Background to the consultation
Current regulations require PSAA to consult on and set the fee scale by 30 November of the financial year to which the scale applies. A significant proportion of audit work is undertaken after the end of relevant financial year by necessity, so the fee scale is effectively set significantly in advance of audit work being undertaken, and before the audit of the previous year is finished.
Consulting on changes to the fee scale therefore presents us with significant challenges, particularly when audit is subject to as much change as it is currently. Ideally, we would be able to set fees with the benefit of relatively complete information about all preceding years’ audits.
We consulted for six weeks in August and September 2022 on the proposed fee scale for 2022/23. We consulted a total of 527 organisations, including opted-in bodies, contracted firms and a broad range of national stakeholders. The regulations require us to consult:
- all opted-in bodies;
- those representative associations of principal bodies considered appropriate; and
- relevant bodies of accountants.
As a matter of course we also share the consultation with other key stakeholders, including the current firms, relevant government departments, stakeholders such as the NAO, FRC and CIPFA and members of the PSAA advisory panel.
The 2022/23 fee scale is the last in the current appointing period, under PSAA’s current audit services contracts let in 2017. New contracts will apply from the 2023/24 audit, following a procurement completed in October 2022.