FRC publishes updated strategic report guidance
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Published: 4 February 2026
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has today issued updated Guidance on the Strategic Report. This guidance has been developed to support all UK entities that prepare strategic reports under company law, and is intended to help entities address their reporting obligations in a way that is practical, proportionate and supports high-quality reporting.
High-quality strategic reports focus on the needs of shareholders and other primary users of the annual report, enabling them to tell a cohesive story of the business and make full use of the flexibility that exists within the regulatory framework. The FRC’s Guidance on the Strategic Report supports preparers in delivering disclosures that are proportionate to the entity's size, complexity and circumstances.
The guidance has been updated to reflect changes to legislative and regulatory requirements, including the recent revision of the UK Corporate Governance Code 2024, legislative changes to directors’ report disclosures,[1] and other developments in sustainability-related and wider corporate reporting practice. In addition, the updated guidance delivers improvements to its structure and accessibility to improve usability and functionality for preparers.
Alongside the guidance, the FRC has also published updated Scoping Tables to support entities complying with Companies Act 2006 disclosure requirements for the strategic report, the directors’ report and the energy and carbon report to reflect reporting of payment practices within the Directors Report.[2]
Mark Babington, Executive Director of Regulatory Standards“High-quality strategic reports enable users to understand not just where the business stands today, but where it is headed, and its future prospects. These updates support UK corporate reporting by giving companies clear guidance on how to present a concise and genuinely informative view of their performance, risks and opportunities.
By sharpening its structure and updating it to reflect developments in corporate reporting, the revised guidance supports preparers in delivering better reporting that serves shareholders and other primary users of corporate reporting.”