Professional judgment is key to high quality audit, however the FRC regularly identifies poor examples of approach as one of the most significant issues affecting audit quality. This is frequently flagged in the annual audit quality inspection cycle.

The guidance includes a framework for making professional judgments and a series of illustrative examples. If applied widely, the guidance will improve audit quality by enhancing the consistency and quality of professional judgment exercised by auditors. Judgment is an integral part to ISA (UK) 200 Overall Objectives of the Independent Auditor.