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ACCA Strategic Professional · Advanced Audit and Assurance (International) · The assurance of sustainability

Brightfield Ltd's sustainability report discloses total Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions. The assurance team is planning a limited assurance engagement and must decide how to treat the emissions figure. Which approach to materiality best fits the engagement?

The practitioner should determine materiality for the sustainability information by considering what would influence the decisions of intended users, using both quantitative and qualitative factors. Materiality applies to limited as well as reasonable assurance, and the financial statement figure is not automatically appropriate.

  1. AUse the financial statement materiality figure unchanged, because it is set by reference to profit
  2. BConsider materiality for the sustainability information, taking into account the needs of intended users and both quantitative and qualitative factorsCorrect
  3. CSet materiality at zero, because emissions data affects the public interest
  4. DAvoid setting materiality, because it only applies to reasonable assurance engagements

Explanation

Materiality in an ISAE 3000 engagement is judged by what would influence the decisions of intended users, and it covers qualitative aspects as well as amounts. It applies to limited and reasonable assurance alike. Simply reusing the financial figure ignores the different users and subject matter.

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