Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

This clause contains a new provision that gives the Secretary of State the power to make regulations placing an obligation on statutory auditors to make certain information available to the public. This information includes details regarding ownership, governance, internal controls that relate to the quality and independence of their audit work, turnover and the names of persons for whom they have acted as statutory auditor. Many audit firms already make some, if not all, of this information available to the public. We consider that the transparency of statutory auditors and audit firms is important to ensure that confidence in statutory audit is maintained. The noble Baroness specifically asked about the scope of this provision. The regulations under Clause 837(2) relate to regulations under this section, which is about making regulations requiring a person eligible for appointment to provide information. We need to consult on what should be included and how it should be made available to the public.