What is the Omnibus Simplification?
In February 2025, the European Commission proposed the Omnibus Simplification package, which significantly scales back the scope and requirements of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The proposal raises the employee threshold from 250 to 1,000, effectively removing around 80% of companies from mandatory CSRD reporting. It also delays Phase 2 application dates by two years and introduces opt-in voluntary reporting for smaller companies using a simplified standard.
Impact on UK companies
For UK companies with EU operations or EU-listed subsidiaries, the Omnibus changes bring welcome relief. Many UK mid-market firms that were preparing for CSRD compliance in 2026–2027 now fall outside scope entirely. However, experts caution against treating this as a reason to stop sustainability reporting altogether. The UK government has signalled that its own UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) will proceed independently, meaning UK companies still face domestic reporting obligations.
Should you pause your CSRD preparations?
Our recommendation is no — with caveats. If you're a large UK company already collecting emissions data and building reporting processes, the work you've done is directly transferable to UK SRS compliance. The data infrastructure, calculation methodologies, and stakeholder engagement you've built will remain valuable regardless of which specific framework applies. What you can do is deprioritise CSRD-specific European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) data points that don't overlap with GHG Protocol-aligned reporting.