Policy paper

Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance

This white paper sets out proposals to strengthen the UK’s framework for major companies and the way they are audited.

Documents

Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance

Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance

Details

This white paper sets out proposals to strengthen the UK’s framework for major companies and the way they are audited. The proposals set out how:

  • companies should report on their governance and finances
  • reports should be audited
  • audit and the audit market should change
  • these should be overseen by a new regulator

The objectives of these reforms are to:

  • restore public trust in the way that the UK’s largest companies are run and scrutinised
  • ensure that the UK’s most significant corporate entities are governed responsibly
  • empower investors, creditors, workers, and other stakeholders by giving them access to reliable and meaningful information on a company’s performance
  • keep the UK’s legal frameworks for major businesses at the forefront of international best practice

The proposals respond to recommendations made by 3 independent reviews commissioned by the government in 2018:

Have your say on the proposals

This consultation has concluded. It ran from 18 March 2021 to 8 July 2021.

Read the consultation outcome.

Published 18 March 2021