Railpen and ShareAction have called on the UK government to ensure its proposed corporate-reporting reforms do not weaken shareholder rights.
Railpen, the UK’s rail workers’ pension fund with £34bn (€40.5bn) in total assets, said it supported making reporting more useful and efficient, warning that any reforms must not come at the expense of shareholder rights.
“Good governance is a help, not a hindrance, to the UK economy,” Caroline Escott, head of investment stewardship and co-head of sustainable ownership at Railpen, told IPE.
The comments come after the government launched its Modernising Corporate Reporting consultation on 7 September, proposing several reforms, including clarifying the law to allow virtual-only annual general meetings (AGMs), with shareholder consent, and removing the annual shareholder advisory vote on directors’ remuneration reports.
The Department of Business and Trade (DBT) is asking investors and asset owners for feedback on which disclosures they find useful and where streamlined reporting could remove important information for investment and stewardship decisions.
The DBT said it wants corporate reports to be clearer, more concise and focused on the information investors actually use.
The government said the UK’s corporate-reporting system has become too complicated due to the way reporting requirements have been introduced across company law, accounting standards and regulatory rules, resulting in duplication and inconsistency.
The government is also considering how UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (SRS), existing climate disclosures and transition-plan reporting should fit together while avoiding duplication.
Virtual-only AGMs
Escott added that Railpen was “disappointed” to see the government further enabling virtual-only AGMs and proposing to remove shareholder advisory votes on remuneration reports.
“We welcome the government’s clear commitment to considering shareholder safeguards on virtual-only AGMs. However, the opportunity to attend a company meeting in person is a vital shareholder right. Hearing other shareholders’ views, and being heard in turn, gives us all greater insight and ultimately supports long-term value creation and a more resilient UK economy. Conversely, virtual-only AGMs undermine this process, enabling some companies to filter or ignore shareholder perspectives,” she said.
At the start of the year, Escott criticised the DBT’s decision to scrap a planned audit and corporate governance reform package.
ShareAction mirrored this view, stressing that virtual-only AGMs reduce accountability.
Luke Hildyard, head of UK policy at ShareAction, said: “Permitting online-only AGMs would be a massive backwards step for corporate accountability and good business decision-making in the UK.”
“The real-world impacts of big business are felt by us all – in the air we breathe, the food we eat and the unfolding climate emergency. The AGM is the one time that boards of major corporations can be publicly questioned on issues ranging from their company’s financial performance to its social and environmental impact.”
Earlier this year, The Investor Relations Society (TIRS) published its own position on the proposed reforms, and said it “supports a single UK SRS-aligned route for listed company sustainability reporting rather than parallel or divergent UK-specific overlays”.
The consultation closes on 30 November 2026, with the government aiming to publish its outcome within six months.
