The scope added in 2017
For onsite inspections commencing on or after 1 April 2017, the policy publishes accountants who fail a revisit inspection and receive hot review or restriction followed by hot review. A revisit implies at least two successive failed inspections. This supplements existing publication of suspension and cancellation, with emails to accountants maintaining individual email addresses with ACRA. Initial failed inspections are excluded to allow improvement under the quality-assurance approach.
Published details and commencement of publication
For each accountant the fields are name, registration number, names and addresses of all practising firms, outcome and restrictions, and effective date or period. An accountant may practise in more than one entity. Publication starts when the PAOC decision takes effect as stated in the order letter, rather than automatically on the inspection date. The aim is audit quality, public protection and market transparency.
Passing or failing the next inspection
Passing leads to removal on the date of PAOC’s letter notifying the pass. Failing the next inspection keeps publication in place, but the original outcome and dates are replaced when the succeeding decision takes effect. Neither branch says that merely completing a hot-review engagement automatically removes the listing.
Cancellation and cessation use different two-year clocks
A cancellation outcome is removed two years after first publication. If the accountant later ceases to be registered, for example through non-renewal, removal is two years after cessation. These reference dates are different and must not be collapsed into a single generic two-year period.
Annex A: revisit and hot review
In the annex, revisit requires at least three engagements reviewed by a suitably qualified peer who mentors and advises; review may precede or follow completion and signing. Hot review involves a specified number reviewed by another public accountant before audit-report signing. Restriction followed by hot review additionally excludes audits of specified entities to protect the public.
Annex A: suspension and cancellation
Serious or repeated standards failures, where continued practice is contrary to public or professional interests, may lead to suspension not exceeding two years. Extremely serious or repeated failures may lead to cancellation. The statutory footnote also describes restrictions up to two years, remediation, undertakings and other orders, and refusal of renewal, suspension or cancellation for the statutory public-interest/non-compliance grounds. These are powers, not mandatory outcomes for every failed inspection.
Audit principals and the historical version
Annex footnote 8 says hot-review, restriction and suspension orders affect audit-principal status, and points to Practice Direction 5 of 2020 for an accountant seeking to continue during hot review. The PDF was issued on 25 August 2016, updated as of 1 July 2023, and cites the Act version before that date. It is a historical publication policy; a separate later publication direction should be used for the later regime.
Official source
This article independently explains the substantive contents of the official PDF, including the relevant conditions, procedures and annexes. The linked document remains the authoritative source for its original wording, and later changes should be checked separately.
Read the official PDF ↗