SCHEDULE 2Investigation Powers
1
1
The competent authority may for any purpose related to inspecting or investigating statutory audit work give notice to any statutory auditor (“A”) requiring A to provide information specified in the notice.
2
Information may be specified in a notice under sub-paragraph (1) only if it is information relating to the statutory audit of the annual accounts or the consolidated accounts of any audited person.
3
The competent authority may give notice to any person mentioned in sub-paragraph (4) requiring that person to provide information relating to the statutory audit of the annual accounts or the consolidated accounts of any public interest entity.
4
The persons to whom notice may be given under sub-paragraph (3) are—
a
any person involved in the activities of a statutory auditor (including any person to whom a statutory auditor has outsourced such activities),
b
any public interest entity,
c
any subsidiary or parent of a public interest entity or any other subsidiary of a company of which a public interest entity is a subsidiary,
d
any person otherwise having a connection to a statutory auditor carrying out the statutory audit of the annual accounts or consolidated accounts of a public interest entity.
5
A notice under sub-paragraph (1) or (3) must be in writing and specify the purposes for which the information is required.
6
A notice under sub-paragraph (1) or (3) may—
a
specify the time within which and the manner in which the person to whom it is given must comply with it,
b
require the creation of documents, or documents of a description, specified in the notice, and
c
require the provision of those documents to the competent authority.
7
A requirement to provide information or create a document is a requirement to do so in a legible form.
8
A notice under sub-paragraph (1) or (3) does not require a person to provide any information or create any documents which the person would be entitled to refuse to provide or produce—
a
in proceedings in the High Court on the grounds of legal professional privilege, or
b
in proceedings in the Court of Session on the grounds of confidentiality of communications.
9
In sub-paragraph (8) “communications” means—
a
communications between a professional legal adviser and his client, or
b
communications made in connection with or in contemplation of legal proceedings or for the purposes of those proceedings.