Touchstone Renard, a consultancy firm, has been tasked by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to gather the views of audit partners in order to enhance the council’s understanding of the supply side of the audit market, particularly in the non-Public Interest Entity (non-PIE) audit market.

This move follows the FRC’s December 2022 policy paper on competition in the audit market, which was responded to by ICAEW’s Audit and Assurance Faculty.

ICAEW expressed its support for the FRC’s policy objectives regarding competition and choice in the audit market and noted its shared interest in establishing a resilient audit market that consistently delivers high-quality audits.

As part of its efforts to achieve this goal, ICAEW has engaged with Touchstone Renard to provide technical input on a survey for audit partners.

Touchstone Renard’s survey seeks to gather the views of audit partners on the non-PIE audit market, with the aim of providing the FRC with a deeper understanding of the supply side of the audit market and the drivers of firms’ entry, growth and exit in the market. The survey is completely confidential and all responses will be anonymous.

This is a timely opportunity to have a say on the urgent and topical issues involved.

Audit partners in firms are invited to take part in the survey, which takes only seven minutes to complete. Alternatively, they can choose to contribute to the research via a 30-minute interview with Touchstone Renard, or both.

To access the survey, which closes on 19 May, please click here.

If candidates would like to have their say in an interview please email Phil Austin (paustin@TouchstoneRenard.com) at Touchstone Renard to arrange a convenient date and time.

Touchstone Renard would like to express their gratitude to ICAEW and all those involved in facilitating this research. The FRC plans to release a publicly available report later this year once the research has been completed.