Higgs report further undermined

Yet more evidence that the Higgs Report recommendations are to be watered down following an outcry from UK boardrooms. Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade & Industry, has said that institutional investors should not be bound by the Higgs code on corporate governance when assessing company boardrooms. She told the Association of British Insurers’ (ABI) annual conference that the Higgs Report was not meant to be a prescriptive rule book. She said she was concerned that some elements of the investment community were turning ‘comply or explain’ into ‘comply or else.’ She said this would give corporate governance a bad name.