Subject: Advanced corporate reporting Topic: Social responsibility

Shareholders are becoming increasingly interested in the environment and social responsibility policies, impacts and practices of business entities, however financial statements have not traditionally provided this information. As a result, there has been significant growth in entities providing narrative environmental information on a voluntary basis. Required:

(a) Critically assess the benefits of social and environment reporting to investors and the reasons for the reporting entities to disclose the information voluntarily. (15 marks)

(b) Discuss the limitations that investors should consider when relying on voluntary information provided by entities. (10 marks)