Report to the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

POB PN 44 - 22 December 2008

The Professional Oversight Board, a part of the Financial Reporting Council, today publishes its Report to the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform for the year to 31 March 2008. This was the third full year in which the Oversight Board exercised statutory responsibility for the oversight of audit regulation delegated to it by Order.

Paul George, Director of the Oversight Board, said:

“The primary purpose is to report on our oversight of audit regulation carried out by the professional accountancy bodies that we recognise for this purpose. We focused in 2007/08 on key areas of risk at each body and on those regulatory systems where there had been significant recent change. Overall we conclude that the recognised bodies take their responsibilities extremely seriously and that much regulatory practice is of a high standard. However, the detailed comments in the report highlight those aspects of regulatory activity that are less strong or where there is room for improvement.”

The report also summarises the Board’s work to meet its other responsibilities, in particular for the inspection of the quality of audits of economically significant entities, on which we separately published reports on seven larger audit firms on 8 December, and for oversight of the regulation by professional bodies of the actuarial and accountancy professions.