BDO Stoy Hayward has announced Paul Eagland is to become its head of audit and tax, in a move that sees him oversee the two divisions. The former head of audit, Tony Perkins, is to become more involved at client level. A spokesperson for the firm, ranked 6th in Accountancy's Top 60 accountancy firms, said the current climate posed 'challenges for the audit stream, so we need our best auditors out there doing the doing'. 'We wanted closer alignment between audit and tax,' she added. In most large accounting practices, the role of auditor is usually kept separate from other divisions. A spokesman for the Audit Inspection Unit of the Financial Reporting Council, said: 'Whoever is running whatever parts of the audit practice will be looking to ensure that there is an appropriate focus on audit quality. So long as they place the right amount of emphasis on audit quality that's what is important to us,' he said.