Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government why the website of the UK Endorsement Board for accounting standards shows it has been supporting reduced disclosures applicable to Companies House-filed accounts, given that the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill is amending the Companies Act accounting exemptions so as to increase the disclosure of financial information to help deal with financial crime.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill removes exemptions from filing accounts for small and micro entities rather than amend the content of those accounts, as determined by international accounting standards or UK accounting standards.

The UK Endorsement Board’s publication commented on the proposals for a new international accounting standard set out in the Exposure Draft Subsidiaries without Public Accountability. These proposals would permit eligible subsidiaries to apply international accounting standards with some reduced disclosure requirements.

The proposed international accounting standard should reduce costs and complexity for eligible subsidiaries but continues to require more disclosures than the equivalent UK accounting standard.