Company number 02338444
Legal & General Finance PLC
Report and Accounts 2022
11
5 Fraud and breaches of laws and regulations – ability to detect
Identifying and responding to risks of material misstatement due to fraud
To identify risks of material misstatement due to fraud (“fraud risks”) we assessed events or conditions that could indicate
an incentive or pressure to commit fraud or provide an opportunity to commit fraud.
• Enquiring of directors, risk management committee and internal audit head of the Legal & General Group plc
(“Group”) as to the Company's high-level policies and procedures to prevent and detect fraud, as well as whether
they have knowledge of any actual, suspected or alleged fraud;
• Reading Board minutes; and
• Considering remuneration incentive schemes and performance targets for management.
We communicated identified fraud risks throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of fraud
throughout the audit.
As required by auditing standards, we perform procedures to address the risk of management override of controls, in
particular the risk that management may be in a position to make inappropriate accounting entries. On this audit we do
not believe there is a fraud risk related to revenue recognition because there is limited management judgement involved
in the valuation and recognition of all material revenue streams.
We did not identify any additional fraud risks.
In determining the audit procedures we took into account the results of our evaluation and testing of the
operating effectiveness of some of the Group-wide fraud risk management controls.
We also performed procedures including identifying journal entries and other adjustments to test on high-risk criteria and
comparing the identified entries to supporting documentation. These included, but were not limited to, journal entries
containing key words e.g. reversal, restatement, reclassification, journal entries made by individuals who typically do not
make journal entries or are not authorized to post journal entries, journal entries posted without a user ID, journal entries
recorded at the end of the period or as post-closing entries that have little or no explanation or description, duplicate
entries, journals impacting cash balances that were identified as unusual or unexpected in our risk assessment procedures.
Identifying and responding to risks of material misstatement due to non-compliance with laws and regulations
We identified areas of laws and regulations that could reasonably be expected to have a material effect on the financial
statements from our general commercial and sector experience and through discussion with the directors and others
management (as required by auditing standards), and from inspection of the Company’s regulatory and legal
correspondence, and discussed with the directors and other management the policies and procedures regarding
compliance with laws and regulations.
As the Company is regulated, our assessment of risks involved gaining an understanding of the control environment
including the entity’s procedures for complying with regulatory requirements.
We communicated identified laws and regulations throughout our team and remained alert to any indications of non-
compliance throughout the audit.
The potential effect of these laws and regulations on the financial statements varies considerably.
Firstly, the Company is subject to laws and regulations that directly affect the financial statements including financial
reporting legislation (including related companies’ legislation), distributable profits legislation and taxation legislation and
we assessed the extent of compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our procedures on the related financial
statement items.
Secondly , the Company is subject to other laws and regulations where the consequences of non-compliance could have
a material effect on amounts or disclosures in the financial statements, for instance through the imposition of fines or
litigation. We identified the following areas as those most likely to have such an effect: Compliance with the Disclosure
Guidance and transparency rules sourcebook issued by FCA. Auditing standards limit the required audit procedures to
identify non-compliance with these laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and inspection of regulatory and legal
correspondence, if any. Therefore if a breach of operational regulations is not disclosed to us or evident from relevant
correspondence, an audit will not detect that breach.
Context of the ability of the audit to detect fraud or breaches of law or regulation
Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material
misstatements in the financial statements, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in
accordance with auditing standards. For example, the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from
the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the inherently limited procedures required
by auditing standards would identify it.