Structured digital reporting - UK regulators look ahead
In May, the Financial Reporting Council published their 2025/6 insights report drawn from their review of thirty listed companies’ digital reports.
Author: Jon Rowden
The majority of the report looks back to the errors they found over the past year and provides clear guidance on how to address the risk of them arising. But looking to past reporting isn’t all the report covers. The FRC also looks ahead, signalling two priorities for the future. It’s just a paragraph, but we sense it's an important one for the people we work with, so we thought it would be useful to offer our perspective.
Regulatory priorities for digital reporting
Here’s what the FRC says:
'Looking ahead, two priorities stand out. First a stronger focus on quality and judgement - ensuring the tags reflect the underlying accounting meaning, supported by robust review and clear ownership. Second, improving accessibility and usability - through timely filing and making structured reports easily available in formats that support user and AI consumption.'
We completely agree. Whilst it's possible to read the priorities as being a narrow prescription solely aimed at companies, we take a broader view. Successful digital reporting mandates work best when all the key parties - preparers, regulators, legislators, software companies, design agencies, tagging providers and auditors work together with the common purpose of high-quality reporting.
AI consumption of corporate reporting
The reference to improving accessibility and usability through AI consumption of digital information lies at the heart of Reportl’s approach to digital reporting. We recently wrote a white paper setting out the evidence that AI needs reports published fully in HTML format, and which a new breed of reporting software, including Reportl, delivers as standard.
Time for a digital reporting audit mandate
It’s right that the FRC points to the need for quality and judgement. A focus on details, judgement and robust review are the fundamentals of high quality reporting and this pre-dates the arrival of digital reporting not merely by decades, but by centuries. Woven into the fabric of UK reporting is the role of the external auditor. Their independent scrutiny and expertise helps to bring accountability to life and there’s much truth in the adage that “in reporting, what gets audited gets done properly”. Certainly European authorities think so - mandatory digital reporting assurance was included within the auditor’s role from the outset. Those European auditors don’t just identify errors, their role helps deter them from being made in the first place.
Many of the issues the FRC identifies in its Insight’s report have been prevalent since digital tagged reporting was introduced in 2021. Advice on how to stop the issues recurring can only achieve so much. We understand that it’s not the FRC’s role to make the changes to law and regulation necessary to introduce an audit requirement for digital reporting. - Legislators and regulators directly responsible for digital reporting rules would need to be the prime movers. To us, the FRC’s Insights report signals that the time is right for that to happen.
Smoother process, continued improvement in reporting
Should the prospect of a role for external auditors in UK digital reporting emerge, companies will be looking to adapt their digital reporting processes to make them smoother and accommodate the role of the auditor. At Reportl we have what they need, we already have practical experience of external auditors assuring digital reporting, and we stand ready to play our part in the continued improvement of reporting.
