Part 1: Reporting on what is important

There are two main features that we expect of an effective annual report:

It is concise yet covers all the significant aspects of performance as well as the public organisation's functions and operations.
It has a focus on what is important to users.

Public organisations should also consider different ways to make their performance information more accessible to users.

Examples of good practice

Our good practice examples are categorised under four themes:

What to avoid	What to aim for
Reporting on every activity and including clutter and duplication.	Reporting that strikes the right balance in being concise yet covering all significant aspects of performance and functions and operations.
Insufficient focus on what matters to users.	Focusing on what’s important to users. Reporting that shows how the public organisation has engaged with its users to understand what matters to them and presents performance information in a way that engages users.
Highlighting only what went well or leaving out important performance information.	Balanced reporting that is transparent about what went well and what didn’t.
A summary of achievements that only focuses on a narrow range of the public organisation's activities that do not faithfully represent core roles and responsibilities.	Overviews that cover all of the key areas and activities of the public organisation.