Hi Will,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you I have been out of office and I am trying to catch up.

This is an interesting question and probably one for somebody well above my paygrade, but I will do my best to answer it.

You are correct EY has overhauled the UK leadership teams and split the governance of audit and assurance roles in response to criticism of the wider accounting industry from regulators and politicians.

I can only comment from an assurance perspective but Audit quality remains the key priority for EY and a big part of this is independence both genuine independence or maybe more importantly perceived independence in the face of higher levels of public scrutiny. So I imagine in addition to prescribed independence guidance the firm will continue reviewing both actual and perceived independence conflicts before agreeing to perform work for our client’s. This isn’t anything new but I am sure EY will continue to prioritise procedures, policies and infrastructure that is needed to deliver high quality audits by investing in compliance, our people and new technologies in response to the challenges the industry faces.

In summary it is hard to say if anything drastic will change beyond the above, but as ever there will be more to consider when we perform work for our clients, making sure EY are satisfied the work is allowable before undertaking this work.

I hope this answers your question, but please let me know if anything needs clarity.

Thanks

15 June, 2020 11:07

Thank you for the detailed reply Rich, that is very interesting to hear. It sounds like a lot is being done to address this then!

06 July, 2020 18:43