It has challenged the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to demonstrate that it is serious about the issue of greater corporate transparency.
In its response to the DEFRA consultation paper Taking it on: developing UK sustainable development strategy together, ACCA has called on the Government to be more convincing when discussing the importance it attaches to sustainability reporting. Rachel Jackson, head of social and environmental issues at ACCA, commented: "The paper includes considerable discussion of the Government's providing leadership, but thus far there is little perceived evidence of this. As a result, its 1999 strategy on sustainability reporting appears to be losing momentum.
"To date, the Government's announcements that social and environmental reporting might be made compulsory for large listed companies have come to nothing. The Prime Minister's challenge to the FTSE 350 in 2001 to produce environmental reports has failed to live up to expectations."
