This follows a raft of major audit failures at listed companies from Carillion to Patisserie Valerie, Thomas Cook to BHS, with further investigations ongoing, and calls from audit committee chairs to provide more consistent information about the quality of auditors.

Some of this information is already available but not in a comparable format so that it is extremely difficult to assess the data, which many of the firms disclose in their transparency reports. This consultation will extend the scope of the comparative factors, providing a more in-depth overview of audit quality.