Audit regulation in the UK: some preliminary observations

A new regime for registering and monitoring auditors has come into force in Great Britain. The power to make rules for audit practice, qualification and registration has been delegated to the professional accountancy bodies. Two significantly different systems have come into being, the one operated by the Institutes of Chartered Accountants and the other by the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants. The audit register contains a mixture of information derived from different registration practices. There is evidence that the new regime has significantly increased the cost of auditing small limited companies at a time when the usefulness of such audits is widely questioned, even by auditors themselves. The effects of the new regime on the audit of large companies, about which there has been public concern following recent company collapses, appear limited.