Companies Act 2014 section 1547

Moratorium on taking up certain positions in audited undertakings or public-interest entities

Section 1547 imposes a mandatory cooling-off period of at least one year before a statutory auditor or key audit partner may take up certain senior positions in an entity they have audited, and extends the same restriction to other audit team members who are personally approved as statutory auditors.

• A statutory auditor or key audit partner must wait at least one year after the end of their audit involvement before taking a key management, audit committee, or board-level position in the audited undertaking
• The same one-year cooling-off period applies where the audited body is a public-interest entity, with a longer minimum period of two years required before the auditor or key audit partner may move into specified positions
• The restricted positions include key management roles, audit committee membership (or membership of an equivalent body), and non-executive or ordinary member positions in the audited entity
• Other employees or partners of the audit firm who are personally approved as statutory auditors are also subject to the one-year cooling-off period if they were involved in the audit engagement