By Paul Hodgson – CCO and Senior Research Associate
Law Debenture has just published a review of the first year of “compulsory” board evaluations.
The 2010 UK Corporate Governance Code requires companies in the FTSE 350 to comply with, or explain why are they are not complying, a regulation that calls for a triennial board evaluation. While there is still time for boards to comply, the report found an immediate increase in the proportion of companies conducting external board evaluations. For the FTSE 100, for example, 42 companies conducted external evaluations, as against 35 in 2010.
Not only are evaluations being conducted at a higher rate, more companies are disclosing action plans that discuss issues arising from the evaluation. These include:
- Impact on board strategy
- Improve effectiveness and clarify board and committee effectiveness
- Improve succession planning
Where companies have not conducted any evaluations, the reasons given in explanation range from new board membership, recently listed companies without a full public fiscal year, or other board preoccupations. Prior evaluations were also referred to.