Following the regulator's paper into ways of increasing the quality of audits, a new set of drivers of audit quality has now been released.

The Audit Quality Framework was released today with the intention of continuing dialogue into promoting the quality of audits in the profession.

The Financial Reporting council has proposed the key drivers of audit quality be:

● the culture within a firm;

● the skills and personal qualities of audit partners and staff;

● the effectiveness of the audit process;

● the reliability and usefulness of audit reporting; and

● factors outside the control of auditors affecting audit quality.

The FRC hopes the indicators will assist companies in evaluating audit proposals; audit committees in their annual assessments of the effectiveness of external audits; stakeholders in evaluating the policies and actions taken by audit firms to ensure that high quality audits are performed; and the regulators in their reporting and monitoring of the audit profession.

The FRC has also reminded firms that rules are ahead which will require some firms to prepare Transparency Reports, in accordance with EU law requierments.

Further reading:

FRC's Audit Quality Framework document