Assurance Action: Consultation Showcases Support for UK Voluntary Sustainability Disclosure Regime
3 February 2026
The UK government has published the results of its consultation on the creation of an oversight regime for assurance of sustainability-related financial disclosures which showed strong support for such a programme.
The consultation sought industry feedback on whether there should be greater regulatory oversight of third-party assurance services for sustainability-related financial disclosures. According to the UK Department for Business & Trade (DBT), the consultation received 99 responses during the 12 weeks it was open between June and September 2025. The department described the responses as “positive”, with the vast majority of respondents supporting the core proposition of a voluntary regime for sustainability assurance providers and over half backing “all other aspects” of the proposal set out by the Labour party.
Key Client Takeaways:
Strong Support for Voluntary Regime
- The consultation showed broad industry backing – around 80% of respondents – for a voluntary sustainability assurance oversight regime, aimed at boosting trust, competition and credibility in the UK assurance market.
Interim Register Due in Coming Months
- The UK government has asked the Financial Reporting Council to establish an interim register for assurance providers by mid‑2026, signalling a push for swift implementation.
Alignment with Global Standards
- Respondents – including Minerva Analytics – urged a profession agnostic, multiframework approach and expressed support for continued assurance over future UK Sustainability Reporting Standards to bring them in line with international reporting expectations.
Following the consultation, the UK government now intends to move forward with establishing a voluntary oversight regime and register for entities that offer third-party assurance services for sustainability-related disclosures. The voluntary regime aims to build trust in the UK sustainability assurance market, ensure companies can identify qualified practitioners and promote high standards and competition. In response to calls for swift action from industry, Labour has additionally tasked the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to establish an interim register by the middle of this year.
The consultation additionally sought feedback on the then-proposed Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) being given responsibility for creating a voluntary registration regime for entities that offer third-party assurance services for sustainability-related disclosures. ARGA was due to replace the FRC, being given additional regulatory powers to improve the country’s audit regime and corporate transparency. However, as recently reported by Minerva Analytics, the UK government controversially ditched its long-awaited Audit and Corporate Governance Reform Bill which had included the creation of ARGA to augment audit supervision.
The consultation also invited views on the role of assurance over future UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) disclosures, interactions with the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the operation of the UK’s non-audit services fee cap.
Around 80% of respondents to the consultation – which included accounting and audit firms, industry associations, professional bodies, regulators and sustainability experts – agreed with the core proposal of setting up a voluntary regime for sustainability assurance providers. Reasons given for this support included promoting competition, reducing market concentration, enhancing the credibility of the assurance market and offering investors greater confidence in assurance-related information.
More than half of respondents supported all components of Labour’s proposal. This included taking a profession-agnostic approach, allowing both firms and sole practitioners to register, ensuring the scope of the regime covers multiple sustainability-related reporting frameworks, the use of standards and a desire for assurance over UK SRS reporting in the long term.
“The government has set out its ambition to be a world leader in sustainable finance. This includes strengthening the UK’s attractiveness as a destination for inward investment, by ensuring that corporate sustainability-related reporting is credible and useful for decision-making, thereby supporting investor confidence and trust,” the DBT stated in its consultation outcome report. “Independent third-party assurance plays a key role in building trust in this reporting. To ensure that sustainability assurance engagements meet the expectations of investors and businesses, it is important that the sustainability assurance market itself is robust and competitive.”
Minerva Analytics was one of the consultation’s almost 100 respondents, supporting the proposals for a voluntary registration regime and noting that it would enable capacity building and gradual alignment with global best practices. Minerva welcomed the initiative overall as an important step towards building market confidence and enhancing the reliability of sustainability disclosures, while urging regulators to balance independence and assurance quality with accessibility for a diverse range of providers. We also stressed the importance of avoiding international fragmentation with regulation in other jurisdictions.
The voluntary registration regime for sustainability reporting assurance providers was one of three items that the UK government launched consultations on in June, as reported by Minerva Analytics. The other two consultations focused on the long-awaited UK SRS and how to drive Labour’s transition planning commitment forward. The UK government intends to publish the final versions of the SRS sometime this month according to comments made by a member of the UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) in December. According to a letter sent by the DBT last month, the consultation on the UK SRS received more than 200 responses.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last week launched a consultation on aligning listed issuers’ sustainability disclosures with international standards. The UK SRS are being developed to achieve this international alignment of sustainability disclosures. This authority is consulting on “proportionate rules” including: aligning reporting with current international standards, with an implementation approach that reflects the readiness of listed companies; making sure investors can access clear, consistent and robust information about sustainability risks and opportunities; and supporting overseas companies to be more transparent about their sustainability reporting, while removing duplication.
A key element of the FCA’s consultation is its proposals to introduce mandatory climate disclosures for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emission and a comply or explain approach for Scope 3 emissions, while non-climate sustainability disclosures would also be comply or explain. The consultation is open until 20 March. The FCA will then review the feedback gleaned ahead of aiming to publish a Policy Statement in autumn 2026, subject to the final UK SRS, with the rules coming into force from 1 January 2027.
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Last Updated: 3 February 2026