FRC Review: Reporting by the UK’s smaller listed companies

Each year the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) carry out a series thematic reviews of areas of corporate reporting where they believe “there is scope for improvement and particular shareholder interest” in order to drive reporting quality and provide examples of “clear and concise disclosures”.

With this in mind, on 19 November 2025 the FRC published a review of Reporting by the UK’s smaller listed companies. The review looked at companies either listed outside of the FTSE 350 on the Main Market or on AIM, and all of them applied IFRS Accounting Standards. The FRC places particular emphasis on corporate reporting within this category of company given the more limited analyst coverage of this part of the market.

There are four areas of focus in the review, all of which have been covered in previous FRC reviews.

1. Revenue
2. Cash flow statements
3. Impairment of non-financial assets
4. Financial instruments

These are identified as topics which are of particular interest for investors and which have also been “hot-spots” for non-compliance historically. The review provides helpful examples of good and bad reporting in each of these areas and it will be important for company secretarial teams to review these before beginning their next annual reporting processes.

Looking more broadly, the review also identifies the need to improve the clarity and brevity of reports. For example, there is often duplication which could be eliminated through effective cross-referencing, disclosures are being made to irrelevant accounting policies and, where there are group companies, different accounting standards could be used to simplify the reports.

Corporate reporting is clearly fundamental to a listed company’s operations regardless of its size however the FRC acknowledges that the approach taken by smaller companies should be proportionate. These companies are “often engines of growth in the economy” and so the review aims to highlight the merits of improved reporting without over-burdening these entities with regulation.

To discuss any of the points raised in this article please contact AJ Venter, Charlotte Hamilton or another member of the Corporate M&A Team.

We encourage smaller listed companies to consider the examples included in this publication to maximise the transparency, consistency and accuracy of their annual report, particularly in respect of complex or judgemental transactions and balances.

https://media.frc.org.uk/documents/Thematic_Review_Reporting_by_the_UKs_smaller_listed_companies.pdf