The aim is to improve the quality of auditor’s reports, making them ‘shorter, clearer and more useful’, the FRC said, after they have become cluttered with ‘boilerplate language that adds little value for readers’. This appears to be a return to the cutting the clutter approach of the mid 2010s, and the changes will come into effect later this year in December.

The revised standards address the waffle directly by ‘removing unnecessary reporting requirements, sharpening the focus on information that investors find useful, and bringing UK standards into closer alignment with international equivalents’, according to the FRC.

The changes update three UK auditing standards - ISA (UK) 700 Forming and opinion and reporting on Financial Statements, ISA (UK) 701 Communicating Key Audit Matters in the Independent Auditor’s report, and ISA (UK) 720 The Auditor’s Responsibilities Relating to Other Information.

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