The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) annual enforcement review flags the largest audit firms were fined £12.9m in the last financial year, albeit discounted for cooperation from an original figure of £18.2m, up 33% from £9.7m the year prior. The figure was well below the record £33.1m in fines handed out in 2023-24.

The biggest fines were handed to BDO with total sanctions of £7.4m for audit failings, for ‘serious failings’ for serious failings involving multiple unnamed audit clients, where the firm and partners were fined a total of £5.8m, and a further penalty related to an audit for construction business NMCN for ‘numerous and pervasive’ audit failings.

Second on the list was PwC, fined £3.3m for a Babcock audit, the second time the Big Four firm had been sanctioned for the same client, but over various different financial years, for failing to challenge management and obtain sufficient audit evidence.