UK corporate reporting heading for significant change
UK corporate reporting could be heading for significant change.
Source: Mondaq, 14 September 2026, reporting on the UK Government’s new Modernising Corporate Reporting consultation, published on 7 September 2026.
The Government has launched what is being described as a major review of the UK corporate reporting regime, covering almost every aspect of annual reports and accounts.
Among the proposals being considered are:
• simplifying reporting requirements for SMEs and group companies
• reviewing company size thresholds and exemptions
• potentially extending audit exemptions to more medium-sized companies
• simplifying strategic reports and other narrative reporting
• moving some governance reporting from individual company level to group level
• streamlining directors’ remuneration reporting
• moving further towards digital-first reporting and electronic communications
• considering a solvency-based approach to dividends rather than relying on the existing distributable reserves regime
The consultation remains open until 30 November 2026.
What does this mean for compliance?
At this stage these are proposals rather than final rules, but compliance and risk teams should keep a close eye on the outcome. If some reporting requirements are reduced, certain information currently available for due diligence and ongoing monitoring may become less detailed or move elsewhere.
On the other hand, greater use of digital and more standardised reporting could make corporate information easier to analyse and compare systematically. Changes to audit exemptions could also become relevant when assessing the level of independent financial scrutiny applied to counterparties.
For firms that use Companies House information as part of counterparty assessment, financial crime controls, governance checks or ongoing risk monitoring, the important issue will be understanding not simply whether companies are reporting less or more, but exactly which information remains available, where it is reported and how reliably it can be monitored.
This is still at consultation stage, but it is one worth watching.
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