1541. (1) A statutory auditor or audit firm shall comply with the following organisational requirements:

(a) the audit firm shall establish appropriate policies and procedures to ensure that no person, including any partner, director, member or shareholder of the audit firm or of a firm in its network, intervenes in the carrying out of a statutory audit in any way which jeopardises the independence and objectivity of the statutory auditor who carries out the statutory audit on behalf of the audit firm;

(b) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall have sound administrative and accounting procedures, internal quality control mechanisms, effective procedures for risk assessment, and effective control and safeguard arrangements for information processing systems;

(c) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall establish appropriate policies and procedures to ensure that his or her employees and any other individuals whose services are placed at his or her disposal or under his or her control, and who are directly involved in the statutory audit activities, have appropriate knowledge and experience for the duties assigned;

(d) (i) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall establish appropriate policies and procedures to ensure that the undertaking by other persons of important audit functions is not done in such a way as to impair the quality of the statutory auditor’s or audit firm’s internal quality control and the ability of the competent authorities to supervise the statutory auditor’s or audit firm’s compliance with the obligations laid down in the relevant provisions;

(ii) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall ensure that any audit functions carried out by such other persons does not affect his or her responsibility towards the audited undertaking;

(e) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall establish appropriate and effective organisational and administrative arrangements to prevent, identify, eliminate or manage and disclose any threats to his or her independence as referred to in sections 1533, 1535 to 1539 and 1547;

(f) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall establish appropriate policies and procedures for carrying out statutory audits, coaching, supervising and reviewing employees’ activities and organising the structure of the audit file as referred to in section 1543;

(g) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall establish an internal quality control system to ensure the quality of the statutory audit so that—

(i) such system includes, at least, the policies and procedures referred to in paragraph (f), and

(ii) responsibility for such system lies with a person who is qualified as a statutory auditor;

(h) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall use appropriate systems, resources and procedures to ensure continuity and regularity in the carrying out of his or her statutory audit activities;

(i) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall also establish appropriate and effective organisational and administrative arrangements for dealing with and recording incidents which have, or may have, serious consequences for the integrity of his or her statutory audit activities;

(j) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall have in place adequate remuneration policies, including profit-sharing policies, providing sufficient performance incentives to secure audit quality but the amount of revenue that the statutory auditor or audit firm derives from providing non-audit services to the audited undertaking shall not form part of the performance evaluation and remuneration of any person involved in, or able to influence the carrying out of, the audit;

(k) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall monitor and evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness of his or her systems, internal quality control mechanisms and arrangements established in accordance with the relevant provisions and take appropriate measures to address any deficiencies;

(l) the statutory auditor or audit firm shall—

(i) carry out an annual evaluation of the internal quality control system referred to in paragraph (g), and

(ii) keep records of the findings of that evaluation and any proposed measure to modify the internal quality control system.

(2) A statutory auditor or audit firm shall communicate, in writing, his or her policies and procedures referred to in subsection (1) to the employees of the statutory auditor or audit firm.

(3) A statutory auditor or audit firm shall take into consideration the scale and complexity of his or her activities when complying with the requirements set out in subsection (1).

(4) A statutory auditor or audit firm shall be able to demonstrate to the recognised accountancy body or Supervisory Authority that the policies and procedures designed to achieve compliance with this section are appropriate given the scale and complexity of activities of the statutory auditor or audit firm.]