FRC publishes final revisions to UK standards on using the work of an auditor’s expert

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Published: 23 September 2026

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) revised one UK auditing and one UK assurance standard to maintain alignment with changes made to equivalent international standards issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).

Having single sets of standards which can be used across multiple jurisdictions helps reduce the cost for companies in meeting their reporting and audit obligations, and supports quality and consistency of audit and assurance. Therefore, the FRC strongly supports maintaining alignment with international standards issued by the IAASB unless there is an overriding public interest reason for taking a UK-specific approach.

The revised standards are:

These revisions maintain interoperability with the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (“IESBA Code”) which introduced explicit ethical requirements for using the work of external experts in audit, assurance and non-assurance engagements.

The revised standards include:

  • Alignment of definitions and responsibilities for evaluating an external expert’s competence, capabilities, and objectivity, ensuring consistency between IAASB standards and the new IESBA ethical provisions.
  • Targeted revisions to requirements and application material in ISA (UK) 620 and ISAE (UK) 3000 to clarify practitioner responsibilities when using the work of an external expert, and to reinforce the need for robust evaluation and documentation.

The revised standards will be effective for audits of financial statements for periods commencing and assurance reports dated on or after 15 December 2026.