“Guardians of Knowledge and Public Interest”: A Reply

The recent article “Guardians of Knowledge and the Public Interest” was highly critical of the UK audit standard‐setting process. However, it was seriously flawed in several respects: it failed to present a balanced view of the “due process” by which auditing standards and guidelines are developed, it did not develop a coherent formulation of what constitutes the “public interest” and it contained misrepresentations and errors of fact. In reply this article corrects the errors and presents an objective view of the standard‐setting process, including its weaknesses. It does not attempt to formulate a definition of the “public interest”, a task which even the courts are unwilling to undertake.