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FPPP post-mortems5 November 2026 · next edition Thursday

Where the procedures failed, and what would have caught it

A casebook, not a news feed. Each entry takes a case where a regulator, a court or the company itself has said that financial position and prospects procedures fell short, and names the criterion in the pack whose evidence test addresses it.

The takeaway

The lesson for a CFO or company secretary preparing to list is that the procedures the FPPP confirmation describes are timetable machinery as much as accounting judgement: the board needs to know, on a dated schedule, when fieldwork is behind, not when the deadline has arrived.

  • Agree audit milestones with the auditor in writing and put a board-level escalation trigger on each one.
  • Treat a slipped milestone as a governance event, not a scheduling matter: record who was told and when.
  • Keep the market announcement ready before the statutory deadline is breached, and check what suspension follows from a missed deadline.
  • Remember that a delay is not a finding: this casebook records only what an authority or the company has stated, and here the company has stated only that the audit was incomplete.

Cases published 29 October to 5 November 2026 · mapped to the criteria that address them

This edition of the casebook looks for confirmed failures of financial position and prospects procedures — the working capital and reporting machinery a London Main Market listing requires under UKLR 24.3.2R(5) — rather than for interesting news. The window produced very little that meets that bar: a suspension for late accounts and an exchange suspension for rumour, neither of which any authority has linked to a procedures failure. The one entry below concerns a company announcement on which readers can form their own view only to a limited degree, and the note explains why the edition is short.

Searched the FCA news and publications feeds, the FRC news feed and the Investegate company announcements for the window. The FCA material was predominantly policy consultations and consumer-facing work, including PMB 67, the final ESG ratings regime and the independent review concerning Mr Andriesz; the FRC published standards revisions and SME forum notices. The company announcements were routine annual reports, trading updates and half-year reports. Two suspensions appeared: Coral Products Plc, for a delayed audit, and Valereum Plc on AQSE, which requested suspension itself citing market rumour. Neither involves an authority finding that financial position and prospects procedures fell short, and the Valereum case, being a self-requested rumour suspension, is not eligible at all. No enforcement notice, concluded FRC sanction, restatement or material weakness disclosure appeared in the window.

1. Audit not complete ahead of the statutory deadline: results delayed and shares suspended

Coral Products Plc announced on 30 October 2026 that publication of its final results for the year ended 30 April 2026 would be delayed because, in the company's words, the audit was not yet complete. The company stated that, consequently, trading in its ordinary shares would be temporarily suspended; the suspension took effect from 07:30 on 2 November 2026 pending publication of the accounts. That is the company's own account of the position. No regulator has made any finding about the company's financial position and prospects procedures, and nothing here should be read as such a finding: an incomplete audit is a statement about the timetable, not a determination that the procedures failed, and the company may yet publish on a basis that requires no restatement.

What would have caught it: A procedures pack that fixes a board-approved timetable for the audit of the full-year numbers, with a documented escalation route triggered when the auditor's fieldwork milestones slip, so that the board knows the statutory publication deadline is at risk before the market does — rather than discovering it on the eve of the deadline.

Touches fr-1, fr-5, re-2 — check yours · run the free scan

Sources

It was found in their procedures. Is it open in yours?

Every case above names the criteria it touches. The free scan walks 15 of the 73 across all nine FPPP areas, checks your answers against each other, and tells you where they contradict. It runs entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere, and nothing is stored.

Run the free scan →Read all 73 criteria

Published Thursdays. This is a casebook rather than a news feed: an older case that has not been covered is as welcome as a recent one. Compiled from public regulatory notices, court judgments and companies’ own announcements, and cited to them. It is not legal advice, not investment advice, and not a comment on any company’s prospects or securities.

Earlier editions