B

Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted (LD)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 31 March 2025

Debate

Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority

Contribution

I thank the Minister—I think that his answer was yes. The Takeover Panel had to separate itself as a result of the Human Rights Act 1998, and it is long overdue in the field of audit and accounting. Will it be clear in the legislation that the enforcement side should not rely on the same historic legal advice as the standards side on a “true and fair” view? The FRC has relied on controversial legacy legal opinions on a “true and fair” view that were obtained when the big four had significant sway over the FRC and elsewhere. We need to know that ARGA should mean the end of systemic vested interests, including benign vested interests and groupthink, and marking its own homework.

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