§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make it his policy before awarding the supervisory status created for accountancy and auditing under the Companies Act 1989 to any accountancy body, to inquire whether the reports of the monitoring unit are accessible to members of the public.
§ Mr. RedwoodI understand that the reports will not be available to the public.
§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he will make it his policy prior to 333W making any decision on conferring supervisory status to any accountancy body to inquire whether all firms permitted to carry out audits are bonded.
§ Mr. RedwoodThe Secretary of State will recognise an applicant for recognition only if, among other things, it has adequate rules or arrangements designed to ensure that its company auditing members take such steps as may reasonably be expected of them to secure that they are able to meet claims against them arising out of company audit work.
§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) whether any of the applicants for the supervisory status created for accountancy and auditing by the Companies Act 1989 have informed him of their intentions to consult the public for their arrangements on auditor monitoring;
(2) whether he will make it his policy to request applicants for the supervisory status in the accountancy and auditing regime created by the Companies Act 1989 to consult the public on the rules for auditor independence.
§ Mr. RedwoodThe applicants have assured me that they are ready to make details of the applications available on request. I welcome this and will take into account any representations I receive from the public in considering the applications.