In October 2020 the FRC issued a discussion paper on the Future of Corporate Reporting. The paper focuses primarily on the annual report but includes other periodic reporting and raises fundamental questions about its 'fitness for purpose' in today's world. Further 'tweaks', the FRC concludes, are unlikely to address valid concerns. The time has come for radical reform.
Issues covered in the discussion paper include:
· the current reporting framework, its failure to meet stakeholder needs and what can be done about this;
· the current failure of corporate reporting to communicate effectively with stakeholders and how this might be addressed;
· the descent of much non-financial corporate reporting into irrelevance, marketing 'puff' and endless boilerplate and whether introducing regulatory standards for non-financial reporting might help to address this.
· the need to bring reporting into the digital age.
This discussion paper opens the debate on what promises to be a herculean task for the FRC. It is packed with interesting ideas and suggestions - most of them very good, a few more questionable.
Click here to read what UKSA and ShareSoc have said in their response to the paper. The discussion paper itself can be found on the FRC's website here.
