UK: the governance of FTSE100 companies - a very short debate in Parliament

Late last night in the House of Commons, Eric Joyce MP secured a short debate on the governance of FTSE100 companies. The debate was very short indeed, with two MPs speaking: Mr Joyce and, in response, a minister (Rt. Hon. David Willetts) from the Department for Business, Innovations and Skills. The debate is published in Hansard, the official record, here, and Mr Joyce's primary purpose was to highlight the governance issues raised by companies controlled by overseas individuals, with particular reference to Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation. In response, the minister stated:

... the UK already has a robust corporate governance framework. We are not complacent and recognise that it always needs to be reviewed and updated, and we realise that there will always be individual cases that test those guidelines and that framework ... our principles on which we will approach this and all cases are clear—that it is in the long-term interests of British companies to support the work we are doing to bolster corporate governance, and we encourage every company to meet the standards of the best. We have specific powers, including the powers relating to the listing rules, which are for the Financial Services Authority. As we work through the issues of the correct structure of corporate governance in the UK, our conclusions will be based on the principles that motivate our desire to have a world-class corporate governance framework. However, we are not in the business of weighing companies and investors down with more regulation and higher costs. We believe in improving accountability and transparency. Those are important principles which we expect all companies, large or small, multinational or solely domestic, to live up to. We believe that following those principles is essential for securing long-term, sustainable economic growth for Britain".