COMPETITION IN THE UK AUDIT MARKET

Early day motion 2576, tabled 17 July 2006 by Austin Mitchell (Labour). Signed by 26 members.

That this House urges the Government to enhance competition in the UK audit market by breaking up the audit cartel operated by PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young by ensuring that no firm audits more than 10 per cent. of the FTSE 500 companies, by prohibiting auditors from selling non-auditing services to audit clients, by awarding public audits and consultancy contracts to medium-size firms, by encouraging joint audits, by compulsory rotation of audit firms and tendering of audits every five years, by curtailing the power of the Big Four firms on audit rulemaking bodies and by making their operations transparent and accountable to the public.

Signatures by party: Labour 18, Liberal Democrat 5, Plaid Cymru 2, Social Democratic and Labour Party 1.