מה קרה
On 23 October 2026 HM Treasury published a package of measures to cut paperwork for businesses, announced by the Chancellor, John Healey, ahead of next week's Budget. The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and the Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, met small business owners and groups including the Federation of Small Businesses at Number 10 North, where the government accepted the majority of the Small Business Taskforce's recommendations.
The parts closest to reporting are:
- Simpler corporate reporting. The government says it will further simplify the UK's corporate reporting requirements, which could save businesses that are part of a wider national group up to £20,000 a year. Streamlining company reporting as a whole is put at up to £290 million a year in savings.
- Simpler public contract bids. Bid requirements for small firms will be standardised in sectors such as construction.
- Companies House. The requirement to file a profit and loss account at Companies House from April 2028 will be paused, under the government's "Tell Us Once" ambition.
- Fewer data requests. ONS business surveys will be streamlined, and small businesses will get a way to report regulations they find disproportionate.
The announcement itself gives no more detail on which corporate reporting rules will be simplified or how. We looked on GOV.UK on 23 October for an accompanying document, such as the Small Business Taskforce's report or a consultation response, and did not find one published alongside it. Until the detail appears, the honest reading is: a direction, with headline savings, but no new rules yet.
What it does not change for carbon reporting
The announcement does not mention carbon, energy, SECR, ESOS, PPN 006 or Carbon Reduction Plans. Nothing in it changes what you report today. In practice:
| כלל | Position on 23 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| SECR (Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting) | Still applies to quoted companies, and to unquoted companies and LLPs meeting two of: 250 or more employees, £36 million turnover, £18 million balance sheet. Most small businesses are not covered. |
| PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plans | Still required by central government buyers for contracts above £5 million a year (including VAT), where relevant and proportionate. |
| Customer and supplier questionnaires | Not regulation, so untouched. Larger customers still ask suppliers for their emissions to build their own Scope 3 figures. |
"Standardising" bid requirements could mean the climate questions in smaller tenders become more consistent, but the announcement does not say that, so we would not plan around it. It also does not say Carbon Reduction Plans are being removed from major contracts.
Where SECR could actually change
Two processes, both already under way, are where changes to carbon reporting would come from. We cover them in more detail in SECR reform in 2026.
- Modernising Corporate Reporting. The Department for Business and Trade's consultation, open until 11:59pm on 30 November 2026, abolishes the directors' report and would let companies place their SECR disclosure anywhere in the first half of the annual report. It asks about a new "very large" company category but makes no firm proposal for SECR's thresholds. Today's announcement may draw on this work, but it does not say so.
- A DESNZ consultation on SECR and ESOS. The corporate reporting consultation says DESNZ intends to consult on SECR and the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme later in 2026. We could not find it published on GOV.UK as of 23 October.
Until either produces new regulations, the 2018 SECR rules stand. If you are unsure whether they apply to you at all, read do small companies need SECR?
מה לעשות עכשיו
- Keep measuring. Less government form-filling does not reduce what customers ask for. A tender or supplier questionnaire will still want your Scope 1 and 2 figures, and often a plan to reduce them. Our guide to answering the tender climate question shows what a good answer contains.
- Check whether SECR applies with the free SECR checker, and see the SECR reporting guide for what goes in the disclosure.
- Keep your Carbon Reduction Plan current if you bid for public work. The PPN 006 guide covers what it must contain.
- Respond to the consultation by 30 November if you have a view on how energy and carbon reporting should work for larger companies.
The figures buyers ask for are usually small and quick to produce. As an example, an office using 30,000 kWh of electricity and 40,000kWh of gas a year comes to about 11.22 tonnes CO2e using the current government conversion factors: 3.93 tonnes from electricity and 7.29 tonnes from gas. That is the number a customer adds to its own footprint, and the one you can bring down by cutting energy use.
איך Carbon Recycling עוזרת
Whatever the reforms settle on, the underlying numbers stay the same: energy use, fuel, travel and the emissions they cause. Carbon Recycling turns your bills and mileage into a footprint using the government conversion factors, then produces an SECR report and a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan from the same figures, both included on every plan. If the SECR disclosure moves within the annual report, the content you need is unchanged. For a quick answer without signing up, try the free SECR checker, the Carbon Reduction Plan template or the supplier questionnaire answer bank.
