Trust in UK audit is rising, but the public needs reform and clear reporting

Audit matters. This, 1 of the halfway founding principles astatine the Centre for Public Interest Audit (CPIA), was reinforced done each hard infinitesimal for the audit assemblage successful the erstwhile decade, writes CPIA enforcement manager Dean Beale

Several well-reported firm failures, including Carillion, BHS and Patisserie Valerie, importantly impacted the cognition of the profession.

In turn, they besides raised questions astir the reliability of the reporting to the UK superior markets, astatine a clip of geopolitical volatility with the UK’s exit from the EU. As a result, scrutiny has been astatine an all-time precocious for the audit profession.

The telephone for change, pursuing the systemic interaction of collapses similar Carillion, was immediate. In 2018 Sir John Kingman was asked by authorities to undertake an autarkic reappraisal of the audit regulator, the Financial Reporting Council. The reappraisal called for a determination from voluntary backing to a statutory levy, removing immoderate perceived conflicts done being funded by audit firms.

In turn, the Competition and Markets Authority highlighted the concentrated quality of the UK audit market. Finally, Sir Donald Brydon led a reappraisal centred connected enhancing the effectiveness and prime of audit. The overarching theme? The marketplace was operating ineffectively and enactment was required.

Driving alteration requires corporate commitment, a willingness to inquire the hard questions, and an evidence-based attack to advancing champion practice. Cue the CPIA. We were formally launched successful March 2025, and I americium delighted to beryllium the enforcement manager alongside our chair, Baroness Margaret Ford of Cunninghame OBE.

At the CPIA, arsenic an autarkic assemblage we purpose to physique greater spot successful audit done penetration and challenging preconceptions, and enactment improvements successful audit prime done evidence-backed probe and stakeholder engagement.

We volition beryllium the wide driving unit down a resilient and susceptible audit profession, 1 that demonstrates integrity, transparency and accountability astatine its core. From our inception, we person ever been wide that 1 of our main objectives: was to supply the archetypal autarkic benchmark of audit prime and trust.

The Audit Trust Index (ATI) is the result. An yearly survey tracking stakeholder perceptions of audit spot which, implicit time, volition place emerging trends and challenges facing the profession. Launched successful 2024, the Audit Trust Index

• Identifies cardinal drivers and obstacles to achieving high-quality audits;

• Establishes a baseline for stakeholder trust;

• Highlights imaginable areas for betterment and innovation wrong the audit profession.