Speaking at Grant Thornton’s governance dinner, Bischoff said: ‘I would like to remind both companies and investors that simply complying without giving due consideration to what is appropriate and relevant reduces the flexibility that this approach aims to achieve. To this end, further work will be conducted during the rest of this year to monitor companies’ explanations when they are not compliant with the Code.’

Bischoff told his audience that the FRC would be continuing market-led work to assess how effective companies are at establishing company culture and practices. He said the regulator had been holding breakfast meetings with a group of FTSE 100 chairs to discuss the culture from the board’s perspective. 

There are now plans for a series of in-depth roundtables with a broader selection of stakeholders over the summer to discuss and promote good board practice in determining and ensuring appropriate culture.

‘A further aspect of good culture is diversity and that is something that continues to be on our radar in 2015.

‘Diverse boards, and by that I don’t just mean a balance of gender, but of background and experience, geography and ethnicity, not only encourage better leadership but also contribute to better all-round board performance, engagement and innovation, and ultimately increased corporate performance for both the company and its shareholders,’ Bischoff said.

The FRC is also in the midst of a project to identify good practice around the effectiveness of nomination committees with a discussion paper due to be published in June 2015.

The text of the speech is here