Endless accounting scandals, questionable financial reporting and audit failures have shaken public trust and confidence in the audit profession. The scale of the scandals hitting some of the UK’s largest audit firms has been far-reaching, going so far as to rock the very establishment in the case of government outsourcer Carillion which hit the wall, dragging KPMG’s name and reputation into the collapse over its lack of effectiveness as company auditor.

2018 was not a good year for the reputation of auditors and accountants, in fact you might say it runs a close second to the last major failure when Enron imploded in 2001 bringing down Arthur Andersen, resulting in the demise of the Big Five, leaving today’s Big Four.