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.
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:
• we have considered the nature of the sector, control environment, business performance and key drivers for directors’ remuneration and performance targets;
• we have considered the results of enquiries with management in relation to their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities within the limited liability partnership;
• we have reviewed the limited liability partnership’s documentation of its policies and procedures relating to:
o identifying, evaluation and complying with laws and regulations, and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
o detecting and responding to risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected or alleged fraud;
o the internal controls established to mitigate risks of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations.
• we have considered the matters discussed among the audit engagement team regarding how and where fraud might occur in the financial statements, and any potential indicators of fraud.
As a result of these procedures, we have considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the limited liability partnership for fraud and identified the highest area of risk to be in relation to revenue recognition, with a particular risk in relation to occurrence and significant estimates. In common with all audits under ISAs (UK) we are also required to perform specific procedures to respond to the risk of management override.
We have also obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that the limited liability partnership operates in, focusing on provisions of those laws and regulations that had a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The key laws and regulations we considered in this context included company law as applied to LLP’s, FRS 102 and UK tax legislation. In addition, we considered the provisions of other laws and regulations that do not have a direct effect on the financial statements, but compliance with which may be fundamental to the limited liability partnership’s ability to operate or avoid a material penalty. These include health and safety regulations, data protection legislation and employment law.
Our procedures to respond to the risks identified included the following:
• reviewing the financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with provisions of relevant laws and regulations described as having a direct effect on the financial statements;
• performing analytical procedures to identify unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud;
• reviewing board meeting minutes;
• enquiring of management in relation to actual and potential claims or litigations or areas of non-compliance with laws and regulations;
• performing detailed testing in relation to the recognition of revenue;
• in addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, testing the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessing whether the judgements made in accounting estimates are indicative of potential bias, and evaluating the business rationale of significant transactions that are unusual or outside the normal course of business.
We also communicated identified laws and regulations and potential fraud risks to all members of the engagement team and remained alert to possible indicators of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations throughout the audit.
Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the FRC’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditors/audit-assurance/auditor-s-responsibilities-for-the-audit-of-the-fi/description-of-the-auditor%E2%80%99s-responsibilities-for. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.