UK SRS S1 and S2: the complete reference guide

UK SRS S1 (General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information) and UK SRS S2 (Climate-related Disclosures) are the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards, published by the Department for Business and Trade on 25 February 2026 and available for voluntary use immediately. They are the UK's endorsed versions of the ISSB's IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, with UK-specific differences from the global baseline, set out in Annex A of the government's consultation response.

UK SRS S1 sets the general requirements for disclosing sustainability-related financial information — materiality, reporting boundary and the Connected information requirement with the financial statements — and applies to every material sustainability topic. UK SRS S2 applies that framework to climate specifically, covering climate-related risks and opportunities, greenhouse gas emissions, scenario analysis and transition plan disclosure. S1 is the framework; S2 is its first application, and the two are applied together for climate-related matters.

Both have been available for voluntary use since 25 February 2026. Under the FCA's final rules (PS26/19, 30 September 2026), listed companies in scope report against UK SRS S1 and S2 on a comply-or-explain basis for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, with first reporting in 2028. A company may use one year's non-disclosure of Scope 3 under S2 and two years' non-disclosure of S1 non-climate matters, stating that it is doing so. The Standards' own reliefs carry no fixed period; the FCA's rules set those lengths.

No. UK SRS S1 and S2 are voluntary standards. The FCA's final rules (PS26/19, 30 September 2026) require listed companies in scope to report against them on a comply-or-explain basis — report, or explain why not — for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027. CP26/5, the consultation, had proposed making S2 mandatory; the final rules do not. For every other UK entity the standards remain voluntary.

UK SRS is based on the ISSB's IFRS S1 and IFRS S2. The UK government consulted on six proposed amendments in June 2025, but two did not survive to publication; the authoritative list of final differences is Annex A of the government's consultation response, which carries no headline count. The most significant: the effective-date clauses were removed; the IFRS S1 relief allowing sustainability information to be published at a different time from the financial statements was withdrawn; the relief permitting non-climate topics to be deferred was retained but left untimed in the Standard itself (the FCA's final rules allow it for two years); SASB references were softened from 'shall refer to and consider' to 'may refer to and consider'; added paragraphs clarify how an entity states compliance when using the reliefs. The Global Industry Classification Standard requirement was dropped by the ISSB's own December 2025 change to IFRS S2, not a UK amendment.

No. DESNZ published the statutory post-implementation review of SECR on 26 May 2026 and its formal recommendation is to retain the SECR requirements with amendments, noting that removing SECR would risk reversing gains in transparency and board-level accountability. On the interaction with UK SRS the government has committed only to consider how energy and emissions data reported under UK SRS interacts with SECR, with a view to reducing unnecessary duplication where possible.