Friendly Societies Act 1992

7 (1) A person who is not a member of a recognised supervisory body may be an auditor of a registered friendly society if—

(a) its receipts and payments in respect of the preceding financial year did not, in the aggregate, exceed £5,000; and

(b) the number of its members at the end of that year did not exceed 500; and

(c) the value of its assets at the end of that year did not, in the aggregate, exceed £5,000; and

(d) it is not a collecting society.

(2) A person who is not a member of a recognised supervisory body may be an auditor of a registered branch if—

(a) the conditions mentioned in sub-paragraph (1)(a), (b) and (c) above are satisfied; and

(b) it is not a branch of a collecting society.

(3) A person who is not a member of a recognised supervisory body may also be an auditor of a registered branch if—

(a) the conditions mentioned in sub-paragraph (1)(a) and (b) and sub-paragraph (2)(b) above are satisfied; and

(b) at the end of the preceding financial year at least 75 per cent of its assets had been transferred to the society of which it is a branch or to another registered branch of that society for the purpose of being invested, in accordance with the 1974 Act, by that society or other branch, and the value of its assets not so transferred did not, in the aggregate, exceed £5,000; and

(c) an auditor of the society or branch to which the assets were transferred must be a member of a recognised supervisory body.

(4) Regulations made by the Commission, with the consent of the Treasury, may—

(a) substitute for any sum or number for the time being specified in sub-paragraph (1) above, or for any sum or percentage for the time being specified in sub-paragraph (3) above, such sum, number or percentage as may be specified in the regulations; and

(b) prescribe what receipts and payments of a body shall be taken into account for the purposes of those sub-paragraphs.

(5) A registered friendly society or registered branch which, by virtue of this paragraph, may appoint a person who is not a member of a recognised supervisory body as an auditor in respect of any financial year is in this Schedule referred to as an exempt society or, as the case may be, an exempt branch, in respect of that financial year.

(6) Subject to any direction given by the Commission under sub-paragraph (7) below, a society or branch which in respect of any financial year is an exempt society or, as the case may be, an exempt branch shall in respect of that year appoint—

(a) one or more qualified auditors; or

(b) two or more persons who are not qualified auditors,

to audit its annual accounts for that year.

(7) The Commission may give a direction in the case of any particular society or branch which is an exempt society or branch in respect of any financial year that sub-paragraph (4) above shall apply to it in respect of that year as if it were not an exempt society or branch.