To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will introduce legislation requiring auditors who withdraw from an audit account to publish their reasons for doing so in the annual report.

I see no reason for doing so. Under section 394 of the Companies Act 1985, an auditor who resigns is required to deposit at the company's registered office a statement of any circumstances connected with his ceasing to hold office which he considers should be brought to the attention of members or creditors of the company or, if he considers that there are no such circumstances, a statement that there are none. The statement must be deposited along with the notice of resignation. If the statement is of circumstances which the auditor considers should be brought to the attention of members and creditors of the company, the company—unless the court rules that the auditor is using the statement to secure needless publicity for defamatory matter—must within 14 days of receiving the statement send a copy to every person entitled to receive copies of the accounts.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will introduce legislation prohibiting audit firms from offering cut-price audits or selling other audit services to audit clients who are bankers or financial institutions.