We believe that the audit is a cornerstone of sustaining market confidence, providing assurance to shareholders over publicly available financial information. It is crucial to a fair and effective economy, and gives life to the capital markets, allowing them to function properly and protect the interests of society.

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  Vodafone - More informative auditor reporting

  We recognise the benefit of high-quality and clear audit reporting and have helped Vodafone to adopt new reporting requirements, ahead of schedule, to deliver a stand out report that sets the standard for others to follow.

However, the financial crisis has taught us that shareholder needs have changed and societies expect more from companies in terms of the information they provide to the capital markets. Against this backdrop, and a more stringent regulatory environment, the audit needs to evolve. Maintaining the status quo is no longer an option.

We are transforming the way we plan and execute our audits. Each audit will aim to be bespoke, forward-looking and risk-focused, delivering even more robust challenge and insight in the areas of most relevance to investors and other users of financial statements.

Audit quality and professional scepticism should be continuously improved. Through the use of leading-edge analytics technologies, audit software and benchmarking tools, Deloitte's professionals will be empowered with valuable insights relating to audit risk areas, key judgements, processes and controls throughout the core audit process.

This approach moves beyond meeting minimum regulatory requirements and providing assurance over the financial statements. As a result, companies should be more agile in responding to market pressures. This is the next generation of audit reporting and we believe that it will play an important role in underpinning the stability of capital markets both today and in the future.

This year we also clearly underlined our commitment to enhanced dialogue with stakeholders by holding our first Stakeholder Forum, and having members of Deloitte’s Board of Partners (including our Independent Non Executives) and Executive Group lead the event.

Please see our Audit Transparency Report for further information.

Stability in the business environment is fundamental to create a climate in which businesses want to position themselves in the UK and plan to expand here. That stability depends upon having the right public policies and a robust and fair regulatory system in place. We actively support our clients, policymakers and regulators by sharing our insight and our experience across every business sector, helping to inform decisions and shape public policy.

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  Launch of Quality and Risk Operations centre in Cardiff and Tax Administration Centre in Belfast

  Deloitte has made significant investments in both Belfast and Cardiff to help us better support our clients.

We continue to support the Enhanced Disclosure Task Force set up by the Financial Stability Board. London banking partner Mark Rhys chaired the credit risk workstream and contributed to the report ‘Enhancing the risk disclosures of banks’ published in October 2012. The report’s recommendations are now being implemented by the world’s largest banks, and further improvements to the quality of their risk disclosures are expected in their 2013 annual reports, which will improve transparency and support market confidence.

Our Banking and Capital Markets team has worked with colleagues from across the audit profession to engage with the regulatory community and support the reform of the financial system. For example, under the auspices of the Global Public Policy Committee, established to enable the six largest audit networks in the world to work collectively on public interest matters, we have provided informal input on potential systemic risks to the Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee of Banking Supervisors. Our dialogue with regulators supports effective regulation.