In this In Conversation podcast episode, Kate O'Neill, Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs, discusses the FRC's emerging findings of its market study examining how small and medium-sixed enterprises (SMEs) engage with the audit market alongside Laura Warren, Director of Market Intelligence and Insights, Dhruve Shah, Deputy Director of Professional Bodies Supervision, and Peter Kitson, Audit and Assurance Project Director. 
 
Kate, Laura, Dhruve and Peter speak about the importance of proportionality and scalability in audit standards, how the FRC has facilitated this by developing a practice note to help auditors apply ISAs more proportionately to smaller entities, and the various other proposed remedies emerging from the study's findings.
 
Details of how to take part in the next steps of the FRC's year long campaign to support SME's access to audit can be found on the FRC's website, including an invite to join its upcoming roundtables beginning 9 September 2025. 

Findings and remedies from the FRC's SME audit market study

Kate O'Neill, Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs, sits down with Pauline Wallace, Chair of the UK Endorsement Board, as she prepares to step down on 10 September after 5 years leading the UKEB. Pauline has seen the UKEB grow from its conception to the influential organisation that we see today, and in this podcast she reflects on major achievements and why the UKEB is critical to the UK’s financial reporting environment. 

In Conversation with Pauline Wallace: Five years as UKEB Chair

For this In Conversation podcast episode, Kate O'Neill, Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs, discusses the key changes in the recently revised UK Stewardship Code with Andrea Tweedie, Head of Stewardship.

Kate and Andrea cover the fundamental updates to the Code, including the revised definition of stewardship, its new reporting structure and restructured principles which differentiate between asset managers, asset owners, and service providers. They discuss the 2026 transition year arrangements, explaining how the transition year will work for existing signatories. Kate and Andrea also speak about the application process, touching on the support available for new and existing signatories.

UK Stewardship Code 2026: What you need to know

In this episode, Kate O'Neill, Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs, speaks with Andrew Meek, Director of Audit Firm Supervision, about the FRC's new initiative to build capacity and resilience in the smaller audit firm market.

They discuss how this collaborative approach will help smaller firms strengthen their quality management systems and explore the benefits for the wider UK audit market, including improved audit quality and greater choice for companies seeking audit services.

Building Capacity for Smaller Firms

In this episode Kate O'Neill, our Director of Stakeholder of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs sits down with our CEO, Richard Moriarty and Director of Strategy and Change, Miranda Craig to discuss the launch of the FRC's new Innovation and Improvement Hub which aims to create an explorative space to work collaboratively with market participants on issues of common concern.

Launching the FRC's Innovation and Improvement Hub

In this episode, Richard Moriarty, CEO, joins Kate O'Neill, Director of Stakeholder Engagement
and Corporate Affairs, to discuss the FRC's proposals to update the Audit Enforcement Procedure as part of its End-to-end Enforcement Process Review. The proposals aim to expand the FRC's regulatory toolkit to deliver proportionate responses to different types of failings, and Richard and Kate discuss how the proposed expansion from two enforcement routes to five will enable this, before outlining the FRC's comprehensive plan to engage with a range of stakeholders across webinars and roundtables.
 
The FRC is hosting a webinar on Wednesday 8 October to discuss the proposals in detail, with an
opportunity for Q&A with the expert speakers: Elizabeth Barrett, Executive Director of Enforcement, Kate O'Neill, Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs, and Anthony Barrett, Director of Audit Quality Review.

Updating the FRC's Audit Enforcement Procedure

In this In-Conversation podcast episode, Andrea Tweedie, Head of Stewardship, sits down with Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs, Kate O’Neill to discuss the FRC's latest report, "Preparing for the UK Stewardship Code 2026 – applying insights from current reporting", and how its findings may help signatories to the UK Stewardship Code through the Code's transition year.

In Conversation: Preparing for the UK Stewardship Code 2026

In the latest episode of the FRC’s In Conversation podcast series, host Kate O’Neill sits down with Jessica Dahlstrom, Head of Corporate Governance, and Kelvin Ernest, Senior Policy Associate in the Corporate Governance team, to unpack the recent update to the guidance for the Corporate Governance Code. Together, they explore how the code's principles offer companies greater flexibility in structuring remuneration for non-executive directors, and how the change supports good governance in the UK.

In Conversation: Clarifying Guidance to the UK Corporate Governance Code

Join Kate O'Neill, Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs, Dhruve Shah, Deputy Director of Professional Bodies Supervision, and Laura Warren, Director of Market Intelligence & Insights, as they discuss some of the work the FRC has been doing this year to support growth through proportionate regulation, such as helping auditors tailor their approach to match the size and complexity of each client, because not all large companies are complex, and not all small ones are simple.

In Conversation: Supporting growth through proportionate regulation

For this "In Conversation" podcast episode, Kate O’Neill, Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs at the FRC, is joined by Lauren Tynen, Senior Corporate Governance Policy Associate, and Fiona Graham, COO of Family Business UK, to discuss the FRC’s latest Wates Principles reporting insights. They examine how the Principles support transparency, outcomes-based reporting, and active decision-making for private companies, and share practical guidance from the FRC’s 2025 review.

In Conversation: Supporting growth through proportionate regulation

Financial Reporting Council

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