Common UK SRS S1 Mistakes: Copying IFRS Wording, Misusing Reliefs and Ignoring UK Reporting Law

Functional visual created for London Reporting Academy.

UK SRS S1 was designed to stay close to the ISSB global baseline, so teams naturally start from IFRS S1 knowledge, TCFD processes and existing sustainability reports. That is sensible, but it becomes risky when UK-specific amendments, reliefs and local reporting routes are ignored.

The second cause is organisational. Sustainability teams often own the draft, finance owns budgets and annual report controls, legal owns claims, and company secretarial teams own board papers. UK SRS S1 needs those workstreams to meet before the wording is approved. If they remain separate, the report can look polished while the claim, timing or evidence trail is weak.

UK SRS S1 is based on IFRS S1, but it is not a copy-and-paste exercise. The final UK version changes the way SASB is referenced, removes the IFRS first-year delayed-publication relief, changes the climate-only relief logic and adds paragraphs 73A and 73B on compliance statements and local rules.

Fix: create a UK amendment checklist before drafting the basis of preparation, relief notes and compliance statement. The checklist should identify every place where IFRS-derived wording might mislead a UK reader, including dual-claim language.

Under UK SRS S1, the entity “may refer to and consider” SASB disclosure topics and metrics. That is different from IFRS S1’s mandatory “shall refer to and consider” wording. However, optional SASB reference does not remove the need to provide decision-useful, material, industry-specific information where relevant.

Fix: keep a source-of-guidance log. Record whether SASB topics or metrics were considered, whether they were applied, why any were not applicable, and what other sources supported industry information. This avoids both overstatement and cherry-picking.

IFRS S1 contained a first-year relief that allowed sustainability-related financial disclosures to be reported after the related financial statements in specified circumstances. UK SRS S1 removed that relief. UK SRS S1 paragraph 64 requires sustainability-related financial disclosures to be reported at the same time as the related financial statements.

Fix: build the annual-report timetable backwards from financial-statement sign-off. Treat sustainability data, estimates, finance review and cross-references as part of the annual-report close, not a later sustainability publication process.

UK SRS S1 paragraph E3 permits an entity to disclose only climate-related risks and opportunities and to apply S1 only insofar as it relates to climate. Paragraph 73A makes the claim consequence explicit: an entity using E3 is not permitted to assert compliance with UK SRS S1 and must disclose the use of the provision instead.

Fix: separate S1 and S2 wording. A climate-first report can still be useful and investor-relevant, but the basis of preparation must not imply a full S1 compliance statement.

UK SRS S1 materiality is not a popularity score, a stakeholder ranking or a standard ESG topic list. The standard focuses on information about sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect the entity’s prospects. Information is material if omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence decisions of primary users.

Fix: document a prospects test for each risk or opportunity. The register should capture nature, magnitude, horizon, source, business model link, value-chain location, financial effect pathway and disclosure consequence.

The standard repeatedly connects sustainability-related risks and opportunities to cash flows, access to finance and cost of capital. A report that describes risks but cannot explain current or anticipated financial effects, assumptions or uncertainties may fail to give primary users the information they need.

Fix: create a finance workstream with budget owners, strategy, treasury, risk and financial reporting. The workstream should map risks and opportunities to revenue, costs, assets, liabilities, cash flows and financing, even where the first-year answer is qualitative.

The FCA consulted in CP26/5 on replacing TCFD-aligned listing rules with UK SRS-related requirements, including mandatory climate-related disclosures under UK SRS S2 for certain categories and comply-or-explain proposals for Scope 3 and wider UK SRS S1 matters. As at this article’s review date, the FCA consultation had closed and a policy statement was expected, but the consultation paper itself was not final law.

Fix: use status labels in board papers and articles: “final UK SRS”, “FCA proposal”, “expected policy statement”, “future Companies Act route”. Do not write “required from 2027” unless the final rule has been made and the scope is confirmed.

Create a claim ledger for every statement using “comply”, “in accordance with”, “aligned”, “prepared under” or “consistent with”.

Use a relief register that distinguishes claim-neutral exemptions from claim-restricting transition provisions.

Run a UK SRS versus IFRS S1/S2 difference check before approving dual claims.

Add sustainability reporting tasks to the annual-report close calendar.

Require finance review for financial effects, assumptions and uncertainty wording.

Add a status stamp to board papers for FCA and Companies Act developments.

Primary: UK SRS S1 paragraphs 54-64, 70-73B and Appendix E.

Supporting: DBT consultation response summary of UK amendments; FCA CP26/5 consultation status and proposed timeline.

Next step: use a disclosure matrix and risk-opportunity register to convert these fixes into operating controls.