1617. (1) Subject to subsection (3), in the case of an applicable company falling within paragraph (a) of the definition of "applicable company" that is subject to the requirements of section 1590 or 1596, shareholders representing 5 per cent or more of the voting rights or of the share capital of the company, acting individually or collectively, shall have the right to table a draft resolution to be adopted in the annual general meeting of the company, requiring an accredited third party that does not belong to the same audit firm or network as the statutory auditor or audit firm carrying out the statutory audit to prepare a report on certain elements of the sustainability reporting and that such report be made available to the annual general meeting.

(2) Where an applicable company is required to have elements of its sustainability reporting verified by an accredited independent third party, the directors of the applicable company shall ensure that the report of the accredited independent third party is either –

(a) annexed to the directors’ report of the company for the financial year concerned, or

(b) published on the company’s website.

(3) This section does not apply to a public-interest entity falling within paragraph (a) of the definition of "public-interest entity".]