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:
Identifying and assessing potential risks related to irregularities
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non compliance with laws and regulations, we considered the following:
- the nature of the entity’s industry and sector, control environment, business performance and management incentives;
- the results of our specific enquiries of management and those charged with governance about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities;any matters we identified having obtained and reviewed the LLP’s documentation of their policies and procedures relating to:
- identifying, evaluating and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any
instances of non-compliance;
- detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual,
suspected or alleged fraud;
- the internal controls established to mitigate risks of fraud or non-compliance with laws and
regulations;
- 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 considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the organisation for fraud and identified the greatest potential for fraud in the following area: the recognition of revenue. In common with all audits under ISAs (UK), we are also required to perform specific procedures to respond to the risk of management override of controls.
We also obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks in which the LLP operates, 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 the UK Companies Act and after tax legislation and the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) rules and regulations. In addition, we considered 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 LLP’s ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty.
Audit responses to risks identified
Our procedures to respond to 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;
- enquiring of management concerning actual and potential litigation and claims;
- performing analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud;
- reviewing correspondence with, and submissions made to the FCA and other focused testing;
- reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance; and
- in addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, testing the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments; assessing whether the judgments made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias; and evaluating the business rationale of any significant transactions that are unusual or outside the normal course of business.
We also communicated relevant identified laws and regulations and potential fraud risks to all engagement team members and remained alert to any indications of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations throughout the audit.
Whilst the procedures above describe the extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, there are inherent limitations in these audit procedures. The further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the 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 of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, misrepresentation or through collusion. We are not responsible for preventing irregularities, including fraud, or non-compliance with laws and regulations and cannot be expected to detect all irregularities or non-compliance with all laws and regulations.
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.