Restoring trust in audit and corporate – a look at the Government’s response to the White Paper consultation and next steps

Introduction

On May 31, 2022 the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published a document (the Response Document) summarising responses to the consultation proposals set out in the White Paper it published in March 2021 concerning wide-ranging reforms to the UK’s audit and corporate governance framework, and setting out its plans for action in light of those responses. 

Many of the proposed reforms in the White Paper stemmed from recommendations made by three independent reviews of audit and corporate reporting, namely the 2018 Independent Review of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC Review) led by Sir John Kingman, the 2019 Review into the Quality and Effectiveness of Audit led by Sir Donald Brydon (Brydon Review), and the Market Study of Statutory Audit Services led by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA Study) in 2019. These reviews identified a number of weaknesses and a lack of accountability in certain areas which the White Paper sought to address and our earlier briefing considered a number of proposals in that White Paper. 

The Government states in the Response Document that its objectives, which govern its overall approach, are to: (i) build trust and credibility in the UK’s audit, corporate reporting and corporate governance system; (ii) ensure accountability for those playing key roles in that system; and (iii) to increase resilience and choice in the statutory audit market. It believes that these objectives will further increase trust in the UK as a place to invest and obtain investment and to achieve this, it plans to put in place a new UK approach to regulating in this area, in line with its wider approach to regulators and regulation more generally (as set out in its January 2022 publication, The benefits of Brexit: How the UK is taking advantage of leaving the EU). 

This briefing looks at the measures that the Government now intends to take forward in relation to public interest entities (PIEs) and other matters.