UK SRS glossary: key terms explained

Environmental, social and governance reporting — the practice of measuring and disclosing a company’s performance across these three sustainability dimensions.

UK SRS provides a structured framework for ESG reporting focused on financially material information.

Financial Conduct Authority — the UK financial services regulator whose final rules (PS26/19, 30 September 2026) require listed companies in scope to report against UK SRS on a comply-or-explain basis through the UK Listing Rules.

The rules apply to accounting periods starting on or after 1 January 2027; CP26/5 had proposed making UK SRS S2 mandatory, and the final rules do not.

The FCA enforces the listing rules through its existing powers.

Financial Reporting Council — the UK’s independent regulator responsible for promoting high-quality corporate governance and reporting.

The FRC did not publish UK SRS; that was the Department for Business and Trade.

The FRC hosts the secretariat for the Technical Advisory Committee, and issued the ISSA (UK) 5000 sustainability assurance standard on 12 November 2025 for voluntary use.

It has been tasked by the government with establishing an interim, voluntary register of sustainability assurance providers, which had not been announced as live as at 26 September 2026.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol — its Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard defines Scopes 1, 2 and 3.

UK SRS S2 ¶29 requires emissions to be measured in accordance with it unless a jurisdictional authority or exchange requires a different method.

UK activity data is converted using the DESNZ greenhouse gas reporting conversion factors, published annually.

The UK version of the IAASB’s International Standard on Sustainability Assurance 5000, General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements, issued by the FRC on 12 November 2025 for voluntary use.

Its paragraph 15 makes it effective for assurance engagements on sustainability information reported for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026, or as at a specific date on or after it, with earlier application permitted.

It governs how an assurance engagement is performed, not whether one must be obtained — see UK SRS assurance.

International Sustainability Standards Board — the global standard-setter under the IFRS Foundation, formed on 3 November 2021 at COP26, that issued IFRS S1 and S2 in June 2023 and amended IFRS S2 in December 2025.

The ISSB aims to develop a comprehensive global baseline for sustainability disclosures.

New or amended ISSB standards do not apply in the UK until endorsed.

The UK Sustainability Disclosure Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and Policy and Implementation Committee (PIC) — the two committees set up under the government’s endorsement framework and terms of reference.

The TAC, whose secretariat is the FRC, published its final endorsement recommendations on 18 December 2024.

The PIC is responsible for co-ordinating the implementation decisions taken by DBT and the FCA.

Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures — created by the Financial Stability Board in 2015 and the origin of the four-pillar structure (governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets).

The TCFD disbanded in October 2023 and monitoring of climate-related disclosure progress passed to the IFRS Foundation.

IFRS S2, and therefore UK SRS S2, fully incorporates the TCFD recommendations and their four-pillar architecture.

Climate-related risks arising from the transition to a lower-carbon economy, including policy and legal, technology, market and reputation risks — the TCFD’s four categories, which UK SRS S2 Appendix A carries into its definition.

Companies must assess how the low-carbon transition could affect their business model and strategy.

Provisions in UK SRS S1 Appendix E and UK SRS S2 Appendix C that ease first-time application: no comparatives in the first year, a one-period GHG-methodology relief (S2 ¶C3), an untimed Scope 3 relief (S2 ¶C4) and the untimed climate-first relief (S1 ¶E3).

Their availability and any time limits are left to UK legislation or FCA rules (S1 ¶E5, S2 ¶C6).

The FCA’s final rules set a one-year Scope 3 relief and a two-year S1 non-climate relief for listed companies; a company using one states that it is doing so.

The UK Sustainability Reporting Standards — the UK’s domestically endorsed equivalents of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, published by the Department for Business and Trade on 25 February 2026.

UK SRS closely follows IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, with a small number of UK-specific differences set out in Annex A of the government’s response to its consultation.

It is available for voluntary use by any entity today.

The first of the two UK Sustainability Reporting Standards — General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information.

S1 sets the four-pillar core content — governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets (¶25) — for all sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect the entity’s cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital (¶3).

The second UK Sustainability Reporting Standard, covering climate-related disclosures.

UK SRS S2 requires disclosure of climate-related risks and opportunities, greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3 — ¶29), climate scenario analysis (¶22), and information about any transition plan the entity has (¶14(a)(iv)).

The FCA’s final rules (PS26/19, 30 September 2026) require in-scope listed companies to report against it on a comply-or-explain basis for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027.

CP26/5 had proposed that it apply on a mandatory basis; the final rules do not make it mandatory.

The UK Listing Rules — the FCA Handbook sourcebook that replaced the premium and standard listing segments on 29 July 2024.

The FCA’s final rules (PS26/19) require UK SRS reporting, on a comply-or-explain basis, for the commercial companies (UKLR 6), international commercial companies secondary listing (UKLR 14), depositary receipts (UKLR 15), non-equity shares and non-voting equity shares (UKLR 16) and transition (UKLR 22) categories.

CP26/5 had proposed only a signposting statement for UKLR 14 and 15.