U.K. Accounting Firms Seek Delays, Changes to Proposed Reforms

Major U.K. accounting firms are telling Parliament to delay the push for audit reforms—especially calls for the biggest firms to separate auditing from consulting work—until government inquiries are complete, which could take up to a year.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has also publicly opposed splitting audit out of the big firms, as recommended by the Competition and Markets authority.

Ahead of Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee’s Jan. 30 hearing into the future of the audit, the Big Four firms—Deloitte LLP, Ernst & Young LLP, KPMG LLP, and PwC, also known as ...