Technical roundup 7 February

ROI 

• With regard to financial statements of primary schools, CCAB-I are in discussions with the Financial Support Service Unit (FSSU) to address the need to update the legislation to facilitate an appropriate and robust reporting process. There is a further meeting scheduled to take place next week and an update will be communicated thereafter.
• The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities has published a Notification to Suppliers which sets out the CRU’s requirements regarding the reporting of suppliers’ costs associated with the PSO Levy.  This requirement includes the role of independent auditors and an example of a report to be signed by the auditor. 

UK 

• The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has announced a major shakeup of its oversight and supervisory functions to speed up the pace of Enforcement investigations.
• 2020 Parker Review - Over half of FTSE 250 companies (52%) fail to mention ethnicity in their board diversity policy, and most of the FTSE 350 do not set measurable ethnicity targets, according to a new report recently issued which includes FRC research.

European

• The European Com­mis­sion (EC) has launched an ini­tia­tive 'Revision of the Non-Fi­nan­cial Reporting Directive'.
• The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published updated Guidelines on the Enforcement of Financial Information.
• The ESMA has just published its Strategy on Sustainable Finance.

International

• IFAC has this week released the second instalment of its Exploring the IESBA Code educational series: The Conceptual Framework – Step 1, Identifying Threats.

• The IASB has released a podcast featuring IASB member Darrel Scott and technical staff member Roberta Ravelli as they discuss the de­vel­op­ments at the January 2020 Board meeting related to the amend­ments to IFRS 17 'Insurance Contracts'.