Annual Reporting – Good Practice Guide (2021)

Background

Annual reports are a key means by which an entity tells the story of its year. Public annual reporting, done well, enables stakeholders to understand – with trust and confidence – an entity’s strategy and the risks it faces, how much money has been spent and on what, and what has been achieved as a result. It enables stakeholders to hold the entity to account effectively.

Scope

This second Good Practice Guide sets out some good practice principles for excellence in annual reporting by public bodies and provides some illustrative examples from organisations.

The illustrative examples are drawn from the C&AG’s review of annual reports. The results of the review are published alongside the Annual Reporting Good Practice Guide.

Conclusions

Jersey entities can do more to produce fully integrated reports, where annual reports more closely complement and narrate the financial performance of the organisation. In some instances, annual reports are being produced without including a commentary on financial performance or a set of financial statements.

Key areas where annual reports could be improved include:

• setting out objectives, analysing associated risks and summarising performance, including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure performance against objectives
• providing information on governance arrangements and operations (including structures and delivery models); and
• reporting on remuneration and other workforce matters.