UK: APB publishes issues paper on professional scepticism and the audit

The Auditing Practices Board, part of the Financial Reporting Council, has published an issues paper titled Professional Scepticism: Establishing a Common Understanding and Reaffirming its Central Role in Delivering Audit Quality: see here (pdf). According to the accompanying press release, the paper is designed to "provoke new thinking and broaden the understanding of the need for and meaning of scepticism in the context of auditing". This said, it is clear that the APB expects something more concrete because the paper provides the APB's conclusions on various matters and, for example, its expectations of auditors, audit firms and audit committees (the latter should, the APB states, foster appropriate professional scepticism in the external audit).