The accounting watchdog has raised concerns over UK companies' application of a segment reporting accounting standard, leading to inconsistent reporting of key parts of their businesses. The Financial Reporting Review Panel, an arm of the Financial Reporting Council, has asked a number of companies - whose 2008 and 2009 accounts it examined - to provide more information as a result of its dissatisfaction with the way in which companies have implemented IFRS 8 Operating Segments. Under the accounting rule, segment information that is required to be disclosed must be based on the information reported internally to the company's chief operating decision-maker, and used to allocate resources and assess performance. This is intended to then aid investors who may then gain an understanding of a company's operations from the same perspective as its management. Without naming the companies that it has scrutinised, the Panel has now called for further details and explanations in cases where only one operating segment is reported, but the group appears to have other businesses and operations in different countries; where the operating analysis detailed in the narrative report varies from the operating segments provided in the company's financial statements; where the responsibilities and titles of the executive management team hint at an organisational structure that is not reflected in its operating segments; and where there is a contradiction between the commentary in the narrative report, which is based in non-IFRS measurements, and the segmental disclosures which are based on IFRS amounts. 'IFRS 8 requires companies to report publicly in the same way as they measure performance and allocate resources internally,' said FRRP chairman Bill Knight. 'Implementation is a challenge, but also an opportunity to communicate better by linking the business review with the content of the IFRS accounts.'