At the end of January, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA), along with the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), the Institute of Directors (IoD), and the Trades Union Congress (TUC)—a group that, even a few years ago, would have been seen as an unholy alliance—sent a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May calling for a major overhaul of the U.K. corporate governance system (their major requests are given in the sidebar box).
Then, at the beginning of February, ICSA put out a poll questioning whether the U.K.’s system of corporate governance was fit for purpose. A significant proportion of corporate governance practitioners said it was not. When asked if the current system was working, 45 percent are on the fence with a “maybe” response, 16 percent feel that the system is not working, and 39 percent feel that it is.
