We screened for the UK companies that scored highest on our 7 key governance-related metrics and the result was a small group of just 14 companies (Aviva, Barclays, BT Group, Bunzl, Centamin, Drax Group, HSBC, Kier Group, Micro Focus, Mondi, NatWest, Persimmon, Rentokil Initial and Severn Trent). Most of these are widely held by ESG funds, but some are less widely recognised. While there is a distinct skew towards Financials in this group, several other sectors are also represented. We also note that some of the Financial companies have endured fines in recent years, which underscores how important continued improvement in governance is for that sector. These 14 companies have delivered a ROIC over the past 5 years that is 490bps higher than their respective industry averages. Sales growth over the last 12 months has been slower than the industry averages, however. We found very little correlation between governance scores and sustainability (environmental & social) scores, which is a little surprising. However, the Technology & Communications and Food & Beverage sectors had a relatively high correlation between governance and sustainability scores. We also looked at how well companies in “risky” industries, including Aerospace & Defence, Alcoholic Beverages, Casinos & Gaming, Metals & Mining, Oil & Gas Exploration & Production and Tobacco, are managing their unique governance-related ESG risks. These include, for example, bribery & corruption risks and responsible marketing risks. While all UK companies in these high-risk industries received at least a C grade on these risks, which is reassuring as it means they have a stated awareness of them, there is room for further improvement within a few sectors. The UK as a country has a governance score that is only in-line with the average of other major developed markets, due to relatively weaker political stability. But its strong corporate governance code means UK listed companies have the highest median governance scores across the major developed equity markets (the G7 plus Switzerland and the Netherlands).