Key changes proposed include:

• A clearer and stronger ‘objective, reasonable and informed third party test’ which requires audit firms to consider whether a proposed action would affect their independence from the perspective of public interest stakeholders rather than another auditor. This is supported by additional material to encourage a wide-ranging assessment, which considers both the spirit and the letter of the standard.
• Enhancing the authority of the Ethics Partner function within audit firms, in order to ensure firm wide focus on ethical matters and the public interest, and to require reporting to those charged with governance where an audit firm does not follow the Ethics Partner’s advice.
• The list of prohibited non-audit services that auditors of Public Interest Entities (PIEs) can provide to audited bodies has been replaced with a much shorter list of permitted services, all of which are ‘closely related’ to an audit or required by law and/or regulation. No other services can be provided.
• The requirement for the auditors of all UK listed entities to include in their published auditor’s reports the performance materiality threshold used in the audit,

The press release and exposure draft are available on the FRC website.

For our Governance in Brief on this topic, click here.