Requirement (c), also for 6 marks, focussed more theoretically on the debate over whether audit firms should be prohibited from providing non-audit services to their audit client. Although most candidates seemed prepared for a question of this type, most approached the question by discussing the pros and cons of audit firms offering non-audit services to their clients, rather than discussing whether prohibition would be desirable.

There is some overlap between the two approaches, but the way that candidates tackled this requirement indicated that a rote- learnt answer had been provided, rather than evidence of candidates thinking on their feet and coming up with their own opinion on the matter. A lot of answers simply explained several ethical threats and concluded that because threats may exist auditors should not provide non-audit services to their clients. This is not a broad enough response to the question requirement.