On 28 July 2023, the FCA published a Primary Market Technical Note on structured digital reporting for annual financial statements prepared in accordance with international financial reporting standards (IFRS).

The guidance in this Technical Note supplements DTR 4.1 on the preparation and publication of annual financial reports.

The rules and guidance in DTR 4.1.15R to DTR 4.1.23G, and the guidance in this Technical Note, replace the UK version of the EU Transparency Directive’s regulatory technical standard for the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF).

The purpose of this Technical Note is to guide in-scope companies in meeting their obligations to prepare annual financial statements in the tagged structured digital reporting format under DTR 4.1.16R to DTR 4.1.18R. Companies should read this Technical Note alongside those rules.

DTR 4.1.18R provides that where annual financial reports contain consolidated accounts that have been prepared in accordance with IFRS, in-scope companies must use a taxonomy generally accepted in the UK for financial disclosures in regulated markets. The FCA’s approach is that a generally accepted taxonomy is one that is based on the IFRS Accounting Taxonomy published by the IFRS Foundation and is up to date.

Issuers and other stakeholders should also have regard to the FCA’s online guidance in relation to filing ESEF (or UKSEF) reports in the National Storage Mechanism, which is available on the section of the FCA’s website on Filing of Structured Annual Reports.