Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in light of Carillion’s claim in its 2016 Annual Report that the Board and Committee performance evaluation conducted by Linstock Limited “confirmed that the Board, each of its Committees and the Directors continue to be highly effective”, whether they plan to take steps to improve (1) the effectiveness and accountability of board performance evaluations and (2) regulation of firms undertaking those evaluations.

The Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) Corporate Governance Code sets out that company directors must ensure that an evaluation of the effectiveness of the board is carried out at least every 3 years, which in turn is reported to the shareholders of the companies.

The FRC’s recent consultation on the UK Corporate Governance Code included proposals to improve reporting and practice in this area. These included strengthened principles and provisions about board effectiveness and individual director responsibilities. The FRC expect to publish a revised Corporate Governance Code in July 2018.