The Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018

On 9 November 2018, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published an updated document to help companies and interested stakeholders understand how they will be affected by the new corporate governance reporting requirements in The Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018. These were made on 17 July 2018, and apply to company reporting on financial years starting on or after 1 January 2019.

These include clarification on:

·       Section 172 – all qualifying companies, including subsidiaries, need to meet the new reporting requirements.

·       Reporting on corporate governance arrangements for large private and unlisted companies  - the Government has commissioned James Wates (the Chairman of Wates Construction) to lead a coalition group of industry and wider society bodies to develop specific corporate governance principles as a code of practice for large private companies.  These are expected to be finalised before the end of 2018.

·       Pay ratio reporting – for example, the regulations additionally allow for a projection of salary to the end of the relevant financial year to be used in cases where a company wishes to calculate 25th percentile pay ratio, median pay ratio and 75th percentile pay ratio before the end of the financial year.  Other clarifications include how to treat employees on leave.