Taking on board comments it has received, the Regulator said it has brought forward the opening date as well as the closing date and removed the need for RSLs to update their closing cash figure at 31st March 2022.

“This will give you the opportunity to complete and approve the return prior to the end of the financial year if you so wish and should remove any need to take it back to your Management Committee to approve the amendments based only on changes to your outturn figures,” the letter states.

Bringing forward the closing date will enable the Regulator to undertake its analysis of the data earlier and will give it the opportunity to engage with RSLs at an earlier stage where any potential issues are identified.

The letter from Nigel Gregory adds: “The return is broadly the same as last year, however there are a small number of amendments and some additional fields are included.

“One of the changes we have incorporated based on your feedback on the form is related to the comments fields. This year the comment field can be selected by clicking on the chat icon to the right hand side of the input line. The comment field will appear below the related line.

“Additionally, two questions on estimates of costs for achieving net carbon zero are included.

“Please note that the FYFP User Guide will be updated accordingly in advance of the release date and this year a link to the User Guide will be available in the ‘Introduction’ page of the return.  

The return will be available to access it for three months, however, please notify us in advance if you anticipate any difficulty in submitting the return by the deadline.”

RSLs are asked to refer to the FAQ document initially for queries.