SECR · the statutory instruments
SECR legislation: one power, one instrument, two homes
SECR has no Act of its own: the Secretary of State made it under the general directors’-report power in section 416(4) of the Companies Act 2006.
The instrument, SI 2018/1155, was approved in draft by both Houses and made on 6 November 2018; it amended two older sets of regulations and left its duties there.
This page follows those instruments — where the power comes from, what each regulation did, and what has and has not changed since.
The power
A general directors’-report power, used for energy and carbon
The preamble to SI 2018/1155 names its powers: sections 416(4) and 1292(1) of the Companies Act 2006, and sections 15 and 17 of the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000.
Section 416(4) is a general power to add matters to the directors’ report, not one written for energy; SECR exists because a directors’ report can be told to contain more.
Section 1292(1) supplies the supplementary and incidental provisions, and the LLP Act powers let the same duties be applied to LLPs, which have no directors’ report.
The practical consequence is that changing SECR needs no new Act, only a further exercise of the same powers.
ESOS is built differently: its current power is sections 254 to 260 and 263 of the Energy Act 2023, written for an energy savings scheme — see ESOS legislation and the instrument-by-instrument ESOS stack.
Section 416(4), Companies Act 2006
“The Secretary of State may make provision by regulations as to other matters that must be disclosed in a directors’ report.”
Source: legislation.gov.uk
The procedure
Approved in draft before it was made
The preamble records that “a draft of this instrument has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament”, in accordance with sections 473(3) and 1290 of the Companies Act 2006 and section 17(6) of the LLP Act.
Section 1290 is headed “Regulations and orders: affirmative resolution procedure” and says such regulations “must not be made unless a draft … has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House”.
So SECR is an affirmative-resolution instrument: both Houses approved it before it existed.
A negative-resolution instrument works the other way round, made first and laid afterwards, taking effect unless annulled.
The quoted-company greenhouse gas duty that SECR extended was made the same way: the 2013 regulations were also approved in draft under section 1290, and came into force on 1 October 2013.
What it did
Three operative regulations, into two older instruments
Anyone who opens SI 2018/1155 looking for the SECR rules finds amending instructions: the duties are in the text it inserted.
For companies that text is Schedule 7 to SI 2008/410, the Large and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 — not Schedule 7 to the Companies Act 2006, which is about parent and subsidiary undertakings.
Part 7 already existed: the 2013 regulations inserted it for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2013, and regulation 6 widened it.
Part 7A did not exist until regulation 7 created it, which is why its only amendment note on legislation.gov.uk is its own insertion on 1 April 2019.
For LLPs, regulation 10 inserted an “energy and carbon report” into SI 2008/1911, applying Part 7A with modifications and writing the LLP threshold tables into a modified section 415A.
The duties themselves, paragraph by paragraph, are on the SECR requirements page, and what the finished section looks like is the SECR report template.
| Regulation | Target | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| reg 6 | SI 2008/410 Sch 7 Part 7 | Extends the quoted-company duty: energy in kWh, UK and offshore proportions, efficiency measures, ¶18A comparatives, the subsidiary shelter. |
| reg 7 | SI 2008/410 Sch 7 Part 7A | Inserts the unquoted-company duty whole: ¶¶20A–20K. |
| reg 10 | SI 2008/1911 | Inserts Part 5A and regulation 12B: the LLP energy and carbon report, with modified ss.415, 415A, 416 and 419. |
Amendments
Since 2019, nothing in the SECR text has moved
SI 2024/1303 raised the Companies Act size limits for financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025, and its regulation 5(3) reads: “In Schedule 7 … omit paragraphs 6 and 7 and Parts 3 and 4.”
Part 7A is not named, and its paragraph 20B writes £36 million, £18 million and 250 into its own table rather than pointing to the Companies Act, so the uplift had nothing to travel along.
The consequence is that a company can be medium-sized for its accounts and in SECR on the same figures; the size tests compared page sets the two side by side.
