UK Waters Down Corporate Governance Reforms After King’s Speech

The UK’s accounting watchdog has ditched more than half of its planned changes to the corporate governance code, saying this will support economic growth.

The Financial Reporting Council scrapped proposals to give environmental, social and governance reporting responsibilities to audit committees, as well as changes to diversity reporting and shareholder engagement requirements, it said in a statement Tuesday.

FRC Chief Executive Officer Richard Moriarty said the move will support the UK’s competitiveness and comes amid a “much wider debate about business reporting requirements and burdens across the economy.”

It comes on the same day that long-awaited legislation for audit reform ...