Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what meetings he or his Ministers have held with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US in response to its record fine against audit firm Ernst & Young in June 2022 for cheating on professional education courses to maintain its certified public accountant licensure; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Hunt
Ministers have not met with the Securities and Exchange Commission in response to its fine against Ernst & Young.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish legal advice received in relation to the Liability of Trade Unions in Proceedings in Tort (Increase of Limits on Damages) Order 2022.
Answered by Jane Hunt
The Government does not propose to publish any legal advice received in relation to this Order.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason he did not carry out a consultation before laying the Liability of Trade Unions in Proceedings in Tort (Increase of Limits on Damages) Order 2022.
Answered by Jane Hunt
This change only increases the limits in line with inflation to match what they would have been had they increased year on year since 1982.
As no other changes to the trade union liabilities for damages regime are being proposed, the Government does not consider that further consultation is necessary.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason he did not initiate a consultation before laying the draft Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2022.
Answered by Jane Hunt
BEIS did consult. BEIS ran a consultation from 15 July to 9 September 2015 to gather views on what the impact would be of repealing the ban on agency workers. We received 167 substantive responses from a range of stakeholders. In addition to these responses, the TUC also submitted a petition opposing the repeal signed by 25,000 members, 1,500 of whom also made comments.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Strategy, when he will bring forward the audit reform bill referred to in the Queen's Speech on 10 May 2022; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Hunt
Alongside the Queen’s speech, the Government announced that we will prepare and publish a draft Bill on audit and corporate governance reform during this session of parliament. The Government will legislate when parliamentary time allows.
Further detail can be found in the Government Response to the consultation on “Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance”.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has asked the Financial Reporting Council to investigate audit firm Ernst & Young in response to the record fine issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2022 for cheating on professional education courses to maintain its certified public accountant licensure.
Answered by Jane Hunt
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is an independent regulator and independently decides whether an investigation should be commenced. The recent fine imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Ernst & Young (EY) in the United States relates to the conduct of EY and its audit professionals in the United States. The FRC is responsible for oversight of the qualification of external auditors in the UK and meets regularly with the SEC and also the Public Company Accounting and Oversight Board in the United States to discuss issues of common interest. The FRC has written to the seven largest UK audit firms about the impact of this issue and has published that letter on the FRC website on 13 July 2022.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many fines have been issued by the Financial Reporting Council for audit failures in each of the past five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Jane Hunt
The Financial Reporting Council has provided the following information on the fines it has imposed:
Financial year in which fines were imposed | Number of fines imposed against audit firms | Number of fines imposed against audit engagement partners at those firms |
2017/18 | 4 | 4 |
2018/19 | 9 | 14 |
2019/20 | 6 | 6 |
2020/21 | 4 | 4 |
2021/22 | 9 | 9 |
2022/23 (so far) | 0 | 0 |
This information reflects that set out in “Recent Enforcement sanctions imposed against Audit firms and Audit partners” published by the Financial Reporting Council, which is updated as and when further cases are concluded and is available at https://www.frc.org.uk/auditors/enforcement-division/enforcement-outcomes.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with (a) employers, (b) employment agencies, and (c) trade unions over plans to remove regulation 7 of the Conduct Regulations 2003.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government carried out a consultation on revoking the ban on using agency workers to cover strikes in 2015. The consultation asked what effect the removal would have on a wide variety of stakeholders, including workers, employment businesses, employers, employees on strike and about the impact on wider economy and society. It received a large number of substantive responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including employers, agencies and trade unions which have been carefully considered before deciding to proceed with removing Regulation 7 of the Conduct Regulations 2003.