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.
The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
Our audit procedures were designed to respond to those identified risks, including non-compliance with laws and regulations (irregularities) and fraud that are material to the financial statements. Our audit procedures included but were not limited to:
• discussing with the directors and management their policies and procedures regarding compliance with laws and regulations;
• communicating identified laws and regulations throughout our engagement team and remaining alert to anynindication of non-compliance throughout the audit; and
• considering the risk of acts by the company which were contrary to applicable laws and regulations including fraud.
Our audit procedures in relation to fraud included but were not limited to:
• making enquiries of the directors and management on whether they had knowledge of any actual, suspected or alleged fraud;
• gaining an understanding on the internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud;
• addressing the risks of fraud through management override of controls by performing journal entry testing.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.