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Definition

UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS)

The UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) are the United Kingdom's investor-focused disclosure standards, with S1 covering sustainability-related financial risks and opportunities and S2 covering climate; they are currently available for voluntary use.

What are the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS)?

UK SRS S1 and UK SRS S2 are the United Kingdom's versions of the International Sustainability Standards Board standards. The Department for Business and Trade published them on 25 February 2026. S1 covers material sustainability-related financial risks and opportunities. S2 adds climate-specific requirements. The UK reporting guide explains how they sit beside current Companies Act, FCA and energy and carbon reporting duties.

Why do the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards matter to you?

An investor, lender, parent company or listed customer may ask whether your disclosures follow UK SRS. As of 19 August 2026, any entity may use them voluntarily, but they are not a general reporting duty for every UK company. A partial report can still create a problem: S1 paragraph 72 says you cannot claim compliance unless the disclosures meet all applicable UK SRS requirements.

How do the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards work?

Start with risks and opportunities that could reasonably affect cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital over the short, medium or long term. Information is material when omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably influence an investor's or lender's decision. S1 paragraphs 17 to 20 require material information for the same reporting entity as the financial statements. Paragraph 25 organises the disclosures into governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. Paragraph 64 requires the disclosures to cover the same period and be reported at the same time as the related financial statements.

Apply S2 to climate-related risks and opportunities. Paragraph 29 requires gross Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions in metric tonnes of CO2e. It also asks how much of the business is exposed to climate risks or aligned with climate opportunities, how much capital is deployed, whether an internal carbon price is used, and whether executive pay is linked to climate considerations.

A first-year relief is a temporary exception for an entity's first UK SRS reporting period. S1 Appendix E permits climate-only reporting and allows comparative information to be omitted in specified cases. S2 Appendix C allows specified reliefs for a prior emissions-measurement method and Scope 3 disclosure. Record each relief used and the paragraph that permits it.

What mistakes should you avoid?

  • Calling UK SRS mandatory for every UK company when government guidance still describes voluntary use.
  • Claiming compliance after selecting only convenient disclosures, contrary to S1 paragraph 72.
  • Preparing S2 alone without applying the relevant S1 requirements, as required by S2 paragraph C2.
  • Using a different entity or reporting period from the related financial statements, contrary to S1 paragraphs 20 and 64.

Are the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards mandatory?

Not generally as of 19 August 2026. The government and FCA are considering future requirements for certain UK entities. Check the law, listing rule, loan covenant, investor instruction or customer wording that applies to you before treating a UK SRS request as compulsory.

What do you report under UK SRS S1?

You report material sustainability-related financial risks and opportunities that could affect your prospects. For each material matter, connect board oversight, strategic response, identification and monitoring processes, and performance metrics or targets. Keep the reporting entity, period, data and assumptions consistent with the related financial statements.

What does UK SRS S2 add?

S2 applies the same four-part structure to climate. It asks how climate risks and opportunities affect your business model, strategy, financial position, performance and cash flows. It also requires climate metrics and targets, including the greenhouse gas disclosures in paragraph 29 and any first-year relief used.

Example

Suppose a UK software and IT services firm voluntarily applies UK SRS for the year ended 31 December 2026. It assesses eight sustainability-related risks and opportunities and documents why five are not material. Three remain: electricity-price exposure at two leased data centres, physical heat risk to service continuity, and employee-retention risk affecting delivery capacity. The count reconciles as 5 excluded + 3 material = 8 assessed matters.

For each of the three material matters, the team prepares disclosures for S1 paragraph 25's four areas: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. Its work matrix therefore contains 3 matters x 4 areas = 12 cells. For electricity-price exposure, the governance cell names the board committee and review frequency; the strategy cell links an electricity-price assumption to the data-centre cost forecast; the risk-management cell names the owner and monitoring process; and the metrics-and-targets cell identifies the energy and cost measures used. Each cell points to a board record, risk register, forecast model or source dataset. The two climate-related matters also receive the S2 analysis and metrics that apply. Twelve is the company's own work count, not a minimum disclosure count set by UK SRS.

Where it comes up

UK SRS S1 material sustainability-related risks and opportunitiesUK SRS S1 paragraphs 1-6 and 17-20UK SRS S1 governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targetsUK SRS S1 paragraph 25UK SRS S2 gross Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissionsUK SRS S2 paragraph 29(a)UK SRS first-year application reliefsUK SRS S1 Appendix E, paragraphs E1-E4; UK SRS S2 Appendix C, paragraphs C1-C5

Related terms

Sustainability Reporting

Sustainability reporting is the process of publishing evidence-backed information about a company's environmental, social, and governance impacts, risks, opportunities, policies, targets, and performance for a defined period and business boundary.

Materiality

Materiality is the test a company uses to decide which sustainability topics matter enough to manage or report because they could affect its finances, reflect significant impacts on people or the environment, or both.

ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board)

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) develops IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards for companies to report investor-focused information about sustainability-related risks and opportunities.

IFRS S1 General Requirements

IFRS S1 sets investor-focused disclosure requirements for sustainability risks and opportunities that could affect a company's cash flows, access to finance, or cost of capital, and connects those disclosures to its financial statements.

IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures

IFRS S2 requires companies applying ISSB Standards to disclose climate-related risks and opportunities that could affect cash flows, access to finance, or cost of capital through governance, strategy, risk management, metrics, and targets, including GHG emissions.

BRSR (Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report)

BRSR is the annual SEBI disclosure through which India's top 1,000 listed entities report company facts, management processes, and performance against the nine National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) principles.

Sources

Sources checked 2026-08-19

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UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) Definition | Keslio