Corporate Governance
FRC: THREE-YEAR STRATEGY
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published its strategy for 2025 – 2028 together with its annual business plan and budget. The FRC confirmed that it will build on the approach adopted in its recent review of the UK Corporate Governance Code, where it stripped back guidance and unnecessary requirements and put more focus on boards owning their own governance.
UK CORPORATE GOVERNANCE CODE GUIDANCE
Recent updates to the FRC’s UK Corporate Governance Code Guidance include updated 'Relations with suppliers' in Section 1 and inclusion of a link to the updated Audit Committees and the External Audit: Minimum Standard in Section 2 ‘Role of the Audit Committee’.
PLSA STEWARDSHIP AND VOTING GUIDELINES 2025
The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association has released its Stewardship & Voting Guidelines 2025, which provide a framework for pension scheme trustees and their advisers. Key areas considered include the impact on shareholder rights caused by changes to the UK Listing Rules and AI developments, sustainable finance developments and workforce developments, including ethnicity and disability pay reporting.
GUIDANCE FOR RISK COMMITTEES
The Risk Coalition, an association of not-for-profit professional and membership bodies whose objective is to improve risk governance and management in the UK financial services sector, has published new cross-sector guidance for board risk committees and risk functions.
FTSE WOMEN LEADERS REVIEW 2024
The FTSE Women Leaders Review published its 2024 report on the representation of women on boards and leadership teams within the FTSE 350 and the 50 largest private companies in the UK. The report acknowledges significant progress in the number of women on boards however, decision-making roles such as Chair, Senior Independent Director, CEO and Finance Director need more attention.
PARKER REVIEW REPORT ON ETHNIC DIVERSITY
The Parker Review Committee has published its 2025 update which highlights continued progress by the FTSE 250 towards meeting the Parker Review's benchmark recommendations on board composition, with 82% of FTSE 250 companies having at least one ethnic minority director on their boards by the end of 2024 (2019: 22%). Ethnic diversity on FTSE 100 boards remains higher, with 95% of companies having at least one ethnic minority director as of the same date.