Tighter scrutiny of retail audits

Tesco’s book-keeping scandal has prompted Britain’s accounting policeman to turn a spotlight on annual reports in the retail sector to check for similar irregularities.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has already opened a probe into Tesco’s accounts and said yesterday that scrutiny of sample audits in the coming year will focus on the food, drinks, and retail sector.

Tesco said in September it had overstated its first-half profits by £250m due to incorrectly booking payments from suppliers, a figure it later raised to £263m.