Financial Reporting Council

This is, of course, relating to the charges levied by the Premier League against Manchester City, accusing them of artificially inflating their revenues by nearly a billion pounds over an eight-year period from 2010.

Now, the Financial Reporting Council, this is according to the Times this morning, is considering whether or not to look into the role played by the accountancy group BDO auditing Manchester City.

There is no formal investigation underway, but the Times reports that the regulators are weighing it up.

So, yes, this scandal could touch the city, just as it's touching Westminster.

So HH, in November 2021, so they're still Man City's auditors, by the way.

So in November 2025, the UK Financial Reporting Council announced The UK financial reports are the biggest there is.

Sanctioned BDO and two former audit engagement partners following admitted misconduct.

The regulator found deficiencies in BDO systems controls for audit supervision and audit quality between 2012 and 2019.

So that's obviously something that I know other regulators are looking into.

But just sticking with this model of oversight regulation, I know, Alan, that your right-touch regulation approach has wider applicability, if I could put it like that, And I know that there are other oversight regulators, the Office for Environmental Protection, for example, overseas environmental regulators, and indeed the Financial Reporting Council, one could say, overseas professional audit regulators and others as well.

Would you advocate for them adopting your right to touch regulation model? And do you think there's an even wider argument for creating an oversight regulator for every regulator in the way that, for example, the National Audit Office oversees all public spending by government departments? What would you suggest as a longer term goal to aim for?

There are two questions in here, really.

What is the FRC's Corporate Reporting Review? In addition to its monitoring responsibilities, the FRC's Corporate Reporting Review function plays an important role in improving the quality, clarity and credibility of UK corporate reporting.

The Financial Reporting Council, FRC, does more than standard setting for UK corporate reporting.

It also reviews accounts for compliance with the Companies Act 2006 and other relevant requirements to help drive continuous improvement across the UK's corporate reporting ecosystem.

The FRC looks at the annual report and accounts, as well as the interim reports, of companies included on the FCA's official list listed on the London Stock Exchange.

It also reviews the reports of other UK-incorporated public companies and larger private entities.

This work is undertaken by the FRC's Corporate Reporting Review, CRR function, an executive-led team of accounting and reporting specialists.

In performing their work, CRR may seek advice from members of the advisory panel as well as lawyers, audit and other specialists from across the FRC.

CRR helps companies to improve their corporate reporting, directly and indirectly.