Two later instruments sit near SECR without amending it.
SI 2021/465 made the FRC the person authorised to apply to court over defective reports from 6 May 2021; that is enforcement machinery for all directors’ reports.
SI 2022/46 put large LLPs’ climate-related financial disclosures inside the same energy and carbon report from 6 April 2022, which is why a page claiming SECR’s “latest version is 2022” has mixed up two regimes; the company equivalent is SI 2022/31.
- 1 Oct 2013Part 7 inserted
SI 2013/1970: quoted-company greenhouse gas reporting.
- 1 Oct 2018CRC revoked
SI 2018/841, with savings.
- 1 Apr 2019SECR in force
SI 2018/1155 regs 6, 7, 10.
- 6 May 2021FRC authorised
SI 2021/465 — enforcement machinery, not SECR text.
- 6 Apr 2022LLP climate disclosures
SI 2022/46 adds s.416A to reg 12B — a different regime.
- 6 Apr 2025Size uplift
SI 2024/1303 — Part 7A not touched.
The statute book
Every provision SECR touches, in one register
SECR is spread across two Acts and nine statutory instruments.
The register below gathers the provisions a reader is sent to, tagged by what each does; filter by role or search for a section number.
Filter by role
Showing 25 of 25
| Provision | What it does | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Companies Act 2006 s.416(4) | The Secretary of State may make regulations “as to other matters that must be disclosed in a directors’ report” | The power SECR was made under |
| Companies Act 2006 s.1292(1) | Supplementary and incidental provision in regulations | Cited in the SI 2018/1155 preamble |
| LLP Act 2000 ss.15 and 17 | Power to apply company law to LLPs, and its procedure | The LLP limb of SI 2018/1155 |
| Companies Act 2006 s.1290 | The affirmative resolution procedure | Both Houses approved SI 2018/1155 in draft |
| SI 2013/1970 | Inserted Sch 7 Part 7: quoted-company greenhouse gas reporting | Financial years ending on or after 30 September 2013 |
| SI 2018/1155 reg 6 | Amended Part 7: energy in kWh, UK and offshore proportions, efficiency measures, ¶18A | In force 1 April 2019 |
| SI 2018/1155 reg 7 | Inserted Part 7A: the unquoted-company duty, ¶¶20A–20K | In force 1 April 2019 |
| SI 2018/1155 reg 10 | Inserted Part 5A and reg 12B into SI 2008/1911: the LLP energy and carbon report | In force 1 April 2019 |
| SI 2008/410 Sch 7 Part 7, ¶¶15–20 | Quoted companies, at any size | No known outstanding effects |
| SI 2008/410 Sch 7 Part 7A, ¶¶20A–20K | Unquoted companies over two of £36m, £18m and 250 | One amendment note: its own insertion |
| SI 2008/1911 reg 12B | Large LLPs: modified ss.415, 415A, 416 and 419 | Threshold tables in modified s.415A |
| Companies Act 2006 s.385 | Defines quoted and unquoted company | AIM companies are unquoted |
| Companies Act 2006 s.414C(11) | Directors may put directors’-report matters of strategic importance in the strategic report | Where the SECR table may sit |
| Companies Act 2006 s.419(3)–(4) | Offence by directors who approve a non-compliant directors’ report knowingly or recklessly | The content offence |
| Companies Act 2006 s.456 | Court order to revise a defective report | Applied for by an authorised person |
| Companies Act 2006 s.457 and SI 2021/465 | Authorises the FRC for the purposes of s.456 | From 6 May 2021 |
| Companies Act 2006 s.463 | Limits directors’ liability for the narrative reports to the company | A safe harbour, not a penalty |
| Companies Act 2006 s.496 | Auditor reports on consistency with the accounts and compliance with the law | Not assurance over the emissions data |
| Companies Act 2006 ss.442–443 | Nine months private, six months public; month-end arithmetic | SECR’s deadline is the accounts deadline |
| SI 2008/1911 reg 17 | Nine months for LLPs | Modified s.442(2) |
| Companies Act 2006 s.453 and SI 2008/497 reg 4(2) | Late filing penalties on the company, £150 to £7,500 | Doubled if late two years running |
| SI 2024/1303 reg 5(3) | Omitted paragraphs 6 and 7 and Parts 3 and 4 of Schedule 7 | Did not touch Part 7 or 7A |
| SI 2022/31 and SI 2022/46 | Climate-related financial disclosures for the largest companies and LLPs | A different regime, from 6 April 2022 |
| SI 2018/841 | Revoked the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Order 2013 | From 1 October 2018, with savings |
| SI 2014/1643 and SI 2026/701 | ESOS and its 2026 amendments, made under the Energy Act 2023 | A separate scheme with its own regulator |
Read at legislation.gov.uk; Schedule 7 Parts 7 and 7A show no known outstanding effects.
