Since the early 1980s there has been an explosion of auditing activity in the United Kingdom and North America. In addition to financial audits there are now medical audits, technology audits, value for money audits, environmental audits, quality audits, teaching audits, and many others. Why has...

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I recently decided that there was no longer space to store 20 years worth of Accountancy and Accountancy Age. Prior to disposal I reviewed all the back issues for articles of particular note worth saving. In the course of this process, a number of things were striking. First, articles on...

Recent initiatives in environmental audit prompt questions about the nature of the technical expertise upon which such practices may depend. At the heart of these practices lie expert constructions of environmental risk. It is suggested, on the basis of a deconstructed principal‐agent...

This is a briefing by the author on his PD Leake lecture given at the Chartered Accountants’ hall earlier in the year. In it he examines the rise and rise of the risk industry and assesses the changes it has wrought in business life. He argues that unless the rise is halted we will see the...