Campaign group launches court action over OFR

Friends of the Earth will tomorrow apply for a judicial review of the
government’s decision to scrap the operating and financial review.

FoE has been considering a review application since Gordon Brown’s
announcement at the end of November to remove the mandatory requirement for the
OFR. A hearing is now expected in mid-March.

The environmental pressure group hopes court action will force the government
to open a consultation over its decision to remove the mandatory OFR, and that
the weight of opinion from such a consultation would change the government’s
mind.

The OFR has been replaced with a stripped-down business review that covers
the minimum requirements from the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive, but
significantly reduces the environmental and social reporting details that a
business needs to provide in its annual statements.

FoE has spent the last week considering the government’s ‘fairly substantial
response’ to concerns raised over the sudden scrapping of the OFR. But it is
understood the lobby group remained unmoved by the arguments that were made.