The recruitment drive is a part of a package of measures to ensure it delivers consistently high-quality audits.

Some of the measures announced also include:

• Committing an additional £30m annually, targeted at training, people and technology initiatives
• Doubling the face-to-face training programme for all experienced auditors
• Creating a new national digital audit team, focused on developing and applying innovative technologies to help drive audit quality
• Commissioning an independent paper from Karthik Ramanna, professor of business & public policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, on what a culture of challenge means for auditors in 2019
• Creating a practice solely focused on external audit and strengthening its governance with independent non-executives
• Undertaking a comprehensive review of the entities audited to ensure the group achieves a return that allows continual investment in and focus on quality
• Increasing by two-thirds the number of specialists in the group’s audit quality control team.

PwC UK head of audit Hemione Hudson said: “It is right to continually review how our audit practice operates to ensure we are focused on conducting the most challenging and objective audits. These actions will ensure more consistent audit quality and increased transparency, while at the same time strengthening our market resilience.”

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