This Booklet is designed to take readers through the background to the Corporate Governance story and explain why it is regarded as important by both the public and politicians. In this, the first of a set of Booklets on Corporate Governance, we set out the rules and regulations which have been introduced to formalise codes of corporate governance. And we show how successive attempts to improve corporate behaviour by introducing new regulations have consistently failed to prevent the next scandals, and are always playing catch-up.