The delay will be a blow to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) which can only transform into the new regulatory body, the Audit Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) following changes to the law.

It is now nine months since the government received responses to the white paper on audit reform and there has been no feedback on government plans to reform the audit profession. Responsibility for audit reform lies with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

BEIS indicated that it was still considering the responses to the consultation and is working on developing a package of reform that is both ‘coherent and proportionate’.

A BEIS spokesperson told Accountancy Daily: ‘Our white paper set out wide-ranging proposals to tackle problems in corporate reporting and audit, including strengthening the powers of the regulator.