Queen’s Speech fails to provide clarity on audit reform plans
While the creation of ARGA is confirmed, details about other proposed changes are scant and uncertainty over timing remains.

Audit reform is back on. After years of waiting and two weeks in which the business press believed the project had been scrubbed from the government’s legislative agenda, the Queen’s Speech this week put the sector on notice that reform is on the way.
Of course, auditors, audit firms, regulators and audit committees have been here before. Parliamentary inquiries and government-ordered expert reviews have given the sector the impression that change was coming. But as government became distracted by Brexit and then the pandemic, audit reform seemed like a low priority for lawmakers.
But yesterday's Queen’s Speech confirms legislation will come with the aim of transforming the audit sector. And while that is welcome, not everyone i