In 2016, the FRC said it intended to make as few changes as possible to allow regulations to ‘bed in’ after a period of churn in codes and standards.

However, that decision was made before the vote for Brexit and subsequent change in government, which has given cause for this year’s set of priorities, the regulator said.

‘When we published the three-year strategic plan early in 2016 the political mood was very much for de-regulation. With no expectation at the time for significant changes to be required to the code our plan was to avoid updates, save for those required as a result of the changes to audit regulation, until at least 2019,’ the FRC said in a statement.

‘Clearly after the EU referendum result and the new government under Theresa May, things changed. Her concerns about aspects of business and society, the BEIS select committee inquiry and the government’s green paper on corporate governance reform have caused us to change our agenda. We now expect to consult on changes to the code this summer as a result of the outcomes of the select committee inquiry and the green paper consultation.’

FRC chairman Sir Win Bischoff told stakeholders at the priorities meeting: 'We will be consulting on changes to the UK corporate governance code this summer. Audit and reporting in UK are world-leading, but there have been some very public accidents and there will have to be changes.'

The FRC’s priorities for 2017/18 are as follows:

• Strengthen UK corporate governance;
• Follow up report on corporate culture;
• Brexit challenges/opportunities;
• Promote confidence in audit as UK competent authority;
• Enhance enforcement role and review of sanctions; and
• Promote high quality actuarial work

Reporting by Calum Fuller