UK: the Companies Act 2006 (Transfer of Audit Working Papers to Third Countries) Regulations 2010 - draft published

A draft of the Companies Act 2006 (Transfer of Audit Working Papers to Third Countries) Regulations 2010 has been published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: see here (pdf). Explanatory notes have been published here (pdf). Further background information is available here.

UK: the new listing regime

Changes to the Listing Regime come into effect today, with the creation of two segments: premium and standard. For further information see here. The revised Listing Rules are available here. Overseas companies with a premium listing of equity shares will be required to 'comply or explain' against the UK's Combined Code on Corporate Governance.

UK: Women in the City - Treasury Committee report published

The Treasury Committee has published its report Women in the City: see here (html) and here (pdf). Chapter two deals with women on boards. The Committee does not support law to require boards to have a minimum proportion of female directors but nevertheless endorses increased gender diversity. Specifically, the Committee states:

Concern about the under representation of women on boards can be about business performance as much as fairness. There is a consensus that an effective challenge function within a board is required in financial institutions, and that diversity on boards can promote such challenge. While it is impossible to know whether more female board members would have lessened the impact of the financial crisis, the arguments for fairness, improved corporate governance, a stronger challenge function and not wasting a large proportion of talent seem more than sufficient to conclude that increased gender diversity is desirable".

UK: pre-pack administrations - SIP16 report

The Insolvency Service has published a report on the operation of Statement of Insolvency Practice 16 for the period July to December 2009: see here (pdf). Amongst the report's finding is the following:

... there is no evidence that the level of reported director misconduct in pre-packs (at least those reported under SIP 16) is any greater than the overall level of misconduct reported by insolvency practitioners generally. Nor is there any evidence in conduct reported by insolvency practitioners to support the view that pre-pack administrations have been cynically manipulated by directors in the vast majority of cases".

Ireland: Code of Practice for Corporate Governance Assessment

The National Standards Authority of Ireland and the Institute of Directors in Ireland have published a Code of Practice for Corporate Governance Assessment for Irish companies and State bodies. The purpose of the code is to provide a best practice standard for the independent evaluation of organisations' compliance with existing corporate governance codes including the OECD Corporate Governance Principles, the UK Combined Code on Corporate Governance and the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies. For further information see here.