The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has published Exposure Draft (ED) 47, Financial Statement Discussion and Analysis. The ED proposes minimum required content while still providing flexibility for entities to prepare and publish financial statement discussion and analysis that best portrays their specific circumstances.

Because of the close link between financial statement discussion and analysis and an entity's financial statements, ED 47 proposes that:

The UK's Department of Business, Innovation and Skills already has an open consultation on ‘Simpler Reporting for the smallest companies' but that has not stopped it turning its attention to reporting practices at our major companies.  The latest plans, aimed at giving investors greater clarity on how these companies are run and how executive pay is matched to performance, are contained in two consultation papers which were released simultaneously:

The Financial Reporting Council has published two reports that seek to increase transparency in corporate reporting.  Boards and Risk focuses on ensuring companies report primarily on strategic and major operational risks, rather than publish indiscriminate lists of risks that all companies face.  In Effective Company Stewardship - Next Steps, the FRC considers the case for narrative reporting standards, improvements to the reporting of strategy, risk and going concern together with a widening of the role of the audit committee and other aspects of the audit market

You will have read about CIMA's involvement in an exciting collaborative project with PwC and Tomorrow's Company researching the barriers to the effective development of corporate reporting.

The latest batch of financial reporting related consultations is quite a mix, covering audit market concentration, the future of narrative reporting and leases.  As ever I would be pleased to receive your feedback on these latest consultations:

House of Lords: Inquiry into Audit Market Concentration

The comment period for the FRC's discussion paper ‘Louder than Words' is closing at the end of the month and I am in the process of drafting CIMA's reply.  I thought that I would share my thoughts with you and I would welcome any feedback.  Although this is essentially a UK consultation it has international implications as the FRC has recommended changes to IFRS and many of the key messages in the paper are equally applicable outside of the UK as in it.