This week:

• The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) publishes its annual review of corporate reporting for the 2024/2025 season
• Other items this week

FRC publishes review of corporate reporting in 2024/2025

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published its annual review of corporate reporting, examining the 2024/2025 reporting season and setting out the FRC’s expectations for 2025/2026.

The review covers annual reports and accounts of 222 companies, of which 38% were within the FTSE 350. This is lower than in previous years, but this year the FRC concentrated on more resource-intensive full scope reviews.

Key points arising from the review include the following.

• The quality of corporate reporting was maintained in 2024/2025. A lower proportion of reviews by the FRC resulted in substantive queries compared with previous years.
• There remains a quality gap between FTSE 350 companies and those outside the FTSE 350 (a trend the FRC noted last year). Most restatements continue to arise in non-FTSE 350 companies.
• Consistent with recent years, the most frequently raised issues include impairments, cash flow statements, and inconsistency of information and explanations between financial statements and other sections of the annual report.
• Explanations of significant judgements and estimates, including disclosure of the key inputs and assumptions, also remains an area for improvement. The FRC notes continuing global political and economic risks, including relating to trade tariffs and ongoing international conflicts, that can contribute to uncertainty in estimates and assumptions.
• In many cases, the FRC believes the most common areas of challenge could have been identified by a sufficiently robust pre-issuance review. This remains a key expectation of the FRC.
• Other expectations for 2025/2026 include the provision of clear and consistent disclosures about judgements, uncertainty and risk, as well as a focus on quality narrative reporting.

Read the FRC’s press release on its annual review of corporate reporting in 2024/2025

Access the FRC’s annual review of corporate reporting in 2024/2025 (opens PDF)

Other items this week

• The Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE) is consulting on a new service – Aquis Support Services – to support companies admitted to the AQSE Growth Market with complying with the ongoing requirements for that Market, rather than retaining a corporate adviser. (A corporate adviser would continue to be required on admission and if an issuer appears to have breached the Growth Market Rulebooks.) AQSE has asked for responses by 31 October 2025. 
  
  Access the Aquis Stock Exchange’s consultation on Aquis Support Services (PDF)
   
• The Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) has published its annual review for 2024/2025. The review sets out initiatives and activities pursued by the QCA during the past year, ongoing policy objectives and recent publications.
  
  Access the Quoted Companies Alliance’s 2024/2025 Annual Review (PDF)