With effect from 1 January 2025, ACCA has:

  • de-coupled the PC from the AQ in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and Dependencies and the Isle of Man and Zimbabwe; and
  • established a separate status of ‘Responsible Individual’ in the UK and Ireland.

As a result an AQ can be awarded separately from the PC. The two main changes to the eligibility requirements to achieve the AQ are that a member no longer requires two years of supervised post-membership experience and; secondly, a member no longer needs to have been a member of ACCA continuously for a period of at least two years.  

This provides greater flexibility to applicants to allow them to apply for the AQ at the point at which they have achieved the required relevant audit experience and technical audit competences, which now could be undertaken as part of their journey to ACCA membership in addition to post-membership experience gained.  

There are no changes to the overall amount of supervised audit experience required to achieve the AQ. 

The AQ does not confer the right to be a statutory auditor. To sign off audit reports you will be required to obtain a PC and Responsible Individual (RI) status in a firm holding an auditing certificate from ACCA. 

A member can apply for a PC when required in order for them to carry out public practice. The PC requirements remain unchanged. A member is still required to have achieved at least two years post-membership experience and be able to demonstrate competence in a number of both technical and non-technical (practice related) competences relevant to their work. The AQ can still be applied for at the same time as the PC but separate authorisations will be issued if the applications are approved. 

ACCA has also established a separate status of ‘Responsible Individual’ (RI). An RI is a person who is a statutory auditor in a statutory audit firm who signs, or holds themselves out as being available to sign, an audit report. Holding an AQ (or being an approved third country auditor) and a PC will not entitle a member to sign off audit reports; the additional RI status will be required.  

Individuals can apply for this approval when they intend to become statutory auditors. For ACCA members and non-ACCA members they must hold the AQ (or be an approved third country auditor) and a PC. They must also demonstrate that they have achieved adequate, recent audit experience and audit-related CPD in the two years immediately preceding their application. They must also be fit and proper. The RI status connects the member to an ACCA audit firm and establishes them as a statutory auditor. 

Those individuals already holding the previous practising certificate and audit qualification and who are responsible for audit work in a firm that holds an auditing certificate from ACCA will have their status transferred to RI in 2025. This will be an automatic process.  

There are no changes in relation to the eligibility of a firm in obtaining an auditing certificate.