UKSustainabilityReportingStandards(UK SRS)

No. Reporting against UK SRS is not currently mandatory, the standards do not in themselves set legal obligations, and the mandatory application date is to be determined. Three things follow, and each one changes how a UK company should read the rest of this page.

• There is no effective date in the standards. The government removed the effective-date clauses from the drafts, so UK SRS has no start date of its own. Dates come only from law or regulation that requires the standards.
• The first route runs through the FCA, for listed companies, and it is now final: from accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, in-scope listed companies report under UK SRS or explain why not.
• A second route runs through the Companies Act, and is at an earlier stage. The government's Modernising Corporate Reporting consultation, open until 30 November 2026, says only that it will consider how UK SRS should be reflected in the Companies Act 2006. No scope, thresholds or dates are proposed.

So the short answer covers the standards themselves, and the longer one depends on which company you are. The applicability page works through it: check whether UK SRS applies to you.

UK SRS is IFRS S1 and S2 with a short list of UK amendments. The government response to the consultation sets them out, and they are the details a preparer who already follows the IFRS standards needs to know.

• No effective dates. The clauses that would have set a start date were removed.
• The climate-first relief has no time limit. A company may report on climate only in its first years (UK SRS S1 paragraph E3), and the UK has not put an end date on that relief. Limits, if any, come through law or regulation.
• The Scope 3 relief has no time limit either. The same approach applies to the relief from disclosing Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions.
• The year-one timing relief is removed. IFRS S1 lets a company publish its sustainability disclosures after its financial statements in the first year. UK SRS does not.
• SASB materials become ‘may refer to’, not ‘shall’. The industry-based guidance is optional rather than required.
• Financed emissions. A new paragraph, B59A, lets asset managers, banks and insurers omit financed emissions where measuring them is impracticable, with reasons and plans disclosed.
• The December 2025 ISSB amendment is built in. Financed-emissions disclosure may be limited to Scope 3 category 15, and classification systems other than GICS may be used, in line with the ISSB’s targeted amendments to IFRS S2.
• A stricter compliance statement. A company may only assert compliance with UK SRS S1 if it meets all of its requirements, and a company using the climate-first relief cannot assert compliance with S1.

The last point is the one most often missed. Using the climate-first relief is allowed, and it is a sensible way to start. It also means the report cannot claim full UK SRS S1 compliance for as long as the relief is in use.

Listed companies in five listing categories, from accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, on a comply-or-explain basis. Everyone else is voluntary.

The FCA published its final rules on 30 September 2026 in Policy Statement PS26/19. They replace the TCFD-aligned listing rules with UK SRS for companies in the commercial companies, transition, non-equity and non-voting equity shares, international secondary listing, and depositary receipts categories. Investment funds, shell companies and debt issuers are out of scope. First reports are due in 2028.

Comply or explain, across both standards. The FCA consulted on making UK SRS S2 mandatory and decided against it. A company that does not make disclosures in accordance with UK SRS, or makes them only in part, must state which requirements were not met, why, and what it plans to do about it.

Two transitional reliefs. Scope 3 emissions may be left out for the first year, and the non-climate parts of UK SRS S1 for the first two years, the climate-first route. A company using a relief states that it has done so, and no further explanation is needed while the relief runs. Both reliefs have expired for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2029.

Transition plans and assurance. Neither is required. Companies in the commercial companies, non-equity and non-voting equity shares, and transition categories state whether they have published a climate-related transition plan and where to find it, or why they have not. In-scope companies also state whether they obtained third-party assurance and, if so, from whom and to what level.

Companies already reporting climate-related financial disclosures under the Companies Act are in a different position. The government has confirmed that UK SRS S2 is a national reporting framework for the purposes of section 414CB(6) of the Companies Act 2006, so a company with that duty can meet it by reporting under UK SRS S2.

For private companies outside those two routes, there is no proposal on the table. The Modernising Corporate Reporting consultation, open until 30 November 2026, raises the question and answers none of it.

UK SRS. UK Sustainability Reporting Standards, issued by the UK government on 25 February 2026, endorsing IFRS S1 and S2 for UK use.

ISSB. The International Sustainability Standards Board, part of the IFRS Foundation, which issues IFRS S1 and S2.

Comply or explain. Disclose in accordance with UK SRS, or state which requirements were not met, why, and what you plan to do about it. The basis of the FCA's final rules across UK SRS S1 and S2.

Climate-first relief. UK SRS S1 paragraph E3, which allows a company to report on climate only. No time limit for voluntary users; two years under the FCA's rules.