Responsibilities of directors As explained more fully in the statement of directors’ responsibilities set out on page 39, the directors are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the directors are responsible for assessing the group’s and the parent company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the directors either intend to liquidate the group or the parent company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so. Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements. Explanation as to what extent the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non- compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect irregularities, including fraud. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusion. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below. However, the primary responsibility for the prevention and detection of fraud rests with both those charged with governance of the entity and management.
• We assessed the susceptibility of the group and the parent company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including how fraud might occur by considering the risk of management override and by assessing revenue cut off to be a fraud risk. Through these procedures, we determined there to be a risk of management override and fraud around revenue recognition and in particular revenue recognition around the year-end date. We selected a sample of revenue transactions around the year-end date and performed detailed testing including agreeing to source documentation to validate that the revenue had been recognised in the appropriate period. In relation to management override, we used data analytics to sample from the entire population of journals, identifying specific transactions which did not meet our expectations based on specific criteria which we investigated further to gain an understanding of the transaction and agree to source documentation ensuring appropriate authorisation of the transactions. • Based on this understanding we designed our audit procedures to identify noncompliance with such laws and regulations. Our procedures involved inquiries of the management, those charged with governance, and those responsible for legal and compliance. We also reviewed the board minutes to identify any non-compliance with laws and regulation A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at https://www.frc.org.uk/ auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report. Use of our report This report is made solely to the company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed
Our approach was as follows:
Daniel Dennett (Senior statutory auditor) for and on behalf of Ernst & Young LLP Statutory Auditor Reading
• We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that are applicable to the group or to the parent company and determined that the most significant are those related to the reporting framework (FRS 102 and the Company’s Act 2006 and compliance with the relevant direct and indirect tax regulations in the United Kingdom. • We understood how the group and parent company are complying with those frameworks by making inquiries of management and those charged with governance to understand how the group and the parent company maintain and communicate its policies and procedures in these areas and corroborated this by inspecting supporting documentation.
25 May 2023
Whistl Annual Report 2022
41
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