Blog
SMCR Reform in 2026: Key Changes and What Lies Ahead
James Alleyne
The general election is now over, and Parliament has more time to deal with matters other than Brexit. The spotlight has therefore returned to corporate governance, with The Sunday Times reporting that the FRC is developing a “British version of Sarbanes-Oxley”. It reported that this would “heap more responsibility on to directors, asking them to vouch regularly for the integrity of their financial controls and – if passed into law in the UK – opening the possibility of criminal proceedings against chief executives and finance directors for reporting misleading statements to the market.”
In November of this year we blogged on the Financial Reporting Council’s (‘FRC’) recently published report ‘Developments in Audit’ and highlighted that the FRC’s review was running in parallel with the Competition and Markets Authority (‘CMA’) review of the sector. As we reported, such extensive review has been triggered following the high-profile collapses of companies such as Carillion and BHS.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has banned and fined an ICAEW member for his role in a £46m tax avoidance scheme involving the Cup Trust. Mr Mehigan, who was a director of the corporate trustee of the charity, has been excluded from membership of ICAEW for 10 years.
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