Assurance on management commentary: Where next?

Key messages from the consultation process were:

• Support for the proposals, with ICAS applauded for stimulating debate.
• 44% of responses stated that there was a need to demonstrate user demand for this type of assurance.
• The responses demonstrated some confusion over the extent of assurance currently provided by auditors on information contained in the front-half of annual reports.
• 25% of respondents favoured monitoring the impact of fair balanced and understandable requirement before proposing any more change.
• An exercise to demonstrate the benefits compared to the cost of the additional work was mentioned by 41% of respondents.

There was a need to revisit the auditor liability regime which could be an obstacle to this type of work.