The Code of Conduct provides a clearly articulated statement of what good conduct looks like and is a practical tool to help directors make better decisions and is not intended to hold back directors or create a new burden of compliance.

‘Modern directorship is increasingly challenging. It involves more than simply complying with the law or applying specialist knowledge and expertise,’ the IoD stressed. ‘Directors are expected to define and embed the values of their organisation and apply high ethical standards.’

The purpose of the Code is to help UK business win back trust after a string of corporate failures at the likes of the Post Office, Carillion and BHS, by embedding the values of integrity, honesty, transparency into the expected behaviour of company directors, qualities that ‘are already adopted as a matter of course by most responsible business leaders’, the IoD said.

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