The Competition Commission (CC) has issued provisional proposals, calling for companies to tender their audits every five years, in a bid to reform the audit market.

The watchdog is also pushing for the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to take on more responsibility by using its existing Audit Quality Review (AQR) team to examine audit engagements among the FTSE 350 every five years. It also wants the AQR to inspect and report on the larger mid-tier firms on an annual basis, as is currently done with Big Four firms.