Kick-starting UK SRS
The long‑awaited final UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) have now landed. Built on the work of the IFRS Foundation, they are designed to help companies provide consistent, comparable and decision‑useful reporting on sustainability and climate‑related financial information, risks and opportunities, in line with emerging international practice.
From February 2026, the Standards are available for voluntary use in the UK. In parallel, the FCA is consulting on how they should apply to listed companies. Further to this, Government has signalled that, as part of its wider review of corporate reporting, it will also look at whether large private companies should be brought into scope over time.
What are the main changes compared to ISSB?
Simultaneous reporting
Under UK SRS, sustainability disclosures are expected to be published at the same time as the financial statements from year one. This pushes companies to integrate sustainability into their core corporate reporting processes, rather than treating it as a bolt-on report produced on a different timetable.
Climate-first transitional relief
The standards extend the ‘climate-first’ transitional relief to two years. This gives companies the option to focus initially on climate-related disclosures before broadening to wider sustainability topics, creating breathing space to build internal capabilities, processes and controls.
Scope 3 emissions reporting
UK SRS provides a full first year exemption from Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, including financed emissions. The Standard no longer specifies how long this relief can be used. Instead, it leaves the duration of any Scope 3 relief to be set by the relevant regulators, if and when reporting becomes mandatory. In practice, this gives preparers short-term flexibility but also means they will need to keep a close eye on regulatory developments.
Use of industry standards
The original IFRS S1 and S2 Standards state that an entity ‘shall refer’ to SASB Standards. The UK version softens this, saying an entity ‘may refer’ to SASB Standards. The direction of travel is still towards industry-specific, decision-useful metrics, but with more discretion for preparers.
Companies are no longer required to use the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) as their prescribed industry classification system. Instead, they can use another suitable and commonly used system – often the one already used for prudential, regulatory or internal reporting. This removes the need to adopt GICS solely for UK SRS purposes and avoids unnecessary remapping.
What will successful implementation hinge on?
- Strategic planning – deciding how to use transitional reliefs, sequencing climate and wider sustainability topics and setting a realistic roadmap.
- Governance readiness – ensuring the board and its committees have clear oversight, the right skills and good‑quality information on sustainability‑related risks and opportunities.
- Data and systems – building or strengthening the infrastructure needed to gather, validate and connect emissions, scenario analysis and value‑chain data with financial information.
- Cross‑functional collaboration – bringing together sustainability, finance, risk, legal and investor relations so that narrative, metrics and financial effects tell a coherent story.
Ready to kick-start your journey?
It’s pretty clear UK SRS will become embedded into formal reporting requirements for listed companies and, in time, for larger private groups. Early adopters will be better placed to respond to investor expectations, regulatory change and stakeholder scrutiny.
Our approach
- Run a gap analysis comparing existing TCFD and broader sustainability reporting against UK SRS S1 and S2.
- Refresh your materiality assessment to identify sustainability‑related risks and opportunities that genuinely affect the business’s prospects.
- Review governance arrangements, including whether the board and its committees have the skills, structures and information they need to oversee climate and wider sustainability.
- Assess the maturity of your data, systems and controls, particularly for Scope 3 emissions and scenario analysis.
If you’d like to understand what UK SRS means for your business, benchmark your current disclosures or shape a practical implementation roadmap, get in touch to discuss how we can support your reporting.
