Cadbury Committee

A committee chaired by Adrian Cadbury which produced the first Code of Best Practice on corporate governance, in 1992. Its stated objective was "to help raise the standards of corporate governance and the level of confidence in financial reporting and auditing by setting out clearly what it sees as the respective responsibilities of those involved and what it believes is expected of them." It has since been followed by the Greenbury report on Directors' Remuneration (1995), the Hampel Committee on Corporate Governance (1998), which produced The Combined Code, and the Higgs Review of the Role and Effectiveness of Non-Executive Directors (2003), which led to further revisions.
The code lays down rules which the UK Listing Authority – part of the Financial Services Authority – requires companies to follow. The rules include the composition of the board, such as the ratio of non-executive to executive directors, board committees, the role of the chairman and the NEDs, directors' remuneration, relations with shareholders, and accountability and audit.