Section 519: Statement by auditor to be sent to company, Companies Act 2006

An auditor of a public interest company who is ceasing to hold office (at any time and for any reason) must send to the company a statement of the reasons for doing so.

An auditor ("A") of a non-public interest company who is ceasing to hold office must send to the company a statement of the reasons for doing so unless A satisfies the first or second condition.

The first condition is that A is ceasing to hold office—

in the case of a private company, at the end of a period for appointing auditors;

in the case of a public company, at the end of an accounts meeting.

The second condition is that—

A's reasons for ceasing to hold office are all exempt reasons (as to which see section 519A(3)), and

there are no matters connected with A's ceasing to hold office that A considers need to be brought to the attention of members or creditors of the company.

A statement under this section must include—

the auditor's name and address;

the number allocated to the auditor on being entered in the register of auditors kept under section 1239;

the company's name and registered number.

Where there are matters connected with an auditor's ceasing to hold office that the auditor considers need to be brought to the attention of members or creditors of the company, the statement under this section must include details of those matters.

A statement under this section must be sent—

in the case of resignation, along with the notice of resignation;

in the case of failure to seek re-appointment, not less than 14 days before the end of the time allowed for next appointing an auditor;

in any other case, not later than the end of the period of 14 days beginning with the date on which he ceases to hold office.

A person ceasing to hold office as auditor who fails to comply with this section commits an offence.

In proceedings for such an offence it is a defence for the person charged to show that he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence.

A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—

on conviction on indictment, to a fine;

on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum.

Where an offence under this section is committed by a body corporate, every officer of the body who is in default also commits the offence. For this purpose—

any person who purports to act as director, manager or secretary of the body is treated as an officer of the body, and

if the body is a company, any shadow director is treated as an officer of the company.

Section 519: Statement by auditor to be sent to company

Discussed in

About this text