The Competition Commission (CC) is seeking comments and views on its liability, insurance and settlements working paper as part of its investigation into the Big Four domination of the UK audit industry. Comments should be submitted by 5 October.

The working paper sets out key results from the CC's survey of finance directors, chief financial officers and audit committee chairs of large listed and private companies.

Some 607 responses were received as part of the body's statutory audit services merger inquiry. While the overall response rate for the survey, was just over a quarter at 28%, the highest response rate - at nearly 40% - was gleaned from both FDs/CFOs and ACCs for FTSE 350 companies. This is likely to be a reflection of both a greater interest in the subject matter and a higher quality of contact information.

The survey found that audit fees for FTSE 100 companies were higher than those paid by other companies. Some 71% of FTSE 100 companies paid over £1m in audit fees compared with just 22% for FTSE 250 companies and only 5% for non-FTSE 350 companies.

Similarly, all audit fees over £1m were for audits carried out by the Big Four firms.

Other findings revealed that around three-quarters of companies that carry out benchmarking exercises compare their audit fees with those paid by similar outfits in the same sector or which were of a similar size and complexity.

Nearly half said that they looked at the expertise, experience and reputation of the audit firms and the audit team, while just 5% of respondents failed to mention any of these three factors. The next most frequently cited factor is the geographical coverage of the audit firm.

The Competition Commission has called for all comments to be submitted by 5 October.

More details on the paper can be accessed on the Competition Commission website