Revised guidance for auditors on preliminary announcements

The FRC has published a revised bulletin for auditors when agreeing to the publication of preliminary announcements.

The revisions are consistent with the feedback received following a discussion paper and consultation earlier in the year (see UK Corporate Update May 2017).

The bulletin has been updated to reflect:

• the need for all price sensitive communications to be ‘fair, balanced and understandable’;
• up-to-date guidance on the use of alternative performance measures; and
• the possibility of including in preliminary announcements a voluntary report by the auditor setting out the status of the financial statement audit and the procedures carried out by the auditor to agree to publication.