The Directors of Aspen PLC have recently appointed your audit firm to act as their external auditor. Aspen PLC is a FTSE-250 fast growth company specialising in cloud computing solutions.

As part of the audit services, you have been requested by the Directors of Aspen PLC to undertake the following services:

the external audit of the companys annual financial statement

taxation services; and

consultancy services relating to the trialling and implementation of a new, stateof-the-art information technology system

Your audit firm has not worked for Aspen PLC before but does act as auditor for its biggest rival, another FTSE-250 company Priory Mason PLC.

Required:

(a) Identify and explain the professional and ethical issues that your firm should consider with regards to the services requested by Aspen PLC, stated above. What safeguards should be implemented to address these issues?

(b) Critically discuss the five key principles of ethics. An auditor must never disclose a clients affairs to a third party. To whom shall the auditor disclose the information if the client company has been found guilty of an unlawful act?