As the summer season comes to end, there’s not only a shift in the weather but also a renewed focus on strategic planning and forward-thinking.
The demand for more and reliable ESG reporting is increasing, driven by user demands and upcoming new regulations, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”). As a result, more ESG metrics and disclosures are being assured and, when CSRD becomes applicable from 2024, an increasing number of companies will obtain assurance over their entire sustainability report (“sustainability statement”). This assurance is also increasingly being provided by the companies’ financial statement auditors. Therefore, it is vital that companies plan ahead, to ensure they have the right assurance strategy to keep pace with the level of change in the market.
Context
We continue to see an uptick increase in the amount of ESG reporting that FTSE100 companies obtain assurance over. Investors, suppliers, customers, and employees all want to understand the purpose and values of the businesses they work with or for. Therefore, it is important for Boards and management teams to monitor and assess the breadth and level of assurance that is being obtained, in light of the trends we’ve identified below.
In this article, we present the key trends in ESG assurance for the UK’s largest listed companies. Our analysis is based on a review of all FTSE 100 companies’ 2023 Annual Reports, ESG reports, company websites, and, where publicly available, ESG assurance reports. The data was obtained using the latest Annual Reports published as of May 2024 (see Appendix 1). For comparative purposes, we have used our December 2022 article “All icing. No cake” which collated similar data on the FTSE 100 for the 2021 year-end.
Key Findings
Article written by: Andy Kierney and Phil Bennett.