Nothing you type leaves this page.
Read by role, the register tells the story of the regime in six lines.
A general power in the Companies Act let the Secretary of State add matters to the directors’ report; two amending instruments, in 2013 and 2018, used it; the duties now sit in Schedule 7 and regulation 12B; and every consequence — enforcement, filing and penalties — is the Companies Act’s ordinary machinery.
The “Beside it” rows are the instruments most often mistaken for SECR: the 2025 size uplift that missed it, the 2022 climate disclosure regulations, the scheme it replaced and the separate ESOS scheme.
The duties themselves are set out paragraph by paragraph on SECR requirements.
Reading the source
How to read SECR on legislation.gov.uk
Most errors about SECR’s law come from reading the right website in the wrong version.
Part 7A’s revised page carries exactly one textual amendment, F1, recording its insertion on 1 April 2019 by SI 2018/1155 regulations 2 and 7, and the banner says there are no known outstanding effects.
It also carries a modification note, C1, recording that Part 7A is applied with modifications to LLPs through section 416 as modified by regulation 12B of SI 2008/1911 — which is how the LLP duty is built without a word of Part 7A changing.
SI 2018/1155 is the opposite case: as an amending instrument, its own pages show the instructions it gave, so the made version is the one to cite for what it did and when.
The same pairing applies to the 2025 uplift: SI 2024/1303 regulation 5 as made shows which parts of Schedule 7 it omitted, and the revised Part 7A shows that nothing in it changed.
The extent of the regulations is stated in neither instrument’s numbered regulations; the Explanatory Note published with SI 2018/1155 says they extend to the whole of the United Kingdom, reflecting the extent of the Companies Act.
The government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines, often cited as “the SECR guidance”, are not legislation and were last updated on 29 March 2019; where they and the schedule differ, the schedule governs.
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Latest available (revised) | The text with later amendments applied — the version to read for the duty today |
| Original (as made) | The text as the instrument was made — the version to read for an amending instrument like SI 2018/1155 |
| F1, F2 … (textual amendments) | A note recording which instrument changed or inserted the words |
| C1, C2 … (modifications) | A note that the text is applied elsewhere with changes, without altering it |
| “No known outstanding effects” | No amendment is known to be waiting to be applied to that part |
What came before
The CRC scheme, revoked to make way
SECR replaced the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, a standalone scheme that required large energy users to buy allowances for their emissions.
The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (Revocation and Savings) Order 2018 revoked it from 1 October 2018, with savings that ran the final compliance year to its end.
SECR swapped a priced scheme with its own administrator for a disclosure inside company reporting, which is why it has no regulator of its own.
The SECR overview covers the history from 2013 to the 2026 reviews.
Who enforces it
No regulator of its own, and not the Environment Agency
Because SECR is a directors’-report disclosure, the legislation that creates it contains no enforcement provision at all; Parts 7 and 7A create no offence, fine or notice.
