Sub-paragraphs (2) to (5) apply to the appointment, as auditor of a company, of a partnership constituted under the law of England and Wales or Northern Ireland, or under the law of any country or territory in which a partnership is not a legal person; and sub-paragraphs (3) to (5) apply to the appointment as such an auditor of a partnership constituted under the law of Scotland, or under the law of any country or territory in which an partnership is a legal person.

The appointment is, unless the contrary intention appears, an appointment of the partnership as such and not of the partners.

For this purpose a partnership is to be regarded as succeeding to the practice of another partnership only if the members of the successor partnership are substantially the same as those of the former partnership; and a partnership or other person is to be regarded as succeeding to the practice of a partnership only if it or he succeeds to the whole or substantially the whole of the business of the former partnership.

Where the partnership ceases and no person succeeds to the appointment under sub-paragraph (3), the appointment may with the consent of the company be treated as extending to a partnership or other person eligible for the appointment who succeeds to the business of the former partnership or to such part of it as is agreed by the company to be treated as comprising the appointment.