UK Sustainability Reporting Standards: the S1 and S2 texts, and how to read them

On GOV.UK. The Department for Business and Trade's publication page "UK Sustainability Reporting Standards: UK SRS S1 and UK SRS S2", published on 25 February 2026, carries two PDFs: UK SRS S1 General Requirements and UK SRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures, each 45 pages. The government's consultation response, which holds Annex A listing every difference from IFRS S1 and S2, is on the separate exposure-drafts consultation page.

The standards state that they are issued by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, reproduced with the permission of the IFRS Foundation, and have not been prepared or endorsed by the International Sustainability Standards Board. They were not issued by the FRC or the FCA. The FRC acted as secretariat to the Technical Advisory Committee that recommended endorsement.

No. The government removed the effective-date clauses so that timing would be set by UK law or FCA rules. Both standards say that where an entity is required to apply them under UK law or regulation, application is subject to the Companies Act 2006, FCA rules or another UK authority. The FCA's final rules in PS26/19 apply UK SRS to listed companies for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, on a comply-or-explain basis.

Annex A of the government's consultation response lists every difference and says that where a requirement is not in its tables there is no difference. For UK SRS S1: SASB references softened from "shall" to "may", new paragraphs 73A and 73B, the effective date removed, the first-year option to report after the financial statements removed, and the climate-first relief kept without a time limit. For UK SRS S2: the industry-based guidance softened to "may" in paragraphs 12, 23 and 32, paragraph B59A added on financed emissions, and the Scope 3 relief kept without a time limit.

No. In UK SRS S1 paragraphs 55(a) and 58(a), an entity "may refer to and consider" the applicability of the SASB Standards, where IFRS S1 says "shall". In UK SRS S2 paragraphs 12, 23 and 32 the same change applies to the Industry-based Guidance on Implementing IFRS S2. UK SRS S2 paragraph 32 still requires industry-based metrics, and paragraph 37 keeps "shall refer to and consider" for target metrics.

No. The FRC says any new or amended standards issued by the ISSB "would not automatically apply in the UK" and would first need to go through the UK's endorsement process. The ISSB's December 2025 amendments to IFRS S2 were included in UK SRS S2 because the UK standard was issued after them.

No authoritative count exists for the final standards. The government consulted in June 2025 on six proposed amendments; some were dropped or replaced and new provisions such as paragraphs 73A, 73B and B59A were added. Annex A of the consultation response is the authoritative list of final differences and carries no count.

The Department for Business and Trade's guidance says the standards are "available for voluntary use, by any entity that chooses to do so". The voluntary status comes from the guidance and the consultation response; the standards themselves contain no statement about it.

Always with the standard's name. The body paragraphs carry the same numbers as IFRS S1 and S2, but the transition appendices were renumbered: paragraph C4 is the untimed Scope 3 relief in UK SRS S2 but a combined, time-limited paragraph in IFRS S2. Write "UK SRS S2 paragraph C4", never a bare "C4".