SMPAG Response to the IESBA's Future Strategy and Work Plan Survey

The IFAC SMP Advisory Group (SMPAG) welcomes the opportunity to provide input to the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) Strategy Survey 2022.

Overall, the SMPAG supports the IESBA's focus on developments in sustainability reporting and assurance in its next strategy period. The SMPAG supports the IESBA in exploring its potential role and actions - which might not necessarily involve additional standard setting, but rather non-authoritative guidance.

The SMPAG supports the IESBA exploring the concept of expanding the scope of the Code to cover assurance service providers other than professional accountants in public practice (PAPPs), but cautions that the IESBA should proceed carefully. An additional concern is that recent projects have had a very strong public interest entity (PIE) focus, and the SMPAG would ask the Board to ensure that non-PIEs are considered during outreach (in particular in relation to sustainability) and that scalability is considered with any new projects that are introduced. The SMPAG also believes there may be a decrease in adoption rates due to the pace of change and complexity of recently issued changes - and that this should be a strategic focus of the IESBA.