices and dates, were as follows:

Long-term remuneration and performance share plans

A long-term remuneration plan (LTRP) and a performance share plan (PSP) were introduced for employees of the group in 1994 and 1995, respectively. Under the plans, company shares are acquired by an employee share ownership trust and are conditionally awarded to participants, although participants will only be entitled to these shares in full at the end of a five-year period under the LTRP and the end of a three-year period, which may be extended to four or five years, under the PSP if, at the end of the applicable period, the company has met the relevant pre-determined corporate performance measure and the participants are still employed by the group. Awards of shares were granted in 1994 and 1995 under the LTRP and in 1995 under the PSP. The corporate performance measure assesses the company’s overall performance against those top 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, as rated by the Financial Times (the FT-SE 100 index), at the beginning of the relevant performance period.

27. Employee share schemes (continued)
At 31 March 1996, 1.8 million shares were held in trust for the PSP and 1.5 million (1995 – 0.7 million) were held in trust for the LTRP. Dividends earned on the shares during the conditional periods are reinvested in company shares for the potential benefit of the participants. Additional information relating to the plans is as follows:

28. Auditors
The auditors’ remuneration for the year ended 31 March 1996 for the group was £2,138,000 (1995 - £1,879,000), including £1,170,000 (1995 - £1,164,000) for the company.

The following fees were paid or are payable to the company’s auditors, Coopers & Lybrand, in the UK for the year ended 31 March 1996: