FRC issues proposed revised Group Audit standard
FRC issues proposed revised Group Audit standard
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published its proposed revised version of International Standard on Auditing (ISA) (UK) 600 ‘Special Considerations - Audits of Group Financial Statements (Including the Work of Component Auditors)’.
This follows the finalisation by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) of its revised version of ISA 600 in December 2021. Some confirming and consequential amendments are also being made by the FRC to other ISAs (UK), including to ISAs UK 220, 230, 240 and 315.
The revised ISA (UK) 600 focuses on the risk of material misstatement at the group financial statement level, clarifies the linkage to other standards, and reinforces the need for robust communications during a group audit.
Minimal new UK material proposed
As the FRC is satisfied that the revised standard has been amended to sufficiently address matters that it raised in its comment letter on the IAASB’s Exposure Draft, the FRC is proposing minimal UK material in addition to the existing UK pluses included in the current version of ISA (UK) 600.
The majority of the UK additions to the standard are existing UK pluses already included within the current version of ISA (UK) 600. These additions relate primarily to UK specific legislation, such as access arrangements for components included in paragraph 51-1 and competent authority access to working papers for the purposes of supervision and enforcement activities included within paragraphs 59-2 and 59-3.
These enhancements are supported by those the FRC made to ISA (UK) 240 (Revised May 2021) ‘The auditor's responsibilities relating to fraud in an audit of financial statements’ to clarify the auditor’s responsibilities in relation to fraud in group audit.
Additional UK specific material
Further additional UK specific material has been included to aid in clarifying the relevant ethical requirements applicable to group audits, to clarify the group engagement partner and their firms’ responsibilities as a result of the implementation of International Standard on Quality Management (ISQM) (UK) 1, ISQM (UK) 2 and ISA (UK) 220, and to provide additional clarity on the relationship between the defined terms ‘engagement team’, ‘group auditor’ and ‘component auditor’.
Read the FRC’s exposure draft.