The outgoing accountancy regulator has warned against flouting ethical standards, ahead of an upcoming review of auditor ethics. Paul Boyle, chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, said a review of standards relating to the sale of non-audit services to audit clients is set to begin in weeks to 'put the issue beyond doubt'. Concerns over the issue were raised by the FRC's Audit Inspection Unit in its first individual audit firm reports published last December. 'You can't complain about excessively detailed rules, and then say, "As long as something is not specifically prohibited by the rule, then it's ok," even though there's an underlying principle,' warned Boyle. PricewaterhouseCoopers publicly disagreed with some findings in the AIU's report over some of its audit policies. 'The view of the AIU was that the principle underpinning this issue was very clear. But if the profession wants to have a principles-based approach to the setting of standards but a rules-based approach to enforcement, that's not going to lead to a good outcome,' said Boyle. The Auditing Practices Board confirmed the review, which will also look at partner rotation, will begin this month.