An internal audit function must be assessed by a qualified, independent assessor at least once every five years. That requirement is Standard 8.4 of the Global Internal Audit Standards, which took effect in January 2025, and it applies to organisations in Leeds exactly as it does anywhere else in the UK.
External quality assessment is a national specialism rather than a local one. Most providers work across the country, so the practical question is rarely who is nearest — it is who is independent of your function, who is qualified, and who has assessed organisations like yours. Standard 8.4 also requires that at least one person on the assessment team holds an active Certified Internal Auditor designation, which is the first thing to check against any shortlist.
This page brings together companies providing external quality assessment services to internal audit functions. Those with a Leeds office are listed first, with that office's address; a second group of national specialists follows, listed with their head offices elsewhere in the UK. It is not a ranking and the order carries no meaning. The aim is to set out who the providers are, the organisations they work with and the scope of their assessment work, so you can build your own shortlist.
Acumon is a UK firm of chartered accountants and registered auditors providing external quality assessment for internal audit functions, alongside outsