Governance & Compliance Update - Issue 148

Included in this issue of our Governance & Compliance Update: GC100 publishes survey on workforce engagement; Corporate governance on AIM - QCA publishes results of survey and more...

GC100 publishes survey on workforce engagement

The GC100, which represents the general counsel and company secretaries of the FTSE 100, has published results of a poll focusing on how FTSE 100 companies are implementing the UK Corporate Governance Code (Code) as regards the methodology used to engage with their workforce.

By way of reminder, Provision 5 of the Code states one or a combination of the following three models of workforce engagement should be followed:

• a director appointed from the workforce;
• a formal workforce advisory panel; or
• a designated non-executive director.

If a board has not chosen one or more of the above, it should explain what alternative methods are in place and why it considers these to be effective. 

The responses demonstrate that the appointment of a designated NED is the most popular choice, the appointment of a director from the workforce is the least popular (with none of the companies that responded having gone down this route) and that many have opted to go their own way and institute their own methodologies for engagement which, helpfully, the survey goes on to describe.

Corporate governance on AIM - QCA publishes results of survey

The Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) has published results of a survey following changes to the AIM Rules for Companies in 2018 which mandated the adoption of a "recognised" code of governance. According to the QCA, since then almost 90% of AIM companies have adopted the QCA Corporate Governance Code.

Headlines from the survey include:

• 39% of respondents stated that the process of adopting a code helped their business;
• 42% said that the requirement helped formalise new processes;
• 31% said that the process encouraged their board to consider new points of view; and
• 20% said that the process made it easier for investors to assess them.

Campaign launched by ICO to raise awareness of data protection fee

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is in the process of contacting all registered UK companies to remind them of their legal responsibility to pay a data protection fee. The Data Protection Act 2018 required all organisations that process personal data to pay a fee, unless exempt. In the three months to 30 September 2019, 340 fines were issued to organisations that had failed to pay.

The ICO will not contact organisations that have either:

• paid its data protection fee online; or
• stated why it is exempt.

The ICO has also set up a self-assessment portal where organisations can check if they need to pay and, if so, how much.