FRC publishes practice aid to help audit committees assess audit quality
29 May, 2015
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published a practice aid to assist audit committees in assessing the effectiveness of the external audit process, as required by the 2012 UK Corporate Governance Code. The practice aid has been developed based on feedback from audit committee members, investors, financial management and auditors.
The aid is divided into several sections, providing audit committee members with:
- an overview of audit quality;
- the sources of evidence that the committee might consider in making its assessment;
- the key professional judgements made by the auditor and how these might be assessed; and
- a discussion of other areas that the committee might consider when evaluating the quality of their auditor.
It identifies four key elements that need to be assessed in an evaluation of audit effectiveness.
- The auditor's use of professional judgement - this is the key element and is supported by the other three.
- The mindset and culture of the auditor.
- The skills, character and knowledge of the auditor.
- The quality control procedures that the auditor has in place.
The practice aid itself, as well as a summary leaflet, can be downloaded from the FRC's website, as can the FRC's press release on this subject. Our Governance in brief newsletter providing further information on the Practice Aid is also available.
