Restoring Trust in Audit and Corporate Governance

The UK Government is mindful of the impact the pandemic continues to have on the UK economy and wants to minimise the extent of changes required of businesses in corporate governance, reporting and auditing.

This report by EY provides a high-level summary of the key proposals in the Government's consultation 'Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance'.

Key points include:

The consultation proposes to amend the definition of Public Interest Entities (PIEs) and widen its scope to capture large companies, regardless of their ownership status and whether or not they are admitted to trading on a regulated market.
The Government is considering whether companies should be required to produce an annual Resilience Statement (combining the going concern statement, and a medium and long-term risk outlook).
A requirement to produce an Audit and Assurance Policy is also under consideration. This would provide a holistic view (on a rolling three-year basis) of a company’s audit and assurance requirements over its reported information.
The Government would give the regulator powers, allowing it to publish correspondence during a review of corporate reports and the summary findings.