Accountancy firm Grant Thornton has expressed a cautious welcome of the Financial Reporting Council's (FRC) latest paper on the promotion of audit quality, but has also raised doubts over the timing and nature of its publication.
Experts at Grant Thornton have questioned the effectiveness of prescriptive industry measures, recommending that these measures should instead be in the form of guidance.
Welcoming the FRC's latest paper as a "sound analysis" of factors affecting the audit market, Steve Maslin of Grant Thornton stated that it would ideally be based on research.
"We would favour any product deriving from this paper being guidance rather than rules and based on actual research," he told Accountancy Age.
"The market will simply not welcome any more box-ticking exercises."
Last month, the FRC announced proposals for changes to its structure under which its board and council could be merged into a single governing body.
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