Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with the laws and regulations. We design procedures in our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The specific procedures for this engagement and the extent to which these are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are outlined below.
Identifying and assessing risks related to irregularities:
We assessed the susceptibility of the company’s financial statements to material misstatement and how fraud might occur, including through discussion within our team planning meeting, enquiring with staff the internal controls in place and ensuring they operated as intended. We evaluated possible incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements. We identified laws and regulations that are of significance in the controls of the company by discussions with the directors and gained an understanding of the sector in which the company operates.
The laws and regulations that are of direct significance are the Companies Act 2006 and the reporting framework Financial Reporting Standard 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland'' and the relevant tax compliance regulations in the UK.
Further the company is subject to other laws and regulations. The company also has to comply with general data protection regulations (GDPR), Health and Safety at Work Act, EU Directive on the Landfill of Waste, Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations, Landfill Tax Regulations and Environmental Regulations.
Audit response to risks identified:
We considered the extent of non-compliance with these laws and regulation items including review of the financial statement disclosures. We reviewed the company’s breaches of laws and regulations, minutes of meetings and correspondence with relevant authorities. We discussed the company’s policies and procedures with law and regulations with management responsible for compliance. During the planning meeting the engagement partner drew attention to the key areas, which might involve non-compliance with laws and regulations or fraud. We enquired of management whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations or knowledge of actual, suspected or alleged fraud. We addressed the issue of fraud through management override of controls by testing the appropriateness of journal entries and identifying significant transactions outside the normal course of business.
We assessed whether judgements were made of accounting estimates gave rise to possible indication of management bias. At the completion stage of the audit, the engagement partner’s review included whether the team had approached their work with appropriate professional scepticism and thus the capacity to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations.
There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above and the further removed the non-compliance is from events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we would become aware of it. Also, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk on not detecting one from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment for example forgery or intentional misrepresentation, or through collusion.