In the UK only firms who are Registered Auditors can conduct regulated audit work. These FAQS explain the specialist authorisation regime surrounding audit work.
Mandatory Course Obligations and support
ICAS can help your firm run a compliant audit practice in the following ways:
- Our audit course: Keeping Audit on the Right Track
This course aims to educate Audit Compliance Principals (ACPs) and Responsible Individuals (RIs) in developing a strong compliance function and preventing some of the recurring issues identified on audit monitoring visits. The first five-year cycle of the courses ‘Keeping Your Audit Firm on the Right Track’ and ‘Keeping Your Audit Files on the Right Track’ was completed as at the end of 2015. Since then this has been consolidated into one single course, lasting three hours, which is presented across varied locations each year. As of 1 January 2016, there has been an increase in the mandatory requirement of this course, where it is considered that the course will be beneficial to a wider audience to increase audit quality among ICAS audit registered firms.
The resulting requirements are that:- Each ACP will be required to attend at least once in the three-year period from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018;
- Each RI will be required to attend at least once in the five-year period from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2020;
- Newly approved RIs will be required to attend the course within 12 months of approval; and
- Previously inactive RIs (i.e. approved RIs who are not signing audit reports), who have recommenced the role, will be required to attend the course within 12 months of becoming active.
The course is presented by the ICAS Audit Monitoring team and has been created to educate and support ACPs and RIs and covers all areas of audit compliance responsibilities, key regulatory issues, common compliance failings, and key findings from ICAS audit monitoring visits. The course is open to all audit professionals and many attend yearly to maintain audit CPD, however, there is a mandatory requirement, as noted above. Detailed materials are provided during the course, and this is useful reference material for all firms.
- Audit News: We issue Audit News quarterly which should help your RIs and staff keep up to date with audit technical and regulatory developments.
- Help sheets: We have issued a range of help sheets to help you with your audit work, including help sheets for specialist audit areas.
Contact us
Any enquiries regarding Audit Registration should be emailed to us or call us on 0131 347 0282 for further assistance.