For the third consecutive year, impairment was the most problematic area, although none of the companies reviewed in the FRC Annual Review of Corporate Reporting were required to restate their accounts for impairment matters.

Cash flow statements and inconsistency of information between financial statements and other sections of the annual report and accounts continued to present challenges for financial reporters, the FRC report noted.

Many common areas of challenge could have been identified if sufficiently robust pre-issuance reviews had been undertaken, the regulator said, emphasising this remains a key expectation for companies’ oversight processes for the new reporting year.

The FRC had to write ‘substantive letters’ to over a third (37%) of the 222 companies subject to the annual review process, asking for ‘additional information or further explanations to help us understand their reporting more fully’, the FRC said. But this was down on the 47% figure last year, highlighting some improvement in overall reporting standards.

Howev