Government plans to abolish the new Operating and Financial Review (OFR) have been met with hostility from the Institute of Directors (IoD).
Under the demands of the OFR, introduced in April, listed firms are required to file a report in their end-of-year accounts on a range of issues that can affect the performance of the business, including employee information.
Gordon Brown told businesses at the CBI conference that the OFR went further than EU regulations required and would be dropped as part of drive to cut through red tape.
However, the IoD said that to abolish the OFR at this late stage, after many companies had incurred costs to meet the requirements, showed a slap-dash approach to regulation policy.
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Patricia Peter, head of corporate governance at the IoD, said: “Making the u-turn now – however welcome – when affected companies will have spent a large amount of time, effort and money (in some cases many millions of pounds) to enable them to meet the requirements of the OFR, demonstrates a cavalier and ill-thought through approach to regulation and its impact.”
When it was launched, the OFR was widely criticised in the HR industry for not including enough rules on reporting on people management issues.
