IoD reaction to Cable consultation on corporate governance

Dated: 25 October 2010

In response to the announcement by Vince Cable of the Government’s consultation, ‘A Long-Term Focus For Corporate Britain’, Dr Roger Barker, Head of Corporate Governance at the Institute of Directors, said:

“The IoD is supportive of attempts to reduce short-termism in the UK economy. In particular, the role that institutional investors may play in encouraging short-termism in UK public companies is worthy of renewed scrutiny.

“However, this is an extremely wide-ranging review. It pulls together a number of issues that have already been considered in detail by earlier official investigations into corporate governance. It is yet to be seen whether this latest review can add much to this earlier work.

“In addition, it should be stressed that, although the recent crisis revealed significant failings in financial sector governance, there has been no such systemic failure in the corporate governance of non-financial companies. We are satisfied that the overall UK governance framework remains broadly fit for purpose”.

ENDS

Contact Points

Edwin Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Institute of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ED
Tel: +44 (0)20 7451 3392
Mob: +44 (0)7814 386 243
Email: edwin.morgan@iod.com
Website: www.iod.com/policy

Notes to editors

  • The IoD (Institute of Directors) was founded in 1903 and obtained a Royal Charter in 1906. The IoD is a non-party political organisation with upwards of 45,000 members in the United Kingdom and overseas. Membership includes directors from right across the business spectrum – from media to manufacturing, e-business to the public and voluntary sectors. Members include CEOs of large corporations as well as entrepreneurial directors of start-up companies.
  • The IoD offers a wide range of business services which include business centre facilities (including ten UK regional centres [three in London, Reading, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Belfast] and one each in Paris and Brussels), conferences, networking events, virtual offices and hotdesking, issues-led guides and literature, as well as free access to business information and advisory services and a comprehensive Information Centre. The IoD places great emphasis on director development and has established a certified qualification for directors – Chartered Director – as well as running specific board-level and director-level training and individual career mentoring programmes.
  • In addition, the IoD provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its members to government and key opinion-formers at the highest levels. These include ministers, constituency MPs, Select Committee members and senior civil servants. IoD policies and views are actively promoted to the national, regional and trade media.
  • For further information, visit our website: www.iod.com
  • You can also keep up to date with the latest views from the IoD on twitter.com/The_IoD and at blogs.iod.com