The directors present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 30 November 2022.
The directors who held office during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were as follows:
This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provision relating to companies subject to the small companies regime within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.
Basis for opinion
Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:
the information given in the directors' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
the directors' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
As explained more fully in the directors' responsibilities statement, the directors are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the directors are responsible for assessing the company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the directors either intend to liquidate the company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
As a part of an audit in accordance with ISAs (UK), we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional scepticism throughout the audit. We also:
Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentation, or the override of internal control.
Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the company’s internal control.
Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by the director.
Conclude on the appropriateness of the director’s use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the company’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the company to cease to continue as a going concern.
Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.
Obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the financial information of the entities or business activities within the company to express an opinion on the financial statements. We are responsible for the direction, supervision and performance of the company audit. We remain responsible for our audit opinion.
We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.
The extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities including fraud:
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:
-the engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
-we identified the laws and regulations applicable to the company through discussions with directors and other management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the sector;
-we focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the company, including the companies Act 2006, taxation legislation and data protection, anti-bribery, employment, environmental and health and safety legislation;
-we assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management and inspecting legal correspondence; and
-identified laws and regulations were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We assessed the susceptibility of the company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:
-making enquiries of management as to where they considered there are susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud; and
-considering the internal control in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations.
To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we:
-performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;
-tested journal entries to identify unusual transactions.
-assessed whether judgement and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates set out in the accounting policies were indicative of potential bias; and
-investigated the rationale behind significant or unusual transactions.
In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:
-agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
-enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims; and
-reviewing correspondence with HMRC, relevant regulators and the company’s legal advisors.
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.
Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the financial reporting council’s website at www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.
Use of our report:
This report is made solely to the company’s members, as a body, in accordance with chapter 3 part 16 of the companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The income statement has been prepared on the basis that all operations are continuing operations.
The company is a private company limited by share capital, incorporated in England and Wales with registration number 12848314
The address of its registered office is:
Unit 8
Elderway Waterside Drive
Langley
Slough
SL3 6EP
England
These financial statements were authorised for issue by the director on 17 November 2023.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, [modified to include the revaluation of freehold properties and to include investment properties and certain financial instruments at fair value]. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
In the application of the company’s accounting policies, the directors are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
There are no significant judgements or estimates involved in the preparation of the financial statements.
The average monthly number of persons (including directors) employed by the company during the year was:
Investment property was valued by the director, on an open market value basis, as at 30 November 2022.
Related Party Exemptions:
The company has taken advantage of the disclosure exemptions under FRS102 Sec 1A whereby it has not disclosed related party transactions with the ultimate parent and subsidiary undertaking of the same group undertaking when preparing these financial statements.
The information is included in the consolidated financial statements of Berks US Holdings Ltd as 30 November 2022 and these financial statements may be obtained from Albion House, Albion Close, Slough, Berkshire, SL2 5DT England.