Publication
Pensions Regulator announces changes to the DC scheme return for 2024
The Regulator has issued an online announcement about upcoming changes to its DC scheme return.
United Kingdom | Publication | September 2021
On September 16, 2021 the Cabinet Office published a short policy paper summarising opportunities to review certain laws and ensure that they are tailored to support the best interests of business and citizens. Two of the areas to be reviewed concern the dematerialisation of shares and the execution of documents.
Dematerialisation of shares
Although the majority of shares are held in electronic form, the policy paper notes that a minority are held in paper form which means it is more expensive and takes longer for holders of paper shares to trade them. There is also a risk of certificates going astray. The Government intends to work with industry, regulators and shareholders in the medium term to determine the best mechanism for converting these paper shares into electronic form, while preserving the rights of existing shareholders.
Execution of documents
The Government is sponsoring an independent, judicially-chaired Industry Working Group of experts to look at increasing best practice and confidence in the use of electronic signatures and other electronic ways of executing documents. By improving clarity in this area, the Government hopes that the Group’s work will help ensure businesses can use electronic documentation with confidence, in turn enabling them to make the most of digital innovations and greener working practices. The policy paper notes that the Group was recommended in a 2019 Law Commission report which concluded that e-signatures were legally valid for the vast majority of business and legal transactions.
(Cabinet Office, Brexit opportunities: Regulatory reforms, 16.09.2021)
On September 22, 2021 the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) published a document summarising the key findings of its review of the viability and going concern disclosures for a selection of annual reports and accounts for Main Market and AIM listed companies with year ends between December 2020 and March 2021. It aims to provide useful guidance for preparers of annual accounts by identifying areas where viability and going concern disclosures could be improved, and by providing examples of better disclosures.
The FRC notes that the report builds on the information contained within the Guidance on Risk Management, Internal Control and Related Financial and Business Reporting document published by the FRC in September 2014 which it states is still relevant despite being based on the 2014 Corporate Governance Code. Key findings set out in the report include the following:
The FRC wants companies to consider carefully the findings of this thematic review when they are drafting their forthcoming annual accounts.
(FRC: Thematic Review – Viability and Going Concern, 22.09.2021)
Publication
The Regulator has issued an online announcement about upcoming changes to its DC scheme return.
Publication
On July 30, 2024, the Regulator published its market oversight report on how trustees are complying with their environmental, social and governance (ESG) duties, including in respect of climate change.
Publication
We reported last month that the Court of Appeal had agreed with the High Court’s previous judgment that all rule amendments to contracted-out DB schemes between 1997 and 2013 require written actuarial certification. Three pensions professional bodies have now issued a joint statement on the effect of the ruling.
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