Deloitte UK study on half-yearly reporting

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21 Feb 2008

A Deloitte & Touche (United Kingdom) study has found that many companies are failing to comply fully with new reporting requirements for half-yearly financial reports following the UK's introduction of the EU's Transparency Obligations Directive (TOD).

Deloitte's report, titled Half a story, considers the impact of the TOD, which introduced more detailed and extensive requirements for half-yearly financial reports, including compliance with IAS 34 and shorter reporting deadlines. The report also includes some comparisons with the findings of previous Deloitte studies of half-yearly reporting in 2002, 2004, and 2006.

The key findings of the report include:

  • Of 289 companies surveyed, 72 (25%) failed to provide a responsibility statement in their half-yearly reports. This is now a requirement for all listed companies;
  • The average length of the half yearly financial report has increased by 27%;
  • The risks and uncertainties disclosures, which focus on the second six months of the year, were handled well by 19 of 30 companies reviewed in detail. Only four companies referred to credit crunch issues, three in relatively general terms and only one in respect of indebtedness following a refinancing not apparently caused by credit market tightening;
  • Nine of these 30 companies (30%), did not comply with the requirements of IAS 34. This was mainly due to missing disclosures on segments, accounting policies and earnings per share; and
  • Only one of the 30 companies clearly followed all of the requirements in the DTR and IAS 34.
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