EDITORIAL: PREPARING FOR CHANGE

Following the White Paper and consultation on Audit Reform and Rebuilding Trust in Corporate Governance carried out by BEIS last year, we are still awaiting legislative clarity from the government on the form that any new requirements on UK governance and internal controls will actually take but it is clear that a change is in the air.

It was expected that the changes would be included in the Government’s setting down of its legislative agenda for the next Parliamentary session in the Queen’s Speech delivered on 10th May. Although it was not included in the speech itself, in the detailed briefing notes accompanying that the Government has made a commitment to publish a draft Audit Reform Bill including the establishment of the new regulatory body, known as ARGA, (Audit, Governance and Reporting Authority) which will promote the interests of investors, other users of corporate reporting and the wider public interest and which will have powers to enforce directors’ financial reporting duties and to supervise corporate reporting.

So it is still worth companies being aware of and preparing themselves for the new regime and in one of our articles this month KPMG have set out some early steps which companies and directors can take to ready themselves for the changes when they do come.