Financial Reporting Council: Annual Reports and Accounts

Lord Young of Norwood Green Excerpts

Monday 14th February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

My Lords, as I just said, as the law stands, you are fully entitled to a printed copy of the report and accounts. So there is no reason why that should occur unless you have asked for it to be online, in which case you can download as much or as little of it as you like. We fully agree that it is very important that the report and accounts are clear, accessible and have the information that shareholders require. That is why we are looking at it now. We are consulting and will report at the end of March on some of the changes that we may be able to make to make things clearer.

[Lord Young of Norwood Green]

Does the Minister agree that there is some environmental gain to be had from people opting to receive these reports online when so many of them are unread or ignored? As she said, there is a question of opting in to this. Does she also agree that it is more important that the report contents are more transparent and accountable, demonstrating that all the remuneration and reward systems are linked to long-term success and showing that active steps are being taken to narrow the widening gap between the highest and lowest paid? While the companies are at it, perhaps they could also tell us how many apprentices they have. Finally, we ought to put our own house in order. We circulate more than 800 copies of this publication, for example. We could put it online.

[Baroness Wilcox]

Yes, my Lords, I suppose that that might save a few trees but at the moment, under law, we have to provide printed copies. I am sure that if your Lordships' House decided that it wished to debate the matter again, we might hear a lot more new ideas. I thank the noble Lord for the advice.