They also continue to find it difficult to differentiate audit quality from the quality of service provided by their audit firm while few challenge senior management when they might have concerns about the audit process, finds the latest research from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).

The research highlighted negative views about any introduction of joint audits with a number of detailed criticisms and comments about how they work, both in terms of their own practical experience and how it would work in practice with such a limited audit firm base. They ruled out joint audits as a solution to the issue, expressing a ‘negative perception’ about the approach.

A FTSE 250 audit committee chair stated: ‘I strongly dislike joint audits, or audits where you have to outsource part of it to somebody else because there is no idea about the quality of the audit and I do have experience of auditing in France, which has always had a requirement to have joint audits and they generally have one big firm and one pint-sized firm, and the pint-sized firm is clueless.’

A