UK: BEIS Committee proposes wide-ranging audit reforms

The Parliamentary Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee has published its 'future of audit' report and recommendations: see here or here (pdf). A summary of the report's conclusions and wide-ranging recommendations can be found here. These were also outlined this morning in a speech by the Committee's chair, Rachel Reeves MP: see here.

The recommendations include: requiring auditors to present at company annual general meetings; encouraging the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as part of its statutory audit market study, to aim for the full legal separation of audit and non-audit services; if other remedies and reforms fail, the independent appointment of auditors should be considered; and the frequency of audit rotation should be increased by introducing a seven year, non-renewable, period of engagement.

The Committee also made recommendations concerning the creation of the proposed new regulator - the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) - to replace the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). Current FRC board members, the Committee stated, should have no meaningful role in the reform process or management of ARGA. The Committee also stated its expectation that the new chair of the FRC (and subsequently ARGA), currently being recruited, would not be appointed until they had appeared before the Committee and the Committee had given its opinion.