Our Corporate Governance Expert Group has contributed to our response to the FRC's consultation on UK Board Succession Planning. We welcomed the focus given to the different important issues connected to succession planning in the FRC's consideration in board succession planning for companies to which the UK Corporate Governance Code applies.
We highlighted that many of our members are not obliged to follow the UK Corporate Governance Code on a mandatory comply or explain basis, and that some elect to follow the Quoted Companies Alliance Corporate Governance Code for Small and Mid-Size Quoted Companies (the QCA Code).
We emphasised that succession planning is often more challenging for smaller companies than for larger ones because they are unlikely to have a broad range of internal candidates to draw from. We highlighted some difficulties facing small and mid-size quoted companies regarding board succession planning issues, namely developing contingency planning and succession planning matrices. We noted the importance of diversity and corporate culture in promoting better succession planning for all companies.
