FRC refreshes auditing standards to reduce reporting burden and improve transparency
News types: Codes and Standards Announcements
Published: 24 June 2026
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has revised three auditing standards to make auditor's reports shorter, clearer and more useful to investors, alongside new guidance clarifying auditor responsibilities under the revised UK Corporate Governance Code.
The changes update three UK auditing standards - ISA (UK) 700, ISA (UK) 701 and ISA (UK) 720 - and follow a public consultation that received broad support from stakeholders across the audit, investment and governance sectors.
Auditor's reports have grown increasingly lengthy in recent years, often filled with boilerplate language that adds little value for readers. The revised standards address this directly by removing unnecessary reporting requirements, sharpening the focus on information that investors find useful, and bringing UK standards into closer alignment with international equivalents.
For companies that follow the UK Corporate Governance Code, the standards introduce requirements for auditors to describe how the company's controls affected the audit, and – where very serious control deficiencies are identified – to communicate them in the auditor’s report.
To support consistent application of these requirements alongside the new Provision 29 obligations for UK Corporate Governance Code companies that took effect from January 2026, the FRC has also published a mythbuster document setting out what auditors are - and are not - required to do when a company's annual report contains a Provision 29 statement on material controls.
In addition, the FRC has withdrawn the following Bulletins as their guidance has been superseded by the revised auditing standards:
- 2009/4 Developments in Corporate Governance Affecting the Responsibilities of Auditors of UK Companies
- 2006/5 The Combined Code on Corporate Governance: Requirements of Auditors under the Listing Rules of The Financial Services Authority and the Irish Stock Exchange
The changes support the Government's wider agenda on regulatory reform and economic growth by removing unnecessary audit reporting burdens, while strengthening the quality of information available to investors.
The revised standards will take effect from 15 December 2026.
Read the revised standards: ISA (UK) 700, ISA (UK) 701 and ISA (UK) 720