The government's plan to publish new rules on mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting for large listed companies looks set to be delayed by several months as government departments finalise the details for the new narrative reporting requirements, which will include the GHG rules.
DEFRA confirmed that the final version of the mandatory carbon reporting guidance for quoted companies received ministerial approval on 27 March 2013. It has now been up to parliament to scrutinise the proposals before receiving Royal Assent.
Deputy PM Nick Clegg originally announced the plans at the Rio+20 Summit in June 2012. At the time, the use of differing terminology in various government information sources led to some confusion about exactly how many companies might be affected - whether just those with shares traded on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), or debt issuers as well.
Since then, it has been confirmed that reporting will be mandatory for all quoted companies to report their annual emissions in their directors' report.
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) said he expected the plans to gain Royal Assent within the next few months, 'subject to the parliamentary timetable'.
Andrew Prosser, head of environmental governance and corporate reporting at environmental consultancy, Verco said: 'The delay is no bad thing as the fact that DEFRA and BIS are working together has made it a much more streamlined piece of legislation.
'The government has bent over backwards to be more flexible and both departments have really listened to the business community.
'By integrating the reporting of non-financial measures into the reporting cycle means it will be seen as a much more central element rather than an add on. Even though companies won't have to report until October, they should start preparing now.'
The plans - which went out to public consultation and closed in October last year - received around a 100 responses which were analysed and incorporated into the draft regulation.
Guidance to help quoted companies comply with the requirements of the regulation, are expected to be released shortly.
The government is expected to take a decision by 2016 on whether to extend the requirement to all large companies.
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