A panel of shareholder representatives comprising Paul Lee of Aberdeen Asset Management, Kerrie Waring of ICGN, Sarah Wilson of Manifest and Cliff Weight of ShareSoc last week [23 November 2016] gave evidence to the BEIS Select Committee investigating corporate governance and directors duties in the UK.

The BIS Committee inquiry follows on from the corporate governance failings highlighted by the Committee’s recent inquiries into BHS and Sports Direct, and in the wake of commitments from the Prime Minister to overhaul corporate governance. Questions from a panel of MPs led by Iain Wright, focuss on executive pay, directors duties, and the composition of boardrooms, including worker representation and gender balance in executive positions.

This particular session focused on:

• director duties, including whether company law is sufficiently clear, if corporate  governance requirements should differ between private and public companies and how best the decisions of boards be scrutinised and open to challenge
• whether the duty to promote the long-term success of a company is clear and enforceable and about how the interests of shareholders and current and former employees are best balanced

All evidence sessions are televised and the transcript and video of the sessions can be viewed here:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/business-energy-industrial-strategy/news-parliament-2015/corporate-governance-ev2-16-17/

The evidence provided will contribute to Parliament's final deliberations of the government's Green Paper which is expected this week.