In the last three year’s BDO’s audit fees rose from £165m in 2018, to £200m in 2019 to £246m in 2020, and in BDO’s 2020 annual quality inspection report, the FRC concluded that it would monitor closely and assess the promptness and effectiveness of the firm’s actions to address the findings raised in 2020.

The FRC found that there had been repeated key findings in this year’s report and that the firm’s actions did not appear to have adequately addressed the concerns.

The recurring findings that contributed most to the FRC’s results related to the effectiveness of the audit of revenue and the audit of long-term contracts. Two years ago, the FRC reported that the firm needed to strengthen this area and in the 2020 report the FRC identified issues covering the work on revenue.