In a letter to business secretary Kemi Badenoch, Sara Drake, chief executive officer of the Chartered Governance Institute, urged the government to act swiftly to introduce the long trailed audit reforms, first set out in March 2021.

Audit reform was once again left out of the King’s speech in November, forcing the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to change its plans for audit reform, and putting on hold a restructure which would see the watchdog reorganise as a beefed up regulator with more statutory powers.

Drake said: ‘Reliable corporate reporting is essential to the functioning of financial markets, business investment and growth, yet six years have now elapsed since the failure of Carillion plc exposed numerous problems with corporate reporting, audit quality and regulatory powers.’

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