Contents and Objectives of each Reports of CG in UK

The Cadbury report focused on the role and structure of the board of directors, audit and accountability and the relationship with institutional investors. Companies should provide a note in the annual report that they had complied or to explain what provisions had not been complied with.

In subsequent years, the Greenbury report was published (1995) which covered director remuneration after concerns that directors remuneration was becoming uncontrolled.

In 1998 the Hampel report was published, which updated Cadbury and Greenbury and amalgamated them into the Combined Code. This is a single code containing guidance on corporate governance. The Hampel report had reviewed the two reports amid concerns that corporate governance compliance was a box-ticking exercise, so aimed to make the code principles based. This meant that companies had to consider if they met the spirit of the code’s principles.

Further reports on corporate governance have included Turnbull (1999) which reviewed internal control; Higgs (2003) focusing on non-executive directors; Tyson (2003) covering recruitment of non-executive directors; and Smith (2003) which looked at auditors and audit committees.