Subsidiary company special reserve

Standard Life plc

(the "Company")

The Company announced on 19 May 2010 that a Note (the "Note") had been presented to the Court of Session (the "Court") in Scotland, by Standard Life Assurance Limited ("SLAL"), seeking permission to vary an undertaking (the "Undertaking") previously given to the Court in order to make distributable the special reserve (which in SLAL's accounts stands at £761m) created as part of the cancellation of SLAL's share premium account in 2006.

By an order effective on 28 June 2010, the Court approved the application contained within the Note and permitted the variation of the Undertaking so as to make the special reserve distributable. This means that in future years, subject to the usual rules on distributions contained within the Companies Act and elsewhere, SLAL would be entitled to include this amount in the calculation of its distributable reserves.

28 June 2010

Enquiries:

Barry Cameron, Media Relations 0131 245 6165

Peter Tyson, General Counsel's Office 0131 246 5717

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