I have submitted a response today to the Corporate Governance Reform Green paper. The essence of the response is firstly support for the proposals submitted in a letter dated 23rd January to the Prime Minister by the Institute of Directors, the TUC, the ICGN (international Corporate Governance Network) and ICSA representing Company Secretaries which urges the Government at a minimum to:
- Create a mechanism which allows those whose interests should supposedly be protected by the law, to make complaint and find an appropriate remedy.
- Ensure investors and stakeholders are appropriately involved in the governance of that mechanism.
- Strongly encourage, or mandate larger private companies to apply the principles of independence and transparency which have worked for public companies.
- Help encourage frameworks for executive pay which are more broadly acceptable, and recognise that it, like other aspects of corporate governance will require a long term focus, from directors, investors, stakeholders and government.”
The second core element of the response is to call for employees to be polled alongside shareholders to approve the appointment of directors, as proposed in the letter published by the FT on 3rd November.
To see the text of the full response, follow this link: Tom Hayhoe response to the Green Paper on Corporate Governance