Published date: 24 July 2023

This notice was replaced on 17 October 2023

This notice does not contain the most up-to-date information about this procurement. The most recent notice is:

Awarded contract (published 17 October 2023)

Closed opportunity - This means that the contract is currently closed. The buying department may be considering suppliers that have already applied, or no suitable offers were made.


Contract summary

Industry

  • Research and development services and related consultancy services - 73000000

Location of contract

EC2Y 5AS

Value of contract

£26,999 to £39,999

Procurement reference

FRC2023-0131

Published date

24 July 2023

Closing date

24 August 2023

Closing time

12pm

Contract start date

11 September 2023

Contract end date

31 March 2024

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Open procedure (below threshold)

Any interested supplier may submit a tender in response to an opportunity notice.

This procedure can be used for procurements below the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) regulates auditors, accountants and actuaries and sets the UK's Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes. We seek to promote transparency and integrity in business; our work is aimed at investors and others who rely on company accounts, audit, and high-quality risk management. As the Competent Authority for audit in the UK, the FRC sets auditing and ethical standards and monitors and enforces audit quality.

The FRC Lab ('the Lab') provides an environment where investors and companies can come together to develop pragmatic solutions to today's reporting needs:

• As a learning space, companies can use the Lab to test new reporting formats with investors, and investors can indicate areas where management can add greater value through the information they provide.

• As a hub to support innovation in reporting, the Lab's focus on gathering and sharing evidence from the market provides the broader corporate community with feedback from shareholders on the value that new reporting formats bring.

The FRC Lab is commisioning research which will add to the understanding of recent trends in annual reports and how these impact the length and usefulness of reporting.

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this research project is to answer the following sets of questions:
• How much (and which parts) of the annual report is 'boiler plate', static, or changing over time?
• How have risk disclosures in annual reports changed over time (including the average time for a given risk to crystallise and then subsequently be removed from reporting)? Which risks are identified and disclosed most frequently across all companies, and categories of companies (e.g. sizes, sectors)?
• How consistent are business model-related disclosures over time? How often do these disclosures change significantly? How much is 'boiler plate'? To what extent are business model-related disclosures consistent with the financial statements (including segmental and other 'back half' disclosures)?
• How much forward-looking / strategic language exists in the annual report and accounts compared to backward-looking language? How is this split relatively between subsections of the annual report and accounts?
• How have annual reports and accounts, including subsections1, increased in length and complexity over time?

SCOPE
This research will cover the annual reporting of all FTSE 350 listed companies; we expect trends to identified, with respect to the research questions above, based on at least five years of past reporting (2017 to 2021).

PLEASE SEE ATTACHED INVITATION TO TENDER (ITT) FOR FULL DESCRIPTION.

More information

Attachments

Additional text

Notes:-

• Download and review the documents;

• Observe the timelines and tender process

• Register your interest in this opportunity by email to procurement@frc.org.uk

• You will need to register your interest in this opportunity to receive the Q&A responses.

About the buyer

Contact name

Head of Procurement

Address

8Th Floor,125 London Wall
LONDON
EC2Y5AS
England

Telephone

020 7492 2300

Email

procurement@frc.org.uk

Website

https://www.frc.org.uk