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:
• Obtain an understanding of the policies and procedures management has in place to detect and prevent fraud and noncompliance with laws and regulations.
• Enquire of management any cases of actual or suspected fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations.
• Enquire of management and those charged with governance around actual and potential litigation and claims.
• Reviewing financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
• Assess the key risk areas within the financial statements which are susceptible to fraud or error and design our audit approach thereon.
• Perform substantive tests on a sample of transactions throughout the financial statements to ensure that no material errors have been identified.
• Perform cut off tests on a sample of transactions to ensure income has been accounted for in the correct period.
• Review of after period end information to ensure expenditure has been accounted for in the correct period.
• Perform analytical review procedures to identify any irregularities and investigation thereon.
• Auditing the risk of management override of controls, including through testing journal entries and other adjustments for appropriateness, and evaluating the business rationale of significant transactions outside the normal course of business.