Following a consultation in 2015, The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have confirmed that the company audit threshold will increase and will remain coupled with the small company size thresholds.

Accordingly, a company (which is not a group member) will be required to have an audit when it exceeds two of the following three thresholds in two consecutive years.

• Turnover less than £10,200,000
• Gross assets less than £5,100,000
• The average number of employees less than 50

The increased thresholds for periods commencing on or after 1 January 2016 must be applied to the comparative period. The written statement can be downloaded here. Many companies already below the statutory audit limits seek the assurance of audit for other reasons such as good governance or as a requirement of their finance providers and so companies now falling below the limits for the first time will want to carefully consider their next steps.

The regulations for limited liability partnerships has not yet been updated. The consultation to bring LLP size thresholds into line with companies closed before Christmas. We anticipate that LLP sizes will also be increased but will publish further updates once any new announcements are made.