MPA Partnership is tendering for the audit of Instyle Ltd for the 2021 financial year. As part of the audit team at MPA Partnership, you note that the engagement partner Phillip Andrew holds an interest in Instyle Ltd and the interest is material during your review of Instyle business extract. Further the investigation, you have observed that Philip is the director of a solar business which is the major supplier of Instyle Ltd.

Required

1) Identify and evaluate the threat to assurance engagement.

2) Explain any relevant or practical safeguard that could be put in place to reduce the threat.

3) If the interests were held by another general partner in the office, rather than being held directly by the engagement partner Philip, would it make any difference to your answers.