Abstract In England the emergence of the limited-liability company as the dominating force in economic life and indeed in public-accounting practice constitutes one of the major business phenomena of modern times. English auditing procedures are fundamentally the concern of practitioners themselves rather than of the law. Minimum requirements for the balance sheet are stated in the Companies Act 1929 and on file at Somerset House is a minimum amount of information in regard to all registered companies, which the public may utilize. English shareholders as a general rule receive more information than that filed at Somerset House. As auditors owe their primary duty to shareholders they are striving to arrive at a formulation of principles underlying the preparation of profit-and-loss accounts, and the accounts and statements of holding companies and their subsidiaries, since the law gives little definition of the principles to apply to these cases. If the profession can lay the groundwork in such matters the law can later embody these principles in amendments to existing legislation, if such a course in the view of all circumstances appears advisable. The English accounting profession endeavors to uphold higher standards than those set by the present laws in order that its protection of the rights of shareholders may be complete and effective.
Mary Murphy (Sat,) studied this question.