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:
Audit response to risks identified
-the nature of the industry and sector, control environment and business performance including the design of the remuneration policy;
-results of our enquiries of management about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities;
-any matters we identified having obtained and reviewed the Company 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 noncompliance;
- 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, including tax 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 relation to revenue deferrals. 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 also obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that the Company 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 the UK
Companies Act, UK Corporate Governance Code and local tax legislation.
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 Company's ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty. These included compliance with Financial Conduct Authority regulation for the UK operating segment and compliance with local legislation.
Conclusions regarding the risks of irregularities including fraud
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance.
Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.
We considered our audit was capable of detecting irregularities due to:
a) the effectiveness of the entity's internal controls;
b) the nature, timing and extent of audit procedures performed; and
c) the absence of contradictory evidence.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Report of the Auditors.