Private companies rely on too much boilerplate reporting

12 Aug 2024

The largest privately owned companies need to improve the quality of reporting on corporate governance to improve transparency and avoid box ticking

Only a third of the largest private companies in scope of the Wates principles adopted by 547 companies with combined revenues of £850bn reporting while 1,268 used alternative frameworks such as the Corporate Governance Code.

The latest Wates review into the effectiveness of corporate governance adopted by largest private companies in 2021-22 stressed that companies adopting Wates principles need to reduce their use of boilerplate disclosures.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) also said they need to ‘foster a disclosure approach which explicitly links a company’s purpose, strategy, culture, and values to its board’s activities and the context in which it operates’.

Going forward, it also urged companies to provide ‘context-relevant and time-specific disclosures’.