(The following suggestion is based on the Independent Limited Assurance Report issued by Ernst and Young for NAB’s Annual Review and Dig Deeper Paper in 2014, available at: www.nab.com.au). Ideally YOU will have chosen a much more recent year, and the principles discussed below will be equally applicable. See also section 1.3 of your text and relevant standards referred to therein.
Required:
(a) Who wrote the report?
Ernst & Young
(b) What level of assurance is provided?
Ernst & Young identify in the first main paragraph of the report that they have carried out a ‘limited assurance engagement in order to state that nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that:
Ernst & Young explain at the end of the first page (Assurance Practitioner’s Responsibility) that have not sought to gather all the evidence that would be required if they were providing a reasonable level of assurance. This statement is designed to warn the reader that there is a lower level of assurance provided than for a financial statement audit, and that the auditor has not done as much, or the type of, work as would be done for a higher level of assurance (such as that provided in a financial statement audit). Ernst & Young explain the type of work they did do in the section ‘Work performed’.
Note the wording of their conclusion, including the use of the words ‘nothing’ and ‘not’ (my emphasis added below):
LIMITED ASSURANCE CONCLUSION
Based on our limited assurance procedures, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the Subject Matter has not been reported and presented fairly, in all material respects, in accordance with the criteria above.
Text 1.31 Corporate Sustainability Reporting Assurance Standards
Required:
Explain why ISAE 3000 and ASRE 2405 would be useful in CSR assurance.
ISAE 3000 International Standard on Assurance Engagements (Revised) Assurance engagements other than audits or reviews of historical financial information is issued by the IAASB, and the most recent revisions apply for assurance reports dated on or after December 15, 2015. It deals with assurance engagements other than audits or reviews of historical financial information. It applies to both reasonable assurance and limited assurance situations.
Because ISAE 3000 applies to assurance of information or reports other than historical financial information reports, it does cover the situation where an entity has provided a CSR and wishes to gain a review or audit of that information. Its application paragraph A8 specifically lists an engagement for the assurance on a report of sustainability performance as an example where its use would be appropriate.
Appendix 4 contains examples of subject matters that are relevant to the type of assurance engagements covered by the standard, it includes a list of reports containing non-financial historical information:
ASRE 2405 Review of Historical Financial Information Other than a Financial Report is issued by the AUASB. It establishes mandatory requirements on an assurance practitioner when engaged to undertake a review of historical financial information other than a financial report.
It is relevant to reviews (that is, not audits) of financial information and therefore relate to the situation where there is a limited assurance rather than reasonable assurance of financial information.
ASRE 2405 is specifically relevant to financial information, rather than social or environmental information. It would be relevant to financial metrics that are included in a sustainability report.