The Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors (Chartered IIA) and ISACA, the global professional association helping individuals and organizations in their pursuit of digital trust, have sent a letter to the UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade, stressing the urgent need for audit reform legislation to boost digital resilience.
The letter underlines strong stakeholder support for the Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill promised in the King’s Speech last year, but that has yet to be published by the Government.
Other signatories include CEO’s from Airmic, CREST, Sheffield University’s Audit Reform Lab, the Chartered Governance Institute, CompTIA, IASME Consortium, The National Preparedness Commission, NEDonBoard and Share Action – alongside Sir Donald Brydon, Rt Hon Baroness Neville-Jones and Ciaran Martin, former CEO of the NCSC. Dr Vladlena Benson MBE, Professor and Director of the Aston Centre for Cyber Security Innovation, and Adrian Jolly, Co-Founder of the Institute of Corporate Resilience, also signed the letter.
The signatories are calling for recommendations made by Sir John Kingman in 2018 and Sir Donald Brydon in 2019 to be rapidly implemented, including legislating to give the UK’s audit regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, enhanced powers. The letter also calls for the Government to enact wider reforms, ensuring that the UK’s largest companies are reporting on their resilience against digital as well as financial risks.
The letter stresses that the UK Government is already taking positive steps in the right direction when it comes to improving digital resilience. However, it argues that the UK must go further, faster. The US, EU, and Asia are already advancing similar audit reforms, and unless the UK Government acts, the country risks falling behind on investment and digital governance, which has wide ranging economic ramifications.
