Report of the Independent Auditors to the Members of
Mastermind Principles Ltd
Auditors' responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue a Report of the Auditors that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
As part of designing our audit, we determined materiality and assessed the risks of material misstatement in the financial statements, including how fraud may occur by enquiring of management of its own consideration of fraud. In particular, we looked at where management made subjective judgements, for example in respect of significant accounting estimates that involved making assumptions and considering future events that are inherently uncertain. We also considered potential financial or other pressures, opportunity, and motivations for fraud. As part of this discussion, we identified the internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or noncompliance with laws and regulations and how management monitor these processes. Appropriate procedures included the review and testing of manual journals and key estimates and judgements made by management.
We gained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework applicable to the company and the industry in which it operates, drawing on our broad sector experience, and considered the risk of acts by the company that were contrary to these laws and regulations, including fraud.
We focused on laws and regulations that could give rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements, including, but not limited to, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, UK tax legislation and equivalent local laws and regulations.
We made enquiries of management with regards to compliance with the above laws and regulations and corroborated any necessary evidence to relevant information, for example, minutes of the board meetings.
Our tests included agreeing the financial statements disclosures to underlying supporting documentation and enquiries with management.
We did not identify any key audit matters relating to irregularities, including fraud. As in all of our audits, we also addressed the risk of management override of internal controls including testing journals and evaluation whether there was evidence of bias by the management that presented a risk of material misstatement due to fraud.
Our audit procedures were designed to respond to risks of material misstatement in the financial statements, recognising that the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery, misrepresentations or through collusion. There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures performed and the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we are to become aware of it.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Report of the Auditors.