Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to improve the transparency of corporate governance structures.

The Government has laid The Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018 today to implement the new company reporting requirements announced in August 2017 following consultation on the Corporate Governance Reform green paper. The draft SI includes a requirement for large private companies and unlisted public limited companies to provide an annual statement about their corporate governance arrangements as part of their directors’ report. This statement will also need to be made available on a website maintained by or on behalf of the relevant company. Listed companies are already required to report on these matters.

In addition, the Government has sought views, as part of the Insolvency and Corporate Governance consultation, on whether steps should be taken to improve governance and accountability within complex company group structures.