5.0 IASB agenda consultation – Work plan

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Publication date
12 May 2021
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Executive Summary
Project Type Influencing
Project Scope Significant

Purpose of the paper

This paper sets out the proposed work plan for developing the UKEB's response to the IASB's Third Agenda Consultation for comment and approval by Board members.

Decisions for the Board

  1. Do Board members have any comments on the proposed activity set out in the project plan or the details included in the Appendices?
  2. Do board members approve the proposed work plan for the development of the UKEB's response to the IASB's Third Agenda Consultation?

Summary of the Issue

The IASB issued its Request for Information: Third Agenda Consultation in March 2021. The IASB's comment deadline is 27 September 2021.

The RFI explains that the IASB intends the agenda consultation to focus on the current scope of IASB's work – financial statements and management commentary for profit-oriented companies. The RFI seeks stakeholder views on: a) the allocation of resource across IASB's range of activities b) the criteria IASB uses to assess whether projects should be added to its work plan and c) which projects should be prioritised for IASB's 2022 – 2026 work plan.

This paper sets out UKEB Secretariat's work plan for the development of the UKEB's comment letter to the IASB.

Recommendation

That the board approves the proposed work plan for the development of the UKEB's response to the IASB's Third Agenda Consultation.

Appendices
Appendix 1 Examples of thematic approaches
Appendix 2 Questions in IASB's RFI and UKEB secretariat initial views

Background

1The IASB published its request for information (RFI) on its Third Agenda Consultation on 30 March 2021 with a comment deadline of 27 September 2021.

2At the April meeting Board members:

  1. Discussed and supported staff's proposed high-level work plan.
  2. Identified the following projects as high priority[^1] from the IASB's list of potential projects to include in its 2022 – 2026 work plan:
    1. Climate-related risks;[^2][^3][^4]
    2. Cryptocurrencies and related transactions;
    3. Discount rates;
    4. Government grants; and
    5. Intangible assets;
    6. Statements of cash flows (including supply chain financing and consideration of whether supply chain financing should become a separate project).
  3. Suggested that remaining projects from IASB's list of potential projects to include in its 2022 – 2026 work plan should be categorised as low priority.
  4. Explored the possibility of recommending a thematic approach to IASB for its 2022 – 2026 work plan, whereby potential new projects and projects from IASB's existing work plan would be grouped by theme. This would entail the UKEB recommending to the IASB that it further develops the approach piloted in its Disclosure Initiative project. Such an approach will allow the IASB to apply overarching objectives or principles to a suite of linked projects, helping to ensure consistency of approach.

Project Approach

3Our objective is to ensure the UKEB comment letter to the IASB is evidence-based and reflects stakeholder views. We plan to achieve this through a combination of desk-based research and outreach activity.

4The project approach will build on the high-level work plan approved at the April meeting.

5We plan to undertake further desk-based research and stakeholder outreach on the potential projects to be added to IASB's work plan, focusing on those which have been identified as high priority. The objective of this work will be to:

  1. confirm the extent to which the high-priority ranking reflects UKEB stakeholder views;
  2. explore which aspects of each project are most relevant for UK stakeholders;
  3. identify any aspects of the project which are relevant for UK stakeholders which IASB's scoping has not included; and
  4. enable us to respond to IASB's request to provide information that explains our prioritisation of projects and whether that prioritisation refers to all or only some aspects of the potential projects[^5].

6We have also subsequently decided on certain additional outreach steps against the high-level plan previously agreed. These are set out in the table below:

| | Activity ```

Explanation of the Table Format in Appendix II:

The PDF structure presents a slightly complex table in Appendix II. There isn't a single clear header row for all columns in the standard tabular sense. Instead, it seems to function more as key-value pairs grouped by a main subject. The main subjects (e.g., "I Strategic direction...") are in the first column. The next two columns are titled "IASB Questions" and "UKEB secretariat initial views". These titles then repeat within the content for other groupings.

To flatten this into a standard Markdown table:

  1. Header Row: I will use | Main Subject | IASB Questions | UKEB secretariat initial views |. This provides clear column definitions.
  2. Row Content: For each row, I will place the main subject in the first column. Then, the specific IASB question and UKEB initial views will populate the second and third columns respectively.
  3. Repeating Labels: Where "IASB Questions" or "UKEB secretariat initial views" appear as sub-headings within the content cells in the PDF, they will be included as plain text to preserve all information (e.g., "IASB Questions: Should the Board increase..."). This handles the visual redundancy while keeping all content.
  4. Blank Cells: If a main subject has only an IASB question and no UKEB view (or vice-versa), the corresponding cell will be left blank.

This approach ensures all content is included and the table structure is maintained as semantically as possible within Markdown's limitations, while being accessible for screen readers.

| Month | Activity

  1. Develop initial views through desk-based research Develop several possible thematic approaches to explore with stakeholders during outreach. Examples of possible thematic approaches are provided in Appendix 1. These are illustrative rather than definitive at this stage, so the same project may appear within several possible themes.
  2. Hold stakeholder roundtables to test initial views Stakeholder roundtables to test our initial views with preparers, auditors, users, the regulator and government officials. These will also be opportunities to understand their perspectives on the questions in IASB's RFI. The questions in IASB's RFI together with our initial views are included in Appendix 2. For low priority projects, we have commenced desk-based research so that we can provide a rationale for our ranking in our outreach with stakeholders and in our response to IASB (as requested by IASB).
  3. Publish draft response and hold joint outreach event with IASB Draft response to 9 July UKEB meeting for approval to publish for stakeholder consultation. The joint outreach event with IASB to highlight the IASB's approach to the Agenda Consultation, our draft response and provide a further opportunity for us to test our views with stakeholders.

Questions for the Board

7Do Board members have any comments on the proposed activity set out in the project plan or the details included in the Appendices?

8Do board members approve the proposed work plan for the development of the UKEB's response to the IASB's Third Agenda Consultation?

Next Steps

9In line with previous recommendations by the Board, we intend to set up a sub-group of Board members to sponsor the project. We envisage those Board members to be more directly involved in the project, provide technical input and challenge on outreach materials, act as chair at outreach events, and to generally support stakeholder engagement on the project. We will reach out to Board members with requests to join this sub-group.

10We intend to bring a draft comment letter to the UKEB meeting currently scheduled for 9 July 2021. At that meeting, the Board will be asked to approve the publication of its draft comment letter for public consultation.

Appendices

Appendix I

Examples of possible thematic approaches

Note: The possible thematic approaches are illustrative rather than definitive, so the same project may appear within several possible themes.

Theme / Workstream IASB's current work plan projects Agenda Consultation projects[^8]
Presentation and disclosure Targeted standards level review of disclosures Statement of cash flows and related matters (including supply chain financing)
Disclosure initiative - subsidiaries that are SMEs
Primary financial statements
Management commentary
Recognition and measurement of assets, liabilities and expenses Rate regulated activities Government grants
Provisions Discount rates
Intangible assets Extractive industries[^7] Intangible assets
Crypto currencies
Emission rights
Non-financial assets held solely for investment purposes Crypto currencies
Emission rights
Group accounts Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment
Business Combinations under Common Control
IFRS 10, 11 and 12 PIR
Equity method
Extractive activities[^9]
Financial instruments IFRS 9 PIR Crypto currencies
Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity
Pensions Availability of a refund
Pension benefits that depend on asset returns
Climate-related risks and other emerging risks Extractive activities Climate-related risks and other emerging risks Pollutant pricing mechanisms

Appendix 2

Questions in IASB's RFI and UKEB secretariat initial views[^10]

| Main Subject | IASB Questions