资源描述
INSIGHTS INTO INTEGRATED REPORTING 4.0: THE STORY SO FAR 2020 Association of Chartered Certified Accountants May 2020 About ACCA ACCA is the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Were a thriving global community of 219,000 members and 527,000 students based in 179 countries that upholds the highest professional and ethical values. We believe that accountancy is a cornerstone profession of society that supports both the private and public sectors. Thats why were committed to the development of a strong global accountancy profession and the many benefits that this brings to organisations, individuals and society. Our qualifications develop forward-thinking professionals with the financial and business skills essential for the creation of sustainable economies and flourishing societies. Every day, ACCA professional accountants support people and organisations in making sound decisions and doing the right thing. We build public trust by creating an inclusive profession with people from all backgrounds, bound by a common global code of ethics and committed to updating their skills to meet ever-changing needs. Since 1904 being a force for public good has been embedded in our purpose, and this powers everything we do. Like offering everyone, everywhere the opportunity to access a rewarding career in accountancy. By working in partnership with emerging economies to establish their own professional accountancy organisations and grow their finance ecosystems. Through freely sharing our leading-edge research that answers todays questions and prepares us for tomorrow. And by supporting our global family of members, future members, and partners and developing the profession for the next generation. We think ahead and lead the profession. Find out more at INSIGHTS INTO INTEGRATED REPORTING 4.0: THE STORY SO FAR This report examines the reporting practices of organisations in the International Integrated Reporting Councils Business Network. It looks at the results of reviews done in 2019 and compares with similar reviews done since 2016 to provide a picture of the current state of their integrated reporting and the trends and developments that can be seen over that four year period. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACCA would like to thank the IIRC for giving us the opportunity to take part, for the fourth year running, in the Business Network Report Critique project. We are grateful to the reviewers on the Specialist Panel (listed in Appendix 2) for their expert input. AUTHOR Richard Martin, Head of Corporate Reporting, ACCA 4 Contents Executive summary 6 1. Introduction 8 2. Trends over four years characteristics of the reports 10 Integrated reports and Framework 10 Other protocols 10 Conciseness 11 Audience for an integrated report 12 Assurance 12 3. Trends over four years quality of the reporting 14 4. Particular issues from this years reviews 19 Adoption of the TCFD recommendations 19 Boundaries of the reporting 22 Responsibility statements 23 Conclusion 26 Appendix 1: Average ratings from the 2018 Business Network Report Critique project 27 Appendix 2: ACCAs Insights into integrated reporting series 31 References 32 5 INSIGHTS INTO INTEGRATED REPORTING 4.0: THE STORY SO FAR | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report summarises the findings from reviews of the reports of 48 members of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Business Network carried out in 2019 by ACCA in collaboration with the IIRC. Executive summary It is intended to a provide a picture of the current state of integrated reporting and, by comparing that with similar reviews done in the period from 2016, give an idea of how this reporting has developed. In doing so, it hopes to assist in improving the quality of integrated reporting and help those companies that are starting to use the IIRCs Framework. The report comes out against a background of increased interest from authorities in improving corporate reporting outside of the financial statements. Integrated reporting should be a key part of that. Regarding the characteristics of the sampled reports over those years, our main conclusions are as follows. n The prevalence of reports labelled as integrated reports has increased steadily, which may represent a widening recognition of the concept and the Framework. n Reports increasingly state that they follow the principles of the Framework. n The reports are making more reference to other standards, frameworks or reporting protocols, in addition to the Framework, which may be complementary to in providing specific metrics or dealing with particular issues. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the most frequently referenced. Two reporting systems that have been developed more recently have had an increasing take-up the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). n Against the perceived trend in corporate reporting generally, the integrated reports are becoming shorter or more concise over time. n The majority of reports now identify their intended audience, which is helpful because it has a major influence over report content. That audience is evenly split between the providers of financial capital and other stakeholders. n External assurance over the reports, or aspects of them, has become increasingly the norm over the four years. It is disappointing that the overall quality of the reporting based on the average score our reviewers awarded the reports has declined in the period. This indicates that though companies stated following of the principles is increasing, the quality of that compliance is not. It should be noted, however, that with new businesses participating in the Report Critique project each year, this is not necessarily a like-for-like comparison and the IIRC works with these new businesses to support their integrated reporting journey. The 2020 revision to the Framework has highlighted areas of the Framework which need clarification and new points of emphasis, which will address some of the areas where businesses are not currently compliant with the Framework. The relative rankings of the different requirements of the Framework, the areas of stronger and weaker performance, have been fairly consistent over the four years. Stronger areas include: n the description of the business and its context n the strategy of the organisation n the risks and their mitigation. Less well done have been descriptions of: n opportunities n the outlook for the business n statements of responsibility for the reports. 6 INSIGHTS INTO INTEGRATED REPORTING 4.0: THE STORY SO FAR | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY There is a mixed picture for two of the fundamental aspects of : value creation over the shorter and longer term, and the multi-capital approach. Both appear to be well reflected in the reports, but Business Network members have not been good at linking them to their organisations strategy and performance measures. Looking at the guiding principles of the Framework, reports are rated as being more consistent over the period, whereas there is a more mixed picture for connectivity and conciseness. This report also looks at three specific topics and examples of different practice: n the take-up of the TCFD recommendations, which would seem to be an evolving area n the disclosure of the boundaries of the integrated reports, which may well go beyond those for the financial statements and may need more consideration from preparers n the statement of responsibility from the management for the integrated report, which is often not provided in accordance with the Framework. LOOKING AT THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF THE FRAMEWORK, REPORTS ARE RATED AS BEING MORE CONSISTENT OVER THE PERIOD, WHEREAS THERE IS A MORE MIXED PICTURE FOR CONNECTIVITY AND CONCISENESS. 