Audit and Assurance

The Audit and Assurance team:

• Develops and maintains auditing and assurance standards and guidance for engagements that are performed in the public interest within the United Kingdom.
• Monitors and seeks to influence, as appropriate, international standards and guidance and policy developments that may affect audit and assurance services in the UK and Ireland.
• Undertakes and commissions research on matters of relevance to audit and other assurance engagements that are performed in the public interest.

The Audit and Assurance team achieves its aims by establishing auditing standards which set out requirements which external auditors in the United Kingdom are required to comply with. 

Before publishing or amending an auditing standard or any other standard, the Audit and Assurance team publishes an exposure draft on its website and allow at least three months, unless circumstances require a shorter period, for representations to be made on it. Where publications cause changes to be made to other previously-issued publications, any such consequential changes are exposed for comment simultaneously.

Comment letters received in response to exposure drafts and consultations, and the related feedback statement, can be accessed via the page relating to the particular exposure draft or consultation which can be found by searching in the audit and assurance consultation section of our website.

In 2009 the Audit and Assurance team adopted the International Standard on Quality Control 1 (ISQC 1) and virtually all of the International Standards on Auditing (ISAs), issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) for application to audits of financial statements for periods ending on or after 15 December 2010. Where necessary, the Audit and Assurance team has augmented the international standards with additional requirements to address specific UK regulatory requirements and with additional guidance that is appropriate in the UK national legislative, cultural and business context. In the published versions of the standards, this additional material is clearly differentiated from the original text of the international standards by the use of grey shading.

The Audit and Assurance team does not deal with questions or complaints about specific audits or auditors. If you want to make a complaint about the professional conduct of a registered auditor you should, in the first instance, bring your concerns to the attention of the senior partner of the firm concerned. Many firms of auditors have formal complaint review procedures. If you are still not satisfied, you should contact the professional body of which the individual or firm is a member.