Stewardship Code Consultation
Published: 11 November 2024
Response deadline: 19 February 2025
| Title | Stewardship Code Consultation (2024) |
|---|---|
| Format | pdf, 462.2 KB |
On this page
Overview
The UK Stewardship Code promotes improved transparency, disclosure and accountability in the stewardship eco-system. The Code allows investor reporting to be assessed by the FRC as an independent and impartial body to maintain standards. It has a strong reputation both domestically and internationally for supporting high-quality stewardship.
The FRC committed to review the Code once the 2020 Code had been in operation for a few years. We launched a public consultation on our proposed revisions to the Code, which ran from 11 November 2024 to 19 February 2025.
The proposals in this consultation stem from engagement with more than 1500 stakeholders during 2024 and are underpinned by four years of analysing and reviewing reporting against the 2020 Code.
The proposed changes do not place onerous reporting burdens on signatories. They included:
- Amending the definition of stewardship to support more transparent conversations between actors in the investment chain about their investment beliefs and objectives, while being sufficiently broad to be applicable to signatories across the investment chain and different asset classes.
- Streamlining the Principles with more concise reporting prompts to help concentrate reporting on the most insightful areas of reporting, while reducing the volume.
- Tailoring the Service Provider Principles to include some that are dedicated to proxy advisors and investment consultants respectively.
- For the first time, issuing guidance to support signatories in demonstrating how they have implemented stewardship throughout the year.
- Introducing Policy and Context disclosures to be updated only as necessary.
- Testing whether the updated Code could better enable signatories to use cross-referencing to disclosures they make to meet other requirements or frameworks to support their reporting against the Code.
The Consultation Paper included:
- Appendix A: Full list of consultation questions;
- Appendix B: Proposed updated UK Stewardship Code;
- Appendix C: Mapping of updated UK Stewardship Code and 2020 Principles; and
- Appendix D: Sample guidance for a Principle
| Name | Stewardship Code summary of proposals |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 20 November 2024 |
| Format | PDF, 1.5 MB |
Roundtables
The FRC held a series of roundtable discussions throughout the consultation period for stakeholders to share their view on the proposals.
The events were primarily designed for current or prospective signatories to the Code, but other interested stakeholders were welcomed.
Feedback statement
The FRC has published the feedback statement following the conclusion of our consultation on the UK Stewardship Code. We received 182 responses from a wide range of stakeholders, and we are grateful to all the organisations and individuals who took the time to engage with us and share their views.
For more information about the new code, visit our UK Stewardship Code 2026 page.
| Name | Feedback statement - UK Stewardship Code 2026 |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 3 June 2025 |
| Type | Feedback paper |
| Format | PDF, 287.3 KB |