Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any risk emanating from large accountancy firms claiming global audit approaches when the requirements for UK audits are grounded in UK company law.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is responsible for policy on statutory audit in the UK. It does not consider any claim by the global firms that their UK statutory audit work complies with the requirements of the international auditing standards to be a significant source of risk.

Under UK law, auditors must adhere to auditing and ethical standards issued by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in the performance of statutory audits. In setting UK auditing standards, the FRC uses, as a basis, international auditing standards. Where necessary the FRC adds to those standards to reflect UK specific legislative and regulatory requirements, and further requirements that may be necessary to support high quality audit. The FRC also enforces those standards. By complying with UK auditing standards, an auditor will also comply with all of the requirements set out in international standards.