The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) is today reminding UK quoted companies of their requirements to follow the enhanced business review reporting requirements in section 417 of the Companies Act 2006 for years beginning on or after 1 October 2007.

The ASB believes that all of the enhanced business review requirements found in the Companies Act 2006 are already included in its Reporting Statement on Operating and Financial Review (OFR reporting statement) issued in January 2006. The Reporting Statement continues to provide applicable best practice guidance for all UK companies that are required to prepare a business review. In order to further assist UK companies in preparing their business review, the ASB is issuing a table (attached to this press notice) which illustrates the link between the OFR reporting statement and the latest legislative requirements. We hope that companies find this table helpful guidance in preparing their business reviews.

The ASB will continue to keep the area of narrative reporting under review.

1. Section 417 of the Companies Act 2006 sets out the required contents of the business review that companies need to include as part of their directors’ report for financial years beginning on or after 1 October 2007.
2. The ASB’s January 2006 Reporting Statement ‘The Operating and Financial Review’ can be downloaded here. Hard copies of the Reporting Statement are available, price £5.00 (post-free) from FRC Publications, 145 London Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 6SR (020 8247 1264). Web: www.frcpublications.com.
3. The ASB is an operating body of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the UK’s independent regulator responsible for promoting confidence in corporate reporting and governance. Its functions are exercised principally by its operating bodies (the ASB, the Auditing Practices Board, the Board for Actuarial Standards, the Financial Reporting Review Panel, the Professional Oversight Board and the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board) and by the Committee on Corporate Governance.
4. The main role of the ASB is to issue accounting standards. The ASB collaborates with accounting standard-setters from other countries and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) both in order to influence the development of international standards and in order to ensure that its standards are developed with due regard to international developments.
5. The ASB has eleven Board members, of whom two (the Chairman and the Technical Director) are full-time, and the remainder, who represent a variety of interests, are part-time.
6. Press enquiries should be addressed to Ian Mackintosh (Chairman) on 020 7492 2434, David Loweth (Technical Director) on 020 7492 2420 or Melanie Kerr (Project Director) 020 7492 2428.