The Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) has confirmed it will publish legislation on narrative reporting in October, following a consultation which closed in March.

A BIS spokesman said that the new structure for narrative reporting will remove unnecessary obligations and address overlapping requirements.

It will divide the current annual report (for quoted companies) into two documents - a Strategic Report, aimed at general shareholders and including information on business model, strategy and risks; and an Annual Directors' Statement, to be published online. This will include more detailed information of interest to specific groups.

In March the government said it would work with the FRC on a format for accounts which would be flexible enough to allow companies to tell an integrated story which included their business model and strategy, covering their performance and looking towards their future.

A BIS spokesperson said: 'The next steps are to publish draft regulations to introduce these changes and publish a paper explaining them.

'We are aiming to do this in the autumn - probably in October, although the date has not yet been confirmed. The legislation will come into force at the same time as the changes to voting and reporting on pay, in October 2013.'

Other separate, but related consultations, on enhanced shareholder voting rights and remuneration reporting requirements (which closes on 26 September 2012) also contain draft regulations which set out what companies must specifically disclose in pay reports.

Regulations stemming from these consultations will fully replace existing rules and are designed to create a robust framework within which directors' pay is set, agreed and implemented.