Rachel Reeves MP, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) select committee, has slammed the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) for being an ill-led regulator, highlighting that the incoming Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) must have new leadership and that this ‘cannot come soon enough’

KPMG is facing further scrutiny by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which is to carry out an assessment of the governance, controls and culture within KPMG’s audit practice, in the wake of its ongoing investigation of the firm’s auditing of collapsed auditor Carillion and the ‘unacceptable’ deterioration in quality highlighted in its annual quality review

MPs are calling for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to aim for the full structural break-up of the Big Four firms into audit and non-audit businesses, along with a market cap and the use of joint audits, in order to tackle conflicts of interest, develop the market for challenger firms and increase professional scepticism

A string of frauds involving dubious financial transactions and invoice manipulation leaves Emile Woolf FCA questioning the role of auditors when facing fundamental decisions about materiality

The  Big Four firms have revealed they are failing to charge some audit clients for the full cost of the auditing work they carry out, fuelling concerns that they may be using audit work as a ‘loss leader’ on key accounts, according to information provided to the business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) committee which suggests there are cost overruns in as many as half of all engagements

In this month’s audit updates, FRC to be replaced by new audit regulator, PwC Colonial Bank fine, tougher going concern rules, multiple audit moves, whistleblower protection, Financial Reporting Lab future direction, poor value for money arrangements in local public bodies

Although the audit profession is very much in the spotlight at the moment, audit tenders have remained below the radar. Amy Austin, reporter at Accountancy Daily, investigates what is involved in a tender, why costs are so high and how firms compete against one another

The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) is consulting on planned changes to the code of ethics to ensure it is in line with the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board’s (IAASB) independence standards for non-audit related assurance engagements

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which is set to be disbanded, is consulting on its draft plan and budget for next year, which will see an 11% hike in its budget requirements as it begins the transition to a new statutory regulator, the Audit Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA)

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has released three staff guidance documents developed to support implementation of the new critical audit matter (CAM) requirements, which are set to be introduced later this year

High street mother and baby retail chain Mothercare has chosen Grant Thornton UK as its new auditor with effect from the 28 March 2020 financial year, ending a 17-year relationship with Deloitte

MPs have lambasted the BBC for ‘fundamental’ project management failures in the redevelopment of the set for its flagship TV series EastEnders, which is set to cost £27m more than budgeted and will be completed five years later than planned