The way companies raise capital and trade securities on a regulated market has changed. You can continue to use EU adopted IAS when preparing your accounts for financial years beginning before 1 January 2021. In 2013, the FRC Staff prepared 16 Staff Education Notes for the convenience of users of FRS 102.

Applying for membership

Information on SORPs and where to find them can also be accessed via our ‘Accounting for specific sectors’ page, as well as on the FRC website. More information on each of these, plus additional guidance and resources, can be accessed via ICAEW’s UK GAAP hub page. The current Generally Accepted Accounting Practice in the UK (UK GAAP) is set out in the body of Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs) published by the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC). Where appropriate, these writing a journal entry in accounting are applied in conjunction with Statements of Recommended Practice (SORPs), which apply to certain specialised industries and sectors. The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) published five standards which together form the basis of the new UK regime. The Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities will continue to be available for those that qualify to use it and will remain fundamentally unaltered for the time being.

1. From 1991 until it was disbanded on 2 July 2012, the UITF issued a number of Abstracts, which provided interpretations of accounting issues arising from the application of FRSs and SSAPs.
2. The ICAEW Library can give you the right information from trustworthy, professional sources that aren’t freely available online.
3. In 2013, the FRC Staff prepared 16 Staff Education Notes for the convenience of users of FRS 102.

The FRC website includes information on open and closed consultations (including on FREDs), and offers users the option of signing up for email news alerts to keep up with developments. The full text of each edition of the current standards, along with relevant amendments, can be accessed on the FRC website. A new financial reporting framework came into effect in the UK on 1 January 2015. Where a new standard is to be proposed, a Financial Reporting Exposure Draft (FRED) is released for comment. The standard in final form is only issued when comments have been incorporated or addressed.

Sign up for emails or print this page

There have been changes to the UK’s corporate reporting regime which affect a small number of companies. FRS 101 Reduced Disclosure Framework sets out exemptions available to UK subsidiaries and parent companies that otherwise apply IFRS. A number of accountancy firms and publishers have also produced model accounts and disclosure checklists for UK GAAP, with a large selection being held by the Library. This material has taken — and continues to take — a number of different forms, including helpsheets, factsheets, guides, technical releases, representations, and press releases.

UITF Abstracts formed part of the old UK GAAP, being effective for accounting periods beginning before 1 January 2015. Copies of older FREDs, and other discussion papers, are held in the Library collection and can be viewed by arrangement. Some of the content on this web page was provided by the Chartered Accountants’ Trust for Education and Research, a registered charity, which owns the library and operates it for ICAEW. The ICAEW Library provides logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users with online access to articles from leading business, finance and management journals.

If you list on an EEA regulated market you need to check the reporting requirements in the relevant jurisdiction. In addition, a significant amount of FRC/ASB material relating to UK accounting standards — including many older publications not available on the FRC’s website — is held in the Library collection. This material, which includes implementation guidance, discussion papers and impact assessments, can be browsed via the Library catalogue. This material may provide useful background information on particular standards and amendments, their origins, and any controversy that may have surrounded how car insurance companies determine salvage value them. This foreword explains the scope, authority and identification of accounting standards, issued by the FRC. It does not apply to financial statements prepared in accordance with adopted IFRS (for companies these are referred to in UK company law as ‘IAS accounts’ and in Irish company law as ‘IFRS financial statements’).

Comparisons with other sets of accounting standards

FRS 101 sets out a reduced disclosure framework which addresses the financial reporting requirements and disclosure exemptions for the individual financial statements of subsidiaries and ultimate parents. This FRS is a single financial reporting standard that applies to the financial statements of entities that are not applying adopted IFRS, FRS 101 or FRS 105. FRS 102 is designed to apply to the general purpose financial statements and financial reporting of entities including those that are not constituted as companies and those what is opening entry in accounting that are not profit-oriented. The requirements in FRS 102 are based on the IASB’s IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard, with some significant amendments made for application in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

These papers are available for public inspection in the ICAEW Library by arrangement. Most of these superseded FRSs were withdrawn for reporting periods starting on or after 1 January 2015, with the exception of the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (FRSSE), which was withdrawn as of 1 January 2016. UK incorporated parent companies with a subsidiary in the European Economic Area (EEA) need to check the reporting requirements in the country where the subsidiary is based.

Below, we provide a high-level overview of some key auxiliary material on UK accounting standards which has been produced by relevant parties. The ICAEW Library has compiled this guide to help everyone to find the accounting standards (and related auxiliary material) that they need. The principal legislation governing reporting in the UK is laid down in the Companies Act 2006, which incorporates the requirements of European law. The Companies Act sets out certain minimum reporting requirements for companies and, for example, requires limited companies to file their accounts with the Registrar of Companies who makes them available to the general public. Standards are amended periodically in response to particular issues or regular reviews. Read the terms of use for the financial reporting standards available from the FRC.