Corporate Governance Review 2008

Welcome to our seventh annual review of the UK’s FTSE 350 corporate governance disclosures. It has also been used by The Walker review secretariat and the FRC in their reports to be released later this year. It's more than just seven years of exclusive data.

In our view the annual report is the primary window through which a company showcases its attitude to governance. If a company fails to take this opportunity in such a public document, we consider it reasonable for the stakeholders to conclude that this reflects the underlying culture of the organisation.

We highlight trends in the disclosure of compliance with the Combined Code (the Code) and assess the quality of explanations of underlying practices among the UK’s largest listed companies. This year, our review covers 306 companies, assessing their compliance with the policies and provisions of the Code. In addition, we extend our review to cover aspects of the Business Review, which, although only brought into law in the period, gives an early indication of emerging issues and developing trends. For the first time we analyse our findings by sector. As in previous years, we exclude investment trusts due to the difference in their nature, structure, management and approach to corporate governance.

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The report is in PDF format and you will need the Adobe Acrobat reader to view it. This software can be downloaded for free from Adobe if you do not already have it

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