I welcome the critical attention that has been paid recently to corporate governance reporting, which has helpfully emphasised the need for reporting to move beyond a tick-box approach and to use the annual directors report to showcase the positive steps companies have taken to improve their own governance.

While most of this attention has been focused on the UK Corporate Governance Code, there are useful lessons that we can draw that can be applied to corporate governance reporting by large private companies, in particular those who have committed to applying the Wates Principles.