7 There is growing interest in and, indeed, urgency about, improving reporting by companies among investors and other stakeholders, and therefore by regulators and lawmakers, with climate change a very important factor behind this. 1. Introduction The European Commission sees corporate reporting as an important element of its policy of developing a sustainable economy and is currently revising its Non- Financial Reporting Directive with that objective. Investors, such as BlackRock, have called for better reporting of climate change impacts, long-term strategy and value creation (BlackRock 2019). Given that the financial statements are a well- established and standardised form of reporting, the greatest perceived gap is in providing consistent non- financial information to give a complete statement of the companys position, performance and prospects. Integrated reporting has a key role as a model for achieving this complete picture. The adoption of continues to grow: the IIRC estimate that, to date, 2,000 large businesses have done so. Companies that have adopted it still face challenges in trying to improve their reports and fully implement the model. If implementation is extended as a result of action by regulatory authorities then many more businesses will be looking at examples of how can be best done and be aware of the aspects that existing adopters have found most challenging. This report summarises the findings from reviews of the reports of 48 members of the IIRC Business Network carried out in 2019 by ACCA in collaboration with the IIRC. It is intended to provide a picture of the current state of and, by comparing that with similar reviews done in the period from 2016, give an idea of how that has been developing. In doing so it hopes to assist in improving the quality of and help those companies who are starting to use the IIRCs Framework. Many members of the Business Network have welcomed feedback on the integrated reports they produce. In this context, ACCA has for the last four years worked alongside the IIRC to co-convene an Specialist Panel to review the corporate reports of those members who have chosen to take part. (See Appendix 1 for the participating organisations in the Specialist Panel). The reviews assessed the reports on the basis of how well they complied with the different parts of the Framework the fundamental concepts of value creation and the multi-capital approach, the guiding principles and the content elements. The reviewers also collected some information about the characteristics of these reports. The most recent review was conducted during 2019 and covered reports for accounting periods up to 31 March 2019. These reports included any documents that the companies considered to be part of their integrated reporting package, whatever they were called. The great majority submitted a single report. This year the review sample covered reports from the 48 organisations at different stages of their journey. Participating companies received confidential feedback on their reporting. Reviewers indicated where the reporting was strongly aligned with the Framework, as well as any identified gaps where the achievement of applying guiding principles and providing content elements could be improved, or integrated more effectively. A large proportion (54%) of reports reviewed this year were issued by European companies, although entities across the rest of the world also participated. Banks and insurance companies continue to be well represented and together they also accounted for 54% of the sample, showing that INSIGHTS INTO INTEGRATED REPORTING 4.0: THE STORY SO FAR | 1. INTRODUCTION 8 INSIGHTS INTO INTEGRATED REPORTING 4.0: THE STORY SO FAR | 1. INTRODUCTION the financial sector plays a leading role in advocating . There is also strong participation from the transport, utilities and extractive sectors. Overall the sample covers a wide range of types of organisations and sectors. Given that the sample is of members of the Business Network and therefore of companies taking a very active interest in , and furthermore the strong participation from European and financial services, the review findings cannot be taken as representative of application among all adopters across the world. This years report looks at the findings of the reviews in the light of those from previous years. It is therefore a look back over the last four years to see what trends and developments can be drawn from them (see Appendix 2 for an outline of the content of the previous reports) We then go on to look in more detail at three aspects of this years reports. Firstly, we consider the adoption of the recommendations of the TCFD. This is an area where there has been a significant increase in take-up this year among the Business Network participants and indeed by companies generally. The recommendations have been attracting support from investors, who need this information, and from regulators. We also look at the boundaries of integrated reports, which for good reasons may be different from the boundaries of the financial statements, for example. Our third focus area is the statements that the managements of organisations make about their responsibility for the integrated report, which is an element of the Framework that we have found, in all our reviews, to be one which is commonly not done very well. It is also an issue which the IIRC is considering in its revision of the Framework, on which it is consulting in 2020. 9 The make -up of the sample of companies in the 2019 review has been noted above. This was broadly true of the three previous reviews as well. So in the 2016 review, 66% of the sample were European-based companies, compared with 54% in 2019. Financial services was the biggest category in 2016, with 27% of the reports, but the proportion had grown to 54% in 2019. Utilities, services, pharmaceuticals and chemicals and retail were other well- represented sectors. So the limitations to the study noted above apply equally to the three earlier reviews as well as to 2019s. Sectoral composition may be comparable, but the companies involved are not of course the same throughout though there is a significant common group and 34% of the 2016 companies were also reviewed in 2019. Integrated reports and Framework One of the clearest trends over the four years has been the increasing use of the term integrated report and of a statement that reports have been prepared following the IIRCs Framework (Table 1). This is all very encouraging. Using the term integrated report is likely to reflect greater recognition over the period of the term and so of the concept of in the wider corporate context beyond those companies that are active supporters of the IIRC. In line with this increasing use of the term is a decrease we have observed in the use of less appropriate terms such as sustainability or corporate social responsibility reports, which may have a narrower aim. The great majority of the reports submitted by these companies are called integrated, annual or strategic, allowing for a more holistic objective. The Framework is a demanding benchmark and
展开阅读全文