Grant Thornton has published its review of corporate governance in the UK for 2014, entitled Plotting a new course to improved governance, following the annual reports of over 300 of the UK FTSE 350 companies during the past 18months. The paper provides a recap of key issues facing UK boards today and the link to corporate governance structures, including issues resting with:
- The Nomination Committee,
- The Audit Committee,
- The Remuneration Committee, and
- Other developments.
The paper raises a variety of challenges facing UK boards today, including the growing move towards full UK Corporate Governance Code compliance (versus the more generally followed principle of comply and explain), the growth of proxy voters, higher reporting standards placed upon audit committees and the related impact of estimation/judgement in accounts, discloure of key risks and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and rising personal accountability of the chairman in discharging his or her duty.
Some interesting facts from the report include: some 60% of comply with all provisions of the Code, an all-time high, while over 93% comply with all but one or two of Code provisions; almost 2/3rds of all chairmen provide a personal comment on governance in the annual report, the average number of board meetings is 8+ times per annum, and 90% of FTSE 100/62% of FTSE 250 charimen discuss strategy and governance with major shareholders. With respect to audit, 90% of FTSE 350 companies have an internal audit function and just over 40% commit to undertake an audit tender every 10-years. On comp issues, 75% of FTSE 350 companies have a clawback provision related to remuneration, but none have exercised such provisions (not yet anyway!).
Check out this report at http://www.grant-thornton.co.
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