A cross-party group of MPs and peers, including Dame Margaret Hodge, Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, and Lord Iain McNichol, called for urgent reform of the UK audit regime, citing the collapses of companies like Carillion, Patisserie Valerie, Thomas Cook, and Wilko as reasons for the urgency of the matter. 

The government committed to publish a draft Bill in the Queen’s Speech over a year ago but has yet to do so and no draft legislation has been released. The Bill is designed to give the UK’s audit regulator new legal powers to give it the powers to hold audit firms and company directors to account when there are corporate failures.

The cross-party letter was coordinated by the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors and signed by a group of 15 influential House of Commons and House of Lords members ahead of the King’s Speech on 7 November.