FRC comments on European Commission moves to enhance business transparency on social and environmental matters
News types: Policy Statements, Response
Published: 19 April 2013
“We welcome the proposals as a contribution to the debate on corporate reporting. The FRC will consider these proposals as part of its guidance on narrative reporting and engage with its constituents in forming a view. The FRC has been leading the debate on narrative reporting in the UK for a number of years and plans to revise its 2006 reporting statement on narrative reporting once the new narrative reporting regulations have been published by BIS. We will consider the relevance of the EU proposals to investor communication in developing our guidance.
Complaints about the length and readability of annual reports have been widespread and the FRC Board has set a strategic priority to encourage that annual reports are shorter and more relevant. Part of this includes a recommendation to review the current Reporting Statement on narrative reporting and develop new guidance that encourages and validates a “Summary and Appendices” approach; identifies good practices on length, content and signposting; and uses the UK Corporate Governance Code requirement for “fair, balanced and understandable” reports to add focus.”