UK Auditors will now be required to assist
pension trustees to help ensure member records are complete and
accurate separate to the audit.

But in its new guidance The Pensions Regulator
(TPR) stated scheme auditors are not obliged to do any more than is
required under the Auditing Practices Board auditing standards to
fulfil their statutory responsibilities.

TPR said the statutory auditor will not
necessarily carry out tests to assess member records unless there
is a significant risk of material misstatement in the accounts.

The auditor will also only consider the
control environment to the extent it can impact on the financial
transactions reported in the accounts.

Auditors are expected to exercise professional
judgement to assess the likelihood of particular risks leading to a
material misstatement of the financial transactions in the
accounts. If significant errors in member records are found they
are to be reported to the trustees at the conclusion of an
audit.

The TPR statement has been issued to help
trustees understand the extent and limits of the auditor’s work
during a statutory pension scheme audit. It also emphasises that
trustees should not assume their scheme auditor will be testing the
quality and accuracy of member data or the controls around that
data.

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“We were pleased to contribute to this
statement, which we hope will help to reduce a fairly widespread
‘expectation gap’ among trustees as to the extent that member
records are tested during the course of a scheme audit,” Institute
of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales pensions committee
chairman Zahir Fazal said.