Everything that follows a defective SECR section comes from the Companies Act 2006, the same machinery that applies to any other directors’-report content.
A director who approves a report knowing it does not comply, or reckless as to whether it does, and who fails to take reasonable steps to put it right, commits an offence under section 419.
The FRC, authorised under section 457 by SI 2021/465, can apply to court under section 456 for a declaration and an order to revise the report.
The FRC’s own operating procedures say that it and its predecessors have resolved every case voluntarily, without applying for a court order.
For LLPs, regulation 12B carries modified versions of the section 415 and 419 offences across to the energy and carbon report, so the LLP limb has SECR-specific analogues of the company offences.
The Environment Agency has no SECR role: it is the compliance body for ESOS, a separate scheme with its own civil penalties, and the two are often confused because the same companies are in both.
| SECR | ESOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory home | Companies Act regulations | Its own regulations, now under the Energy Act 2023 |
| Who acts on a failure | The FRC (court applications under s.456); directors face s.419 | The Environment Agency, as compliance body |
| Penalties | None specific to SECR; late filing is a Companies House penalty | Civil penalties — a £50,000 maximum for failing to undertake an assessment, plus daily amounts — and publication |
| Court action to date | The FRC says all its cases have been resolved without a court order | Penalty notices under the ESOS Regulations |
What is proposed
A new address proposed, the duty left alone
The Modernising corporate reporting consultation of 7 September 2026 proposes removing the requirement to prepare a directors’ report.
Its paragraph 149 says “the location of SECR disclosures will be moved because of the removal of the directors’ report”, with no prescribed replacement: companies could place SECR anywhere in the first half of the annual report.
That changes the address, not who reports or what they report; the Modernising Corporate Reporting page covers the wider package.
Paragraph 150 adds that DESNZ intends to hold a consultation on SECR and ESOS later in 2026, building on the 2026 evaluation — that one could reach the duty, and it has not opened.
Because the power is section 416(4), both changes could be made by statutory instrument without a new Act.
How the two regimes compare on their statutory footing, scope and enforcement is set out on ESOS vs SECR, and what a tool must produce from Part 7A is on SECR reporting software.
Consultation open until 30 November 2026.
No statutory instrument laid.
Every statement of law on this page is current law.
Frequently asked
SECR legislation, answered
What is the SECR legislation?
The Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018, SI 2018/1155, made on 6 November 2018 and in force for financial years beginning on or after 1 April 2019.
It is an amending instrument: the duties it created now live in Schedule 7 Parts 7 and 7A to SI 2008/410 for companies, and in regulation 12B of SI 2008/1911 for LLPs.
What power was SECR made under?
Section 416(4) of the Companies Act 2006, which lets the Secretary of State make regulations as to other matters that must be disclosed in a directors’ report, with section 1292(1) of that Act and sections 15 and 17 of the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000 for the LLP limb.
There is no Act written specifically for SECR.
Was SI 2018/1155 an affirmative or negative instrument?
Affirmative.
Its preamble states that a draft was laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House, in accordance with sections 473(3) and 1290 of the Companies Act 2006 and section 17(6) of the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000.
Section 1290 is headed “Regulations and orders: affirmative resolution procedure”.
Has SECR been amended since 2019?
Not in its own text.
Part 7A of Schedule 7 carries a single amendment note — its insertion on 1 April 2019 by SI 2018/1155.
The 2024 regulations that raised the Companies Act size limits amended Schedule 7 only by omitting paragraphs 6 and 7 and Parts 3 and 4, so SECR’s £36 million, £18 million and 250 thresholds are unchanged.
Is SECR the same as the 2022 climate disclosure regulations?
No. SI 2022/31 and SI 2022/46 created the climate-related financial disclosure regime for large companies and LLPs, with its own thresholds.
SI 2022/46 happens to place an LLP’s climate disclosures inside its energy and carbon report, but it does not amend the SECR duties in Part 7A.
