The Professional Oversight Board, a part of the Financial Reporting Council, today publishes its Report to the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform for the year to 31 March 2008. This was the third full year in which the Oversight Board exercised statutory responsibility for the oversight of audit regulation delegated to it by Order.

Paul George, Director of the Oversight Board, said:

“The primary purpose is to report on our oversight of audit regulation carried out by the professional accountancy bodies that we recognise for this purpose. We focused in 2007/08 on key areas of risk at each body and on those regulatory systems where there had been significant recent change. Overall we conclude that the recognised bodies take their responsibilities extremely seriously and that much regulatory practice is of a high standard. However, the detailed comments in the report highlight those aspects of regulatory activity that are less strong or where there is room for improvement.”

The report also summarises the Board’s work to meet its other responsibilities, in particular for the inspection of the quality of audits of economically significant entities, on which we separately published reports on seven larger audit firms on 8 December, and for oversight of the regulation by professional bodies of the actuarial and accountancy professions.

1. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is the UK’s independent regulator responsible for promoting confidence in corporate reporting and governance. Its functions are exercised principally by its operating bodies (the Accounting Standards Board, the Auditing Practices Board, the Board for Actuarial Standards, the Financial Reporting Review Panel, the Professional Oversight Board and the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board) and by the FRC Board. The Committee on Corporate Governance assists the Board in its work on corporate governance.
2. The Professional Oversight Board contributes to the achievement of the Financial Reporting Council’s fundamental aim of promoting confidence in corporate reporting and governance. It has four main responsibilities:
   1. a statutory obligation to oversee the regulation of auditors by the recognised accountancy bodies;
   2. the monitoring of the quality of the auditing function in relation to economically significant entities;
   3. independent oversight of the regulation of the accountancy profession by the professional accountancy bodies;
   4. independent oversight of the regulation of the actuarial profession by the professional actuarial bodies.
3. The Professional Oversight Board is independent of the accountancy and actuarial professions. Its members have wide experience of business and the professions, the public sector, accountancy, auditing and actuarial work. The Chairman is Dame Barbara Mills DBE QC.
4. The Report was presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and was ordered to be printed by the House of Commons on 18 December. A soft copy can be downloaded from our web-site by following the link above. Hard copies are available from the Stationery Office.
5. Press enquiries should be directed to Paul George, POB Director, on 0207 492 2340.