Questions & Answers
Does the materiality assessment take precedence over ESRS 1 paragraph 18?
- Voluntary disclosure requirements (‘may disclose’)
Background
ESRS 1 paragraph 18 states: ‘ESRS uses the following terms to distinguish between different degrees of obligation on the undertaking to disclose information:
(a) “shall disclose” – indicates that the provision is prescribed by a Disclosure Requirement or datapoint; and
(b) “may disclose” – indicates voluntary disclosure to encourage good practice.’
ESRS S1 paragraph 79 of Disclosure Requirement ESRS S1-12 is a ‘shall’ disclosure and states: ‘The undertaking shall disclose the percentage of persons with disabilities amongst its employees subject to legal restrictions on the collection of data.’
ESRS S1 paragraph 80 of Disclosure Requirement ESRS S1-12 is voluntary and states: ‘The undertaking may disclose the percentage of employees with disabilities with a breakdown by gender.’
ESRS 1 paragraph 11 states: ‘In addition to the disclosure requirements laid down in the three categories of ESRS, when an undertaking concludes that an impact, risk or opportunity is not covered or not covered with sufficient granularity by an ESRS but is material due to its specific facts and circumstances, it shall provide additional entity-specific disclosures to enable users to understand the undertaking’s sustainability-related impacts, risks or opportunities.’
In ESRS E1 paragraph AR 32, instead of ‘may disclose’ the expression ‘can disclose’ is used as a synonym; see, e.g. the statement ‘When preparing the information on energy consumption required under paragraph 35 … The undertaking that consumes fuel as feedstocks can disclose information on this consumption separately from the required disclosures’.
Answer
No, for optional disclosures the materiality assessment does not take precedence over ESRS 1 paragraph 18. This means that for a topic that is assessed as material (see previous example on S1-12) it is optional, but the undertaking is encouraged to disclose a ‘may’ datapoint also if the information pertaining to the datapoint in question is material.
Relations
Paragraph | Content |
|---|---|
ESRS use the following terms to distinguish between different degrees of obligation on the undertaking to disclose information: | |
ESRS use the following terms to distinguish between different degrees of obligation on the undertaking to disclose information: | |
ESRS use the following terms to distinguish between different degrees of obligation on the undertaking to disclose information: |