According to the FT:
Accounting and investor groups on Thursday hit out at the government's move to ditch a bill from its next legislative programme that would have implemented long-delayed reform of audit and corporate governance.
A draft bill to underpin the reform, including the creation of a new regulator of audit firms, has been dropped from the Queen's Speech scheduled for May 10, according to government officials.
I share this concern.
In 2018 Carillion collapsed months after KPMG signed off its audit report without providing any indication that there were any causes for concern in its accounts, which astute observers had seen for some time.
Almost immediately the UK audit regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, was declared unfit for purpose, a conclusion with which I agreed.
After three enquires and a massive consultation process that ended early last year we have been waiting for next steps, during which period I was having regular discussions with BEIS, until they petered out early this year.
Now reform looks as though it is going to be dropped. And accounting, which is in a worse state than auditing, is not being reformed either. The Financial Reporting Council limps on. The government is apparently happy about this.
As many blog readers will know I have written extensively on this issue, including in a series of audit briefings on the way in which audit reform should develop. It seems, however, that we are going nowhere. Could it be that lax company accounting rules suit the agenda of this government and its friends just a little too well?
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Opacity is security when it comes to accounting.
In similar vein, you probably noticed that yesterday the Government – via that pox on our society – Rees Moog – announced that the checks on imports from the EU due to come into force on 1st July and 1st September are now to be delayed (yet again) until late in 2023. This, despite at least £200 million spent on buildings and related infrastructure, and people being recruited and trained to do the work. The reason given – the cost of living crisis.
Meanwhile, British exporters to the EU have to deal with exactly these checks/customs declarations which the EU rightly implemented from day one of Brexit. As The Guardian reported yesterday: ‘The National Farmers’ Union called the move “unacceptable” and said it was another blow for British food producers, as they grapple with soaring costs.
“This is a question of fairness,” said NFU’s president, Minette Batters, calling import controls crucial “to the nation’s biosecurity, animal health and food safety”.
“Our producers have to meet stringent controls to export their own products abroad, all while being left at a continued competitive disadvantage to our EU competitors, who are still enjoying an extended grace period which gives them access to the prized UK market relatively cost and burden free,” she said. “Without them we really do leave ourselves at risk.”
Of course, in reality nothing will happen at the end of 2023 – it’ll be deferred again until after the election in 2024, because as and when (if) these checks are ever implemented they will further illustrate to the British public what a disaster Brexit has really been.
Meanwhile, Private Eye reported recently that because hardly any customs checks on imports are taking place the UK have already lost between £5 – £10 billion in VAT, further noting that this was on a par with the amount lost to fraud under the various Covid funding/loan schemes.
Clearly a government made up of liars and scoundrels has no problem creating or maintaining a business environment that favours liars and scoundrels!
Ivan
We have not taken back control
We have abandoned it
Richard
I don’t know that the loss of VAT, while lamentable, is our biggest concern. Surely that has to be that while truck after truck enters the UK unchecked, ‘on the nod’ as it were, what the quality is of the imported goods we’re buying from our retail outlets. Nor do we know what we’re eating. We already know from experience our supermarkets can’t tell the difference between horse and beef even when it’s displayed on their shelves. Increasingly then we can expect to have little idea of what we’re eating, or where it’s from, or how safe what we use to cook it on or in is either. If it blows up in our face, we can expect to wait many difficult hours before any treatment might reasonably be expected thanks largely due to the shortfall in NHS funding. If the premises we’re doing the cooking in goes up in flames, we can expect little immediate help from the fire service, again greatly reduced under the Tories. Boris Britain is, more and more, a very dangerous place to be. Surviving will be most people’s priority.
You are assuming that the lorries contain food at all, and not drugs or people or guns or other contraband. If we don’t check, how would we ever know?
In the name of “taking back control” we have essentially given up on checking what crosses our borders.
Agreed
Did you pick up on C4 New last night all too briefly that many of the ports had already spent money on ways to deal with the checks that were coming in and were complaining about the have waste money and time they have incurred now that they are not?
The Tory line is definitely ‘ Fuck business’ that’s for sure.
How an earth do people still vote for them? Incredible – on lack of competence alone any other party would have been kicked out by now.
They are threatening to sue
Just happen to have this to hand https://theloadstar.com/port-fury-over-wasted-100m-as-uk-drops-sps-deadline-for-a-new-approach/
We never checked these things before, pre-Brexit. You weren’t so worried then?
How wrong you are….you just did not read back then
Mr Tamaledge
What an earth are you talking about?
Why do you think farm animals were tagged under the EU system? The whole import/export system was designed to try to iron out unfair competition (trying to protect producers) and underline consumer confidence to keep the market working.
It is true that bad actors caused problems – like the Irish horsemeat scandal I can vaguely remember – but on the whole the system worked. Doing what the Tories are doing now will only send a green light to such bad actors in the system and threaten consumer health & safety.
Wholly agreed
li blame neoliberalism
i blame neoliberalism too!