{"id":768054,"date":"2026-09-12T05:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T05:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768054\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T05:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T05:54:19","slug":"newsflash-government-launches-landmark-consultation-on-reforming-the-uks-corporate-reporting-framework-september-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768054\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsflash – Government launches landmark consultation on reforming the UK’s corporate reporting framework \u2013 September 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST) has launched a major consultation Modernising Corporate Reporting to support long-term economic growth<\/a> proposing a comprehensive overhaul of the corporate reporting framework for UK companies. Comments are requested by 30 November 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overview<\/p>\n

Reliable corporate reporting is central to maintaining trust in business and investor confidence, enabling investors, creditors and other stakeholders to make informed decisions about company performance, governance and future prospects. However, the government believes the effectiveness of the UK reporting framework has been weakened over the years by piecemeal additions to reporting requirements which have increased the volume and complexity of annual reports, a lack of clarity on the purpose of annual reports and accounts and legislation that has not kept pace with digital developments.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The government has set out a wide range of ambitious and far-reaching proposals in what it described as a \u2018once-in-a-generation\u2019 opportunity to reset the UK’s corporate reporting framework.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Principles underpinning the reform programme<\/p>\n

In developing its proposals, the government has been guided by the following five overarching principles:<\/p>\n


\nclarity of purpose – reaffirming that annual reports should primarily provide decision-useful information for investors and creditors
\nflexibility and trust – allowing companies greater freedom to tell their business story
\nsimplicity and coherence – removing duplication and unnecessary complexity
\nproportionality – tailoring requirements according to company size and economic impact
\nfit for the future – ensuring reporting regulation keeps pace with technology and market developments. <\/p>\n

Summary of key proposals<\/p>\n

The government is seeking views on a wide range of potential reforms across the UK corporate reporting framework. Key matters under consideration include: <\/p>\n


\nsimplifying the scopes, thresholds and exemptions which determine what disclosures a company must provide in the annual report and accounts
\ncreating a lighter regime for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) including consulting on extending audit exemptions to certain medium-sized companies
\ncreating a new \u2018very large\u2019 company threshold that could be applied to non-financial reporting requirements
\nremoving the detailed financial reporting requirements from the Companies Act 2006 so that accounting standards would become the single source of detailed financial reporting obligations
\nthe Companies Act 2006 would set out the high-level obligations for financial reporting and would identify which of four accounting standards should be used by a particular type of company
\nreplacing the current distributable profits regime with a solvency-based approach to determining the legality of dividend payments
\nsimplifying the strategic report requirements to provide companies with a core set of baseline narrative reporting requirements and empowering directors to make decisions on what they consider financially material information
\nnew cyber risk management reporting requirements
\nreducing complexity in remuneration and corporate governance reporting including removal of requirements such as the CEO pay ratio and the advisory vote on the directors\u2019 remuneration report
\nexploring greater digital communications including in relation to electronic shareholder communications, virtual AGMs, electronic tagging within annual reports and accounts and moving certain disclosures to digital platforms or websites
\nstrengthening government oversight of future reporting requirements through a new central “Reporting Gateway” function <\/p>\n


\nFurther information<\/p>\n

You can read the full consultation here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST) has launched a major consultation Modernising Corporate Reporting to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-768054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}