Statement from the Head of Assurance

A key part of our assurance strategy is to be a leader in our chosen markets. By focusing on advancing our reputation and service offerings, the last financial year has seen us maintain a strong position in our chosen markets, despite the challenging environment. We continue to be the number one auditor on both AIM as a whole and in the majority of industry sectors. We are now the third largest auditor of the UK’s top 2,500 private companies, and in addition to this recent success we have also become the fourth largest auditor of UK publicly traded companies. We will continue to invest in this marketplace and actively participate in the debate on audit competition and choice in the UK.

We continue to increase our footprint into the public sector and our new contract with the National Audit Office was a significant success for the firm, building on an already strong position as a leading provider to the Audit Commission, Audit Scotland and the Wales Audit Office.

Our Transparency Report summarises our rigorous quality system. Nowhere are these standards more important than in the case of audit: our independence and audit quality are critical for our clients, professional regulators and maintaining society’s trust in our integrity. During the year, the firm was subject to monitoring visits from the Audit Inspection Unit (AIU) of the Financial Reporting Council’s Professional Oversight Board, and the Quality Assurance Directorate (QAD) of the ICAEW.

The AIU conducts an annual review of our whole-firm procedures and our audits of public interest entities. The report of the most recently completed review was concluded in July 2009. The AIU has advised us that it will issue a public report on this year’s visit to the firm in November 2009. We are confident that again we will have independent evidence as to the quality of our audits and the high standard of our firm-wide quality control system that stand up to scrutiny and comparison with the best in the profession.

Phil Crooks
Head of Assurance

Highlights :

- We are the number one auditor on AIM overall and in the majority of industry sectors.
- We are the third largest auditor of the UK’s top 2,500 private companies.
- We are the fourth largest auditor of UK publicly traded companies.
- We are one of the principal providers to the Audit Commission, Audit Scotland and the Wales Audit Office of external audit of government bodies.
- Our public sector audits include Manchester City Council, Bristol City Council, a number of London Boroughs and a range of significant Healthcare
Trusts, all of which are large and complex organisations.
- We also work with the National Audit Office and the Northern Ireland Audit Office, as well as auditing a number of NHS Foundation Trusts.
- Accountant of the Year – Growth Company Awards 2009.
- Short-listed for Audit Team of the Year by Accountancy Age Awards 2009.
- Highly Commended as Auditor of the Year, in the Large Six accounting firms category – CBI/Real Business Finance Directors Excellence Awards 2009.