This year, the audit quality inspection (AQI) found that 84% of the 19 audits inspected required no more than limited improvements compared with 59% the previous year. No audits required significant improvement and only three were flagged as requiring improvements, down from eight the previous year. At the same time 90% of FTSE 350 audits reviewed met the standards set by the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) audit quality inspectors.

‘This is encouraging and provides some evidence that the firm’s investment in initiatives to improve audit quality, including a culture change programme, is having an impact. It is also encouraging that none of the audits we inspected were found to require significant improvements,’ the (FRC) said.

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