The government's business department has launched a 12-week consultation on "modernising corporate reporting", part of a wider push to cut red tape for companies. While some elements, such as trimming reporting clutter and clarifying exemptions for smaller firms, are broadly welcomed, the Guardian's Nils Pratley warns that two specific proposals would seriously undermine shareholder transparency and accountability.

The first is a plan to scrap annual advisory shareholder votes on companies' remuneration reports, retaining only a binding vote on overall pay policy every three years; critics say this removes a modest but meaningful annual check on executive pay, and reform should instead make the vote binding. The second is encouraging quoted companies to move towards online-only annual general meetings, justified by poor attendance, though Pratley argues hybrid meetings would better preserve investors' right to question executives in person. The consultation also notes annual reports have swollen to an average of 98,000 words, longer than The Hobbit, which it partly blames on regulatory burden, though the article suggests companies' own corporate padding is also to blame.