Regulation Of Auditing Profession In UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Regulation Of Auditing Profession In UK - Essay Example He says that the need to furnish useful information to shareholders with due integrity nurtured the growth of auditing professionalism in the UK. Anderson et al. (1996) corroborate that in the United Kingdom, the professional accountants from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales generally performed the external audit of all the listed companies even before the legal requirement was actually imposed on companies to get their financial statements audited from qualified accountants. It therefore suggests the need and criticality of auditing profession in the UK corporate environment, where the shareholders are desperately relying on the profession to carry out a check on the utilisation of their investments. Auditing profession in Britain captures every sector of the society and dominates the regulation no matter how often this profession has been found to be involved in corporate scandals. Regardless to what happens to both the sides i.e., the shareholders and ma nagement, this profession remains to be the beneficiary class (Sampson, 2004). The level of professionalism demonstrated by the auditing firms enhances the importance of a keen eye that needs to be placed over the auditing profession in the form of regulations. Cousins et al. (2000) emphasise that the shareholders and investors coming from the general public in UK have been victims of corporate scandals owing to audit failures and the oversight of auditing firms. The auditors in UK are proficient enough in their profession to play around.... onal accountants from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales generally performed the external audit of all the listed companies even before the legal requirement was actually imposed on companies to get their financial statements audited from qualified accountants. It therefore suggests the need and criticality of auditing profession in the UK corporate environment, where the shareholders are desperately relying on the profession to carry out a check on the utilisation of their investments. Auditing profession in Britain captures every sector of the society and dominates the regulation no matter how often this profession has been found to be involved in corporate scandals. Regardless to what happens to both the sides i.e., the shareholders and management, this profession remains to be the beneficiary class (Sampson, 2004). The level of professionalism demonstrated by the auditing firms enhances the importance of a keen eye that needs to be placed over the auditing profession in the form of regulations. Cousins et al. (2000) emphasise that the shareholders and investors coming from the general public in UK have been victims of corporate scandals owing to audit failures and the oversight of auditing firms. The auditors in UK are proficient enough in their profession to play around with the standards set by the regulatory bodies. Hence, it is increasingly important to continuously revise the efficacy of standards in protecting the shareholders' interest. One of the major causes behind such exploitation of professional influence is to a great extent brought about by the concentration of 'auditing power' among a few firms in UK. Arnold and Sikka (2001) illuminate that UK accountancy profession is highly dominated by a handful number of firms