UK SRS Has Landed: What the New Sustainability Reporting Standards Mean for Your Business

For years, UK carbon reporting has meant one thing for most companies: SECR. That is still true today, but the ground has shifted. In February 2026 the government endorsed the ISSB's global standards and published the final UK Sustainability Reporting Standards, UK SRS S1 and S2. Here is what has actually changed, what has not, and what to do about it.

What was published, in plain terms

UK SRS is the UK's version of the ISSB's IFRS S1 and S2:

• S1 is the general framework: how to report sustainability-related risks and opportunities alongside your accounts.
• S2 is the climate standard: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics including Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

Both are live now for voluntary use by any UK entity that chooses to adopt them.

What has not changed

SECR has not been replaced. If you report under SECR today, you still do. The FRC's guidance is clear that existing obligations continue while the new regime takes shape around them.

SECR and UK SRS, side by side

	SECR	UK SRS (S1 & S2)
Who it catches	Quoted companies, plus large unquoted companies and LLPs	Voluntary for anyone today; FCA proposes mandatory S2 for UK-listed companies
What you report	UK energy use, Scope 1 and 2, an intensity ratio, efficiency action	Governance, strategy, risk management and metrics, including Scope 1, 2 and 3
Where it lives	Directors' report, with your accounts	Alongside your accounts, as a sustainability disclosure
Status right now	Mandatory, unchanged	Live for voluntary use since February 2026
Direction of travel	Continues in parallel	Mandatory for listed companies proposed from January 2027

What happens next

The FCA is consulting on exactly this: CP26/5, published in January 2026, proposes mandatory climate disclosures under UK SRS S2 for roughly 515 UK-listed businesses from January 2027, with Scope 3 emissions on a comply-or-explain basis in the first years. If your company is listed, the clock is already running. If it is not, the pressure arrives indirectly, and sooner than you might think.

Why this matters even if you're an SME

Every mandatory reporting wave so far has flowed downhill. Listed companies required to report Scope 3 under S2 will need real numbers from their suppliers, the same way CSRD obligations in the EU turned into questionnaires landing in SME inboxes. When a big customer's compliance depends on your data, "we don't track that" stops being an acceptable answer.

The practical takeaway: whether or not UK SRS ever applies to you directly, the businesses you sell to are about to need better carbon data from you.

What to do this quarter

1. Know your position. Listed, or supplying anyone who is? Map which wave reaches you and when.
2. Get your Scope 1 and 2 solid. S2 reporting starts from the basics: metered energy, fuel, fleet. If those still live in spreadsheets, fix that first.
3. Start on Scope 3 before you're asked. Supplier data takes the longest to stand up. The companies that started when CSRD hit their EU customers had a year's head start on their competitors.

The pattern from every previous regime, SECR included, is that the businesses that treat the voluntary period as a rehearsal walk into the mandatory one calm. The ones that wait treat it as a crisis.