TRUSTEES' REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2024 51
Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the
financial statements
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether
the financial statements as a whole are free from material
misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an
auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance
is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit
conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a
material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise
from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually
or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to
influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis
of these financial statements.
The extent to which the audit was considered
capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud
Irregularities are instances of non-compliance with laws and
regulations. The objectives of our audit are to obtain sufficient
appropriate audit evidence regarding compliance with laws and
regulations that have a direct effect on the determination of
material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements,
to perform audit procedures to help identify instances of
non-compliance with other laws and regulations that may have
a material effect on the financial statements, and to respond
appropriately to identified or suspected non-compliance with
laws and regulations identified during the audit.
In relation to fraud, the objectives of our audit are to identify and
assess the risk of material misstatement of the financial statements
due to fraud, to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence
regarding the assessed risks of material misstatement due to
fraud through designing and implementing appropriate
responses and to respond appropriately to fraud or suspected
fraud identified during the audit.
However, it is the primary responsibility of management, with
the oversight of those charged with governance, to ensure that the
entity's operations are conducted in accordance with the provisions
of laws and regulations and for the prevention and detection
of fraud.
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement
in respect of irregularities, including fraud, the group audit
engagement team:
• obtained an understanding of the nature of the sector, including
the legal and regulatory framework, that the group and parent
charity operates in and how the group and parent charity is
complying with the legal and regulatory framework
• inquired of management, and those charged with governance,
about their own identification and assessment of the risks of
irregularities, including any known actual, suspected or alleged
instances of fraud
• discussed matters about non-compliance with laws and regulations
and how fraud might occur including assessment of how and
where the financial statements may be susceptible to fraud.
As a result of these procedures, we consider the most significant laws
and regulations that have a direct impact on the financial statements
are FRS 102, Charities SORP (FRS 102), Charities Act 2011, the
RSPCA Rules, tax legislation and Charities (Protection and Social
Investment) Act 2016. We performed audit procedures to detect
non-compliances that may have a material impact on the financial
statements, which included reviewing the financial statements
including the Trustees' report and accounts, remaining alert to new
or unusual transactions that may not be in accordance with the
governing documents or requirements imposed by the Charity
Commission and other regulators.
The most significant laws and regulations that have an indirect impact
on the financial statements are those in relation to the Animal
Welfare Act 2006, and data protection legislation. We performed
audit procedures to inquire of management and those charged with
governance whether the group is in compliance with these laws and
regulations and inspected correspondence with regulatory authorities.
The group audit engagement team identified the risk of management
override of controls and the completeness of income generated
from donations, legacies, charitable activities and other trading
income as the areas where the financial statements were most
susceptible to material misstatement due to fraud. Audit
procedures performed included, but were not limited to, testing
manual journal entries and other adjustments, evaluating the
business rationale in relation to significant, unusual transactions
and transactions entered into outside the normal course of
business, challenging judgments and estimates, performing specific
audit procedures on legacies reflected within the legacy system but
not the accounting records, reviewing the reconciliation between
the donor system and accounting records, considering after-date
receipts and minutes of meetings of those charged with governance
to identify any instances of unrecognised income.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of
the financial statements is provided on the Financial Reporting
Council's website at: frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities
This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charity's trustees as a body, in
accordance with the Charities Act 2011. Our audit work has been
undertaken so that we might state to the charity's trustees those
matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and
for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we
do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the
charity and the charity's trustees as a body, for our audit work,
for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
RSM UK Audit LLP
Statutory Auditor, Chartered Accountants
25 Farringdon Street, London EC4A 4AB 14 July 2025
RSM UK Audit LLP is eligible to act as an auditor in terms of section
1212 of the Companies Act 2006.