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In the White
Paper "Modernising Company Law", published in
July 2002, the Government announced it would establish
an independent group of experts to help in the process
of providing guidance on how directors can assess
whether an item is material to their company and hence
must be included in an OFR. On 11 December 2002 the
Government published the terms of reference of the
Group, click here 
(5Kb)
A list of Members of the Group is available here
(6Kb)
A Press Notice (P2002/812) issued on 19 December
2002 is available here
The
Group launched a consultation document on 27 June
2003. It
addressed the concept of materiality; the principles
to be applied in arriving at a judgement on
materiality; and the process directors should go
through, as part of the total process of good
governance, in deciding what should be included in
their OFR.
A
copy of the Consultation Document is available here
(168Kb)
A
Press Notice issued by the Working Group on 27 June
2003 is available here
(90Kb)
The formal consultation ended on 19 September 2003.
A list of those who responded to the
consultation is available here
(164Kb)
Copies
of responses will be available from the DTI Library in
due course.
Since the Group published
its consultation document, the Government has
announced plans to implement the proposal for a
statutory OFR using existing powers in Companies Act 1985 and will be publishing
draft regulations on the OFR in due course.
The Group has considered the implications of
this announcement and will be liaising closely with
the DTI to ensure the publication of the Group’s
final report is co-ordinated with the publication of
draft OFR regulations.
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