Transparency Report 2022 - Kevin Ellis transcript

Welcome to our PwC Transparency Report for 2022. Building on last year’s success, I’m pleased to share this report with you in a digital format once again.

At PwC we recognise that our reputation relies not just on what we do, but in being transparent about how we do it. And this report is designed to show the action we’ve taken as a leading audit firm.

Our purpose is to build trust and solve important problems, and that has never been more relevant. Over the year, we’ve shifted from dealing with post-pandemic economic concerns, to emerging challenges such as the cost of living, energy shortages and geopolitical conflict. Given the scale of the challenges we face, enhancing trust and transparency will become more vital than ever, and I’m proud of the important role our audit teams continue to play.

The UK Government’s ongoing reform of the corporate governance, reporting and audit system remains central to enhancing trust. We are continuing to work with BEIS and the FRC to ensure the UK retains its position as a leader in corporate governance, and remains a trusted, attractive and competitive business environment.

The complicated nature of the challenges we’re now tackling requires us to work even more closely together, sharing knowledge, expertise and experience in support of the audit process. Our New Equation strategy, launched last year, focuses on using the right technology combined with colleagues from different backgrounds, with diverse experiences and viewpoints. We believe that this close collaboration is enabled by the success of our multidisciplinary firm model, and is more and more critical to delivering high quality audits.

Quality is central to our firm-wide strategy, and remains the top priority for our audit practice, so we’ve continued to invest in our Programme to Enhance Audit Quality. We are seeing further benefits through a number of the quality measures we monitor, including improvement in our most recent Audit Quality results, and the FRC’s recognition of good practices in our audits.
But this does not mean that we can be complacent. It is essential that we don’t let up in our focus on quality and innovation. And this year we have announced a $1bn global investment to design and implement PwC’s Next Generation Audit, an ambitious refresh of the tools and approaches that we use to deliver high quality audits.

We recognise we have an important role to play and we’re committed to helping to increase trust in UK business through our ongoing commitment to audit quality.