Companies Act 2014 section 1609

Appointment of statutory auditor for purposes of carrying out assurance of sustainability reporting

Section 1609 requires applicable companies subject to sustainability reporting obligations to appoint statutory auditors specifically to provide assurance on their sustainability reporting.

• Companies required to prepare sustainability reports under sections 1590 or 1596 must appoint one or more statutory auditors each financial year to carry out assurance of that reporting.
• The auditor appointed for sustainability assurance may be a different auditor from the one carrying out the company's regular statutory audit of financial statements.
• The existing rules for appointing statutory auditors (set out in Chapter 18 of Part 6) apply equally to sustainability assurance appointments, with necessary modifications to reflect the sustainability context.
• Where those existing appointment rules refer to carrying out a statutory audit, they should be read as referring instead to carrying out the assurance of sustainability reporting.