Corporate governance developments in the UK
Corporate governance developments in the UK are summarised as follows:
Initial corporate governance developments in the UK began in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the wake of corporate scandals such as Polly Peck and Maxwell. Financial reporting irregularities led to the establishment of the ‘Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance Committee’ led by Sir Adrian Cadbury. The resulting Cadbury Report published in 1992 outlined a number of recommendations around the separation of the role of an organisation’s chief executive and chairman, balanced composition of the board, selection processes for non-executive directors, transparency of financial reporting and the need for good internal controls. The Cadbury Report included a Code of Best Practice and its recommendations were incorporated into the Listing Rules of the London Stock Exchange.
Following Cadbury, a ‘Working Group on Internal Control’ was established to provide guidance to companies on how to comply with Principle 4.5 of the Cadbury Code ‘reporting on the effectiveness of the company’s system of internal control’. This led to the publication of the Rutteman Report in 1994 on ‘Internal Control and Financial Reporting’.
In 1995, following concerns about directors’ pay and share options, the Greenbury Report recommended extensive disclosure in annual reports on remuneration and recommended the establishment of a remuneration committee comprised of non-executive directors. Again, the majority of the recommendations were endorsed by the Listing Rules.
In January 1996, the Hampel Committee was established to review the extent to which the Cadbury and Greenbury Reports had been implemented and whether the objectives had been met. The Hampel Report led to the publication of the Combined Code of Corporate Governance (1998) covering areas relating to structure and operations of the board, directors’ remuneration, accountability and audit,