Restoring trust through an Audit and Assurance Policy

Trust and confidence are critical to enhancing the business environment and making the UK an attractive destination for foreign investment and a world leading capital market. In that context, the increasing volume of information that companies publish matters more now than ever and it is the duty of boards and audit committees to make sure that stakeholders not only have the right information to base their decisions on but that it is reliable.

Following its consultation on “Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance”, the Government has released its Response Statement, which states that they are to introduce a statutory requirement for Public Interest Entities (PIEs) that have 750 or more employees and £750m or more annual turnover to publish an Audit and Assurance Policy every three years, with an annual report on changes. The legislation to implement this requirement has been withdrawn, but we continue to believe that the “assurance mapping” part of the proposed Audit and Assurance Policy could bring significant benefits from a governance and reliability of reported information perspective so we have developed a guide to help companies think through how they might approach an Audit and Assurance Policy.

We have also issued a summary version of our guide which highlights the key elements of our suggested approach to developing an Audit and Assurance Policy.

Of course, every company’s Audit and Assurance Policy will be specific to their individual facts and circumstances and this is just one possible approach that we hope you will find helpful.