Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government who were the ultimate beneficial recipients of (1) the £15 million fine and £5,635,014 costs levied by the Financial Reporting Council on Deloitte on 17 September in respect of audit failures at Autonomy Corporation Plc, and (2) the £500,000 and £250,000 fines levied upon two Deloitte partners.

The three fines in the enforcement case relating to Autonomy Corporation plc were imposed under the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC’s) Accountancy Scheme. Since 2016, a new Audit Enforcement Procedure has been implemented under the Statutory Auditors and Third Country Auditors Regulations 2016 for investigations of possible breaches of relevant requirements by statutory auditors under those Regulations.

The investigation into Autonomy Corporation plc started before those regulations came into force. Under the Accountancy Scheme the fines must be passed to the participating body which is required to fund the legal costs of the case. Additionally, any costs awarded by the tribunal in recognition of the costs funded by the participating body must also be paid to that body. In this case the participating body was the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Fines imposed by the FRC under the Audit Enforcement Procedure must be paid to the Secretary of State and the Exchequer. Any costs awarded to the FRC in recognition of the costs funded by one of the recognised audit supervisory bodies must continue to be paid to that body.