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TAC Public Meeting April 2026: Meeting Summary
PUBLIC MEETING SUMMARY
Date: 21 April 2026 Time: 10:45am - 12:30pm Location: 13th Floor, Exchange Tower, 1 Harbour Exchange Square, London, E14 9GE
The video recording of the meeting and agenda papers are available online.
Attendees
| Name | Designation |
|---|---|
| Sally Duckworth | Chair |
| Craig Mackenzie | Member |
| David Harris | Member |
| Hilary Eastman | Member |
| Jeremy Osborn | Member |
| Nick Rowbottom | Member |
| Peter Hogarth | Member |
| Scott Barlow | Member (online) |
| Jenny Carter | Member appointed by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) |
| Paul Lee | Member appointed by the UK Endorsement Board (UKEB) |
| Michael Ashby | Observer from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) |
| Sarah-Jayne Dominic | Secretariat |
Apologies
| Name | Designation |
|---|---|
| Harriet Cullum | TAC Member |
| Madeleine Evans | TAC Member |
| Supriya Sobti | TAC Member |
| Matilda Robson | Observer from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) |
| Laura Kennedy | Observer from the Bank of England (BoE) |
Minutes
1. Welcome and apologies
The Chair welcomed all attendees to the April public meeting of the UK Sustainability Disclosure Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
There were apologies from Harriet Cullum, Madeleine Evans, Supriya Sobti, Matilda Robson and Laura Kennedy.
The following interests were declared in agenda items:
- David Harris as an employee of London Stock Exchange Group, which is a data provider, in the context of agenda item 5.
2. April 2026 general reporting update
The TAC noted Agenda Paper 2 which provided key updates since the March 2026 TAC meeting.
3. SASB Standards enhancement: general themes
The TAC discussed Agenda Paper 3, which summarises the key themes identified in its response to the ISSB's July 2025 Exposure Draft on SASB Standards enhancements.
The TAC:
- emphasised the importance of a coherent overarching architecture for the suite of ISSB standards and guidance, including consistency across industries in the treatment of themes and topics. Consideration should also be given to the sequencing of changes (e.g. updates to standards versus supporting guidance).
- reiterated the need to clarify the positioning of SASB Standards within the broader framework, particularly in relation to IFRS S1 and IFRS S2.
- noted potential tensions between materiality embedded in industry-specific standards and the principle of independent entity-specific materiality assessments, across the 77 SASB industries (since items omitted could be perceived unlikely to be material).
- emphasised the need for a completeness assessment of the SASB Standards amendments beyond the content put by the ISSB in the Exposure Draft. This would involve taking a step-back approach to assess whether, overall, the proposals constitute an adequate set of standards.
- observed that the development of industry-specific standards should be underpinned by a robust set of thematic or topic-based standards, to mitigate the risk of inconsistency across related sectors. The TAC queried whether a systematic review could be undertaken to identify potential inconsistencies across existing standards, particularly those in the same sector.
- noted ongoing initiatives to support interoperability by some external organisations.
- emphasised the importance of transparency in the deliberations, through public observable forums when the IFRS Foundation's Due Process Oversight Committee finalise the Due Process Handbook, and clear communication of how decisions are reached.
- advised that for the upcoming SASB Standards roundtable being organised by the TAC Secretariat, that the Secretariat could explore asking whether preparers consider SASB disclosures to align with their independent sustainability materiality assessment.
4. Nature-related disclosures research: project management plan and proposed timeline
The TAC discussed Agenda Paper 4. Agenda Paper 4 is the project management plan and proposed timeline for research into nature-related disclosures in the UK.
The TAC approved the project management plan and proposed timeline, subject to:
- regarding the stated objectives of the research project:
- adding an objective to understand the anticipated potential benefits of reporting on nature-related information for entities;
- as part of the objective to understand the general readiness of UK reporters to report nature-related disclosures:
- assessing the capacity and expertise that reporters currently have;
- assessing the ability of reporters to prepare reporting on further requirements within the timings of the current cadence of their reporting cycles; and
- re-ordering the objectives to reflect prioritisation, placing the objectives to understand the general appetite of UK users, and the general readiness of UK reporters, first.
- regarding the proposed timeline:
- noting when the TAC will receive updates regarding the progress of the research; and
- noting on the timeline that the ISSB's Exposure Draft is expected in October, hence the end of the preparatory research project.
- preparing research on the existing UK regulatory landscape for nature-related and environmental disclosures.
- regarding Workstream 2 (content analysis of FTSE 100 reports):
- either clarifying that impacts and dependencies refers to a financially material lens, or including research questions on both financial materiality and impact materiality; and
- considering how the local/global scale considerations are impacted by the entity's business model itself.
5. Nature-related disclosures research: key themes
The TAC discussed Agenda Paper 5. Agenda Paper 5 presents key themes associated with nature-related disclosures that have been identified by the TAC Secretariat. These themes will help guide the direction of the research project by indicating areas for prioritisation.
The TAC noted that:
- nature is arguably functionally synonymous with environmental, and environmental reporting is not new. For example, disclosures on water-related matters have been made by some companies for many years.
- nature/environmental reporting is already a requirement in the UK through the Companies Act.
- there does not seem to be a case for transition plans for nature as it is different to how it is framed for climate change. Unlike climate change, where the 'end goal' is known, it is not clear what we are transitioning to for nature-related matters. We should start moving away from ‘transition plan' language for nature.
- Biodiversity Net Gain requirements in the UK (that apply to property developers) could be used as a starting point for nature-related transition plans, noting that only a specific industry needs to do it and whether the information provided is decision-useful from a financial perspective. It was noted that the focus should be on how to mitigate and adapt to risks, rather than contributing to a nature positive outcome. The TAC noted that these two objectives should not be conflated.
- the ISSB should remain focused on financial materiality, and therefore not all elements of the TNFD's work will be relevant for the ISSB to take forward.
- IFRS S1 already requires disaggregation for information that does not share the same characteristics and therefore more requirements might not be needed. However, examples of how to do this for nature might be useful.
- there are frameworks and standards that this work should build on, including the Natural Capital Protocol who have an extensive glossary.
- companies are likely to already know when an issue is likely to affect its financial position, but they might not be disclosing this information.
6. AOB
There was no other business.
The Chair thanked two members for which this was their last meeting: Craig Mackenzie and Jeremy Osborn.
The Chair thanked attendees and confirmed that the next TAC meeting is scheduled for 19 May 2026. The meeting concluded at 12:30pm.