As part of the review, the FRC will withdraw Practice Note 24 covering the audit of friendly societies as this will now be included in the over-arching practice guidance under PN20. 

The new version of PN20 includes:

• material dealing with the PRA’s external audit requirement in respect of Solvency II Pillar 3 disclosures (the Solvency and Financial Condition Report (SFCR)).
• requirement for for new material to support the audit of regulatory returns. Under Solvency II most large insurers will have to publish annual Solvency and Financial Condition Reports (SFCRs) which the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) Rules require to be audited; and
• the need to reflect changes in ISAs (UK) since PN20 was last updated, including the major changes resulting from the implementation of the EU Audit Regulation (537/2014 EU) and Directive (2014/56 EU); and
• revisions to international standards resulting from projects completed by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).

PN24 will be completely withdrawn as the majority of the material covered in this guidance is addressed in PN20. However, the FRC confirms that there will still be an opportunity to identify any guidance gaps regarding friendly societies in the consultation stage and if there is demand, these will be included in the proposed revisions

As a Practice Note is guidance to support best practice, and is not prescriptive, the FRC has completed a separate impact assessment, but has not identified any additional costs resulting from the revised guidance included in the exposure draft.

The FRC consultation paper: Proposal to revise Practice Note 20: the Audit of Insurers in the United Kingdom and withdraw Practice Note 24: The Audit of Friendly Societies in the United Kingdom  is available here

The FRC Exposure Draft on Practice Note 20 (Revised) is available here