Successes

The QCA has had a number of significant breakthroughs in recent years, resulting in savings for the average SQC of over £200,000 p.a. These successes include:

June 2009 - The Financial Times's daily share price subscription service: QCA members' complained of a high price increase for the FT's daily quoting of share prices, which the QCA discovered, resulted from the FT's improvements in its digital IR service. The QCA made representations that companies should have the opportunity to opt for a print-only subscription without a price increase. Companies now can choose to have just their share price quoted in the FT's print edition, or take advantage of the share price quote and digital IR service.

January 2009 - Review of the Prospectus Directive: Following the QCA's active lobbying activities, including meeting with the EC to directly present our viewpoint, we were pleased to see a number of our proposals being consulted upon in the review of the Prospectus Directive. These include the possibility of a simplified prospectus document, raising the current annual amount (€2.5m) which can be raised without having to produce a prospectus, removing the need for a prospectus for offers to exisiting shareholders, and exempting issues under Employee Share Schemes. If adopted, these changes would make fundraising significantaly easier and less costly for SQCs.

December 2008 - Pre-Budget Report: A number of proposals to ease the impact of the current economic crisis suggested by the QCA were included in the Chancellor's Pre-Budget Report, including a withdrawal of the planned increased in the small companies' rate of corporation tax and additional carry back of losses up to £50,000 for three years. The QCA is still working on extending some of these measures to provide even more relief for SQCs.

June 2008 - Combined Code Review by the Financial Reporting Council: The new preamble setting out the purpose of Corporate Governance is based on that in the QCA Corporate Governance guides. We also achieved a concession whereby in a company outside the FTSE 350 the Chairman may be a member of the Audit Committee (but not its Chairman) so long as he is deemed independent on appointment.

June 2008 - Climate Change Bill: Achieved delay to section 80 of the Bill (which called for all companies that have to produce a Business Review to report on their carbon emissions), until there a generally accepted method of measurement and reporting has been developed, such as that the CBI and Defra are working on.

February 2007 - New AIM Rules: As part of the QCA NOMAD committee's work on the new AIM Rules introduced in February 07, we achieved removal of blanket disclaimer on AIM documents proposed by Stock Exchange.

December 2006 - Filing dates: In early 2006 the Government proposed aligning the dates for submitting tax returns to HMRC with submitting accounts with Companies House. This would have accelerated tax return preparation by at least three months - a considerable burden on business, especially on smaller companies. The QCA Tax Committee lobbied hard to prevent this. Nothing was heard, however, until the Pre-Budget Report (PBR) in December 06, when Gordon Brown announced that there would be no change. This was one glimmer of good news out of a dull PBR, and an important success.

October 2006 - Directors' Liability: In early 2006, the Treasury proposed extending the new liability regime of the Transparency Directive to AIM companies. However, successful lobbying by the QCA Legal Committee managed to stave this off. We firstly persuaded the CBI, the IoD, and the Stock Exchange to support our objection, altering their original positions. The Treasury listened to these concerns and on 13 October 06 announced that the new liability regime would not be extended.

May 2006 - Company Law: Along with the ABI and the IoD, we successfully lobbied the government to include greater protection against litigation as part of the shake-up to company law. Ministers agreeded to adopt a 'safe harbour' system. This shields directors from lawsuits if forward-looking reports turn out to be untrue as long as they were made in good faith and were not reckless.

May 2005 - Prospectus Directive: With APCIMS, the QCA overturned a potentially costly and time-consuming UK interpretation of the Prospectus Directive relating to capital raising by SQCs. This was a classic case of 'gold plating' which we managed to prevent.

November 2004 - Operating and Financial Review: Together with other organisations, the QCA successfully persuaded the DTI (now BERR) to loosen the legal structure of their original proposals and the involvement of auditors. This move should enable company directors to produce more meaningful reports for shareholders, and also avoid extra audit costs.

December 2003 - London Stock Exchange fee reduction: The QCA, along with many other bodies, registered their disappointment with the substantial fee increases introduced in April 2002 -;- especially as they were introduced alongside cuts in service levels. The LSE announced that the fee increases were to be reduced.

October 2003 - Transparency Directive: The QCA successfully lobbied strongly against the mandatory nature of the proposal requiring all quoted companies to publish quarterly profit/loss accounts. This means there has been a significant reduction in the proposed scope of the information required - from interim style accounts to a brief trading statement. Not only is this saving companies extra internal costs, but also the likelihood of additional audit fees too.

June 2003 - Higgs report: The QCA was asked to provide company representatives to give their views on Corporate Governance to Derek Higgs during the research phase of his work. Their comments led to the creation of the small and medium sized company chapter. The QCA also made representations following the initial proposals which contributed to the amendments made in the final draft - a key concession being the reduction in the minimum number of NEDs required for SQCs to 2, saving companies considerable costs over time.

May 2003 - Profile of the sector: The FT dropped its SQC sector coverage earlier in 2003. The QCA made representations that coverage should continue to encourage investment in the sector. It was reinstated, with a specific column dedicated to SQCs introduced, and full page coverage several days a week from October 2004. The Times subsequently increased its small cap coverage, which helped even more to spread SQC news and stimulate liquidity in the market sector.

2003 - Prospectus Directive: The QCA's work was pivotal in obtaining a number of concessions from the original proposals in the EU Prospectus Directive. Following our lobbying activities, the key item, namely the requirement for all quoted companies to update their prospectus annually, was dropped by the EC. This'win' is estimated to have saved quoted companies an average of £100k p.a each.

2001 to 2003 - EIS relief: Original proposals were for this relief to apply only to companies with under £10m of gross assets. Due to continued QCA lobbying activities, this threshold was increased to £30m. Efforts are continuing to move the basis of this test from gross assets to net assets.