Yearly disclosures in public sector: Guidance for Sustainability Reporting 2018-2019
The Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) serves as a vital resource for central government departments and other public sector bodies in the United Kingdom, providing guidance on financial reporting and aligning with sustainability reporting principles.
Primarily, the FReM focuses on financial reporting, but it also references the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) guidance and the Sustainability Reporting Guidance (SRG). While the FReM does not offer extensive details on sustainability reporting, it is supplemented by other documents such as the Sustainability Reporting Guidance 2025-26 and Appendix A - Sustainability Reporting Concepts, Principles, and Foundations.
Appendix A outlines the principles and foundations for sustainability reporting in the public sector, mirroring the FReM's approach to performance reporting. It includes both mandatory and advisory elements to help entities report sustainability-related information effectively.
The FReM reflects best practices in financial reporting and encourages public sector entities to align their financial and sustainability reporting with broader strategic objectives, such as those outlined in the Companies Act 2006. For detailed sustainability reporting content, one would need to consult the specific sustainability reporting guidance documents that are mentioned alongside the FReM.
In essence, the FReM acts as a manual, resource, and guide for understanding public sector reporting, offering additional information and best practice guidance for sustainability reports. It outlines minimum requirements, principles, and provides guidance on the preparation of information for sustainability reports, ensuring transparency and accountability in the public sector's sustainability reporting.
- The Sustainability Reporting Guidance 2025-26 and Appendix A - Sustainability Reporting Concepts, Principles, and Foundations, which are supplementary to the FReM, delve into the sustainability-related information, aligning with the principles of environmental-science, specifically climate-change.
- While the primary focus of the FReM is on financial reporting, its broader objective includes aligning financial reporting with business strategies that incorporate sustainability elements, such as addressing climate-change and environmental-science issues, following the approach outlined in the Companies Act 2006.
