The mid-tier firm was only appointed in August 2022, taking over after the sudden resignation of Mazars as auditor in July 2022 following a dispute over audit fees. In the event, the audit fee has shot up from £323,000 to £475,000 for the 2021 audit, which has only come to light now that overdue accounts for FY21 have been published.

Moore Kingston Smith is the second auditor to resign in just 18 months and the firm cited problems with the audit of inventory, such as raw materials and equipment, stating that it was unable to ‘satisfy ourselves in respect of the inventory quantity of £45.8m’ and issued a qualified audit opinion.

For several years, British Steel, owned by Chinese conglomerate Jingye Steel UK, has filed its accounts late.