Who enforces the SECR legislation?
There is no SECR regulator.
The legislation creates no penalty of its own; a defective directors’ report is dealt with under the Companies Act 2006, where directors who knowingly or recklessly approve a non-compliant report commit an offence under section 419, and the FRC, authorised by SI 2021/465, can apply to court under section 456 for its revision.
The Environment Agency has no SECR role.
Is the SECR legislation about to change?
Proposals exist, not changes.
The Modernising Corporate Reporting consultation, open until 30 November 2026, proposes abolishing the directors’ report, which would move SECR’s location.
It also says DESNZ intends to consult on SECR and ESOS later in 2026.
No statutory instrument has been laid.
Where can I read the SECR regulations?
On legislation.gov.uk.
The duties are in Schedule 7 Parts 7 and 7A to SI 2008/410 and in regulation 12B of SI 2008/1911, read in their latest revised versions.
SI 2018/1155 itself is best read as made, because it is an amending instrument whose work was done on 1 April 2019.
The government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines explain the method but are not legislation.
What is the difference between the SECR regulations and the Environmental Reporting Guidelines?
The regulations are law: SI 2018/1155 and the text it inserted into Schedule 7 and SI 2008/1911.
The Environmental Reporting Guidelines, last updated on 29 March 2019, are government guidance on how to measure and report.
Where they differ — the guidance’s “40 MWh” shorthand and its description of the LLP threshold by reference to the Companies Act are two examples — the legislation governs.
Does SECR apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
Yes.
Neither SI 2018/1155 nor SI 2008/410 contains an extent regulation, but the Explanatory Note published with SI 2018/1155 states that the Regulations “extend to the whole of the United Kingdom, reflecting the extent of the Companies Act 2006” and of the LLP Act 2000.
The note is not an operative provision, but section 1284 of the Companies Act 2006 extends the Companies Acts to Northern Ireland, and SECR sits inside them.
Sources
Primary sources
Every figure, date and status on this page traces to the instrument’s owner.
Secondary commentary is never the source for a number.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2018/1155 as made — preamble and regulations 1, 2, 6, 7 and 10
Made 6 November 2018; the powers relied on; the draft approved by both Houses.
- legislation.gov.ukCompanies Act 2006, section 416(4)
The power to prescribe other matters for the directors’ report.
- legislation.gov.ukCompanies Act 2006, section 1290
“Regulations and orders: affirmative resolution procedure”.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2008/410 — the Large and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008
Schedule 7 Parts 7 and 7A hold the SECR text for companies.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2008/410, Schedule 7 Part 7A
One amendment note: its own insertion on 1 April 2019.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2008/1911 — the LLP accounts regulations
Part 5A and regulation 12B, the LLP energy and carbon report.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2013/1970 as made
In force 1 October 2013; inserted Schedule 7 Part 7 for quoted companies.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2024/1303 — the 2025 size-limit uplift
Regulation 5(3) omits Parts 3 and 4 of Schedule 7, not Part 7A.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2021/465
The FRC as the person authorised to apply to court under s.456, from 6 May 2021.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2018/841 — CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (Revocation and Savings) Order 2018
The scheme SECR followed, revoked from 1 October 2018.
- legislation.gov.ukCompanies Act 2006, sections 419, 456 and 457
The directors’ offence, court-ordered revision and the authorisation power.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2018/1155, Explanatory Note
The only statement of extent: the whole of the United Kingdom.
- Financial Reporting CouncilOperating procedures for corporate reporting review
Every case resolved voluntarily, without a court order.
- legislation.gov.ukESOS Regulations 2014, regulation 45
The ESOS penalty for failing to undertake an assessment — a different regime.
- GOV.UK (DBIST)Modernising corporate reporting — consultation document, ¶¶149–150
SECR’s location “will be moved”; DESNZ to consult on SECR and ESOS later in 2026.