On 29 April 2022, the FCA published Handbook Notice 98.

This Handbook Notice describes the changes made to the Handbook by the FCA Board on 24 March 2022, 22 April 2022 and 28 April 2022. During this period the FCA Board approved certain instruments including:

• Listing Rules and Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules (Diversity and Inclusion) Instrument 2022. In summary, this instrument makes changes to the Handbook to require, as an ongoing listing obligation, issuers that are in scope to include a statement in their annual financial report setting out whether they have met specific board diversity targets on a ‘comply or explain’ basis, as at a chosen reference date within their accounting period and, if they have not met the targets, why not.  This allows companies flexibility to provide relevant context on their approach to board diversity, whether or not these targets are met.
• Technical Standards (Electronic Reporting Format) Instrument 2022. In summary, this instrument makes changes to the onshored version of Commission Delegated Regulation 2019/815 to amend the definition of the UK Single Electronic Format (UKSEF) 2022 in the range of permitted taxonomies listed in Article 2(4B) of the Transparency Directive European Single Electronic Format Regulation so that it refers to UKSEF 2022 v2.0.0 for reports filed on or after 3 May 2022, instead of  v1.0.0.
• Market Conduct Sourcebook (Data Reporting Services Cancellation) Instrument 2022. In summary, this instrument makes changes to the Handbook in order to amend Chapter 9 of the Market Conduct sourcebook (MAR) to include wind-down guidance for a data reporting service provider (DRSP) which wishes to cancel all of its DRSP authorisation under MAR 9.2.5.
• Application Fees (Amendment) Instrument 2022. In summary, this instrument introduces a new £250 charge (Category 1 under the new pricing structure) for notifications of functions under the senior managers regime and controlled functions for appointed representatives.