317.This section broadly replicates the effect of paragraph 17 of Schedule 1 to the 1996 Act. Subsection (1) provides that this section applies only to industrial and provident societies. Subsection (2) provides that an accountant’s report is required even where the society’s turnover does not exceed a sum specified in the Friendly and Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1968, that would otherwise allow the society to disapply the requirement for an accountant’s report.
318.Subsections (3) and (4) give the regulator a power to require the society to appoint a qualified auditor to audit their accounts, and to send to the regulator a copy of the auditor’s report, when the society has disapplied the requirement to appoint a qualified auditor under section 4A of the Friendly and Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1968. The regulator may only use this power in the year following the year to which the accounts relate.
319.Subsection (5) defines “qualified auditor” and “year of account” for the purposes of this section.