The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched an investigation under its accountancy scheme into Deloitte and some of its staff in relation to the auditing of outsourcing specialist Serco, following information received from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) which is examining potential overcharging claims on government contracts

With nearly half the companies in the FTSE 250 having recently switched auditor or planning to tender their audit in the next two years, the £185m UK audit market is going into overdrive, reports Philip Smith

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has announced it is to investigate KPMG over the firm’s consideration of and compliance with ethical standards in connection with the provision of non-audit services during the audit of the financial statements of Ted Baker, the designer retail brand

Following failures of governance at charities such as the Kids Company, the Charity Commission has issued a consultation on changes to guidance on the external scrutiny of charity accounts and the introduction of a simpler format for the examiner’s report to improve transparency

In the latest audit updates, rules for charities need complete overhaul, National Audit Office set to audit BBC, FRC updates raft of ISAs and EU audit directive and regulations (ARD) set for June effective date

In part five of the EU audit reform series, David Young, senior adviser at Independent Audit, considers the cost implications and compliance issues for listed companies as new powers for audit committees come into force under the EU Audit Regulations and Directive (ARD)

The National Audit Office (NAO) is sharply critical of the government’s programme to transfer back-office functions to two shared service centres, which it says has not resulted in anything like the anticipated cost savings due to problems with the way it was managed

Poor reporting of revenue recognition and problematic interpretations and analysis of complex supplier arrangements in the retail sector are the biggest problems highlighted in the latest audit inspection reports into the Big Four and mid-tier audit firms, released by the Financial Reporting Council. Sara White talks to executive director for audit Melanie McLaren about the regulator’s take on the latest batch of inspection reports

The latest regulatory inspection of audit work conducted by PwC has highlighted a number of shortfalls in the consistency of the management’s ability to challenge client assumptions and ongoing problems with the audit of complex supplier arrangements

Failings in the quality of risk assessment into revenue recognition issues and reporting lapses over potential conflicts of interest and partner independence continue to be an issue at EY although the firm has improved its overall quality of audit in this year’s Audit Quality Inspection (AQI) report from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC)

The quality of Grant Thornton’s (GT) audits is judged to have risen, but the firm still needs to do more to improve its audit quality monitoring arrangements, particularly with regard to some ethical and independence issues, according to the latest Audit Quality Inspection (AQI) report from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which is the first in three years where no GT audits were assessed as requiring significant improvement

Deloitte has been slow to challenge management in critical areas of judgment during audits according to the latest Audit Quality Inspection (AQI) from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which also identified weaknesses in the firm’s auditing of defined benefit pension schemes, and says it needs to improve its audit approach in the areas of revenue and inventory and its communications with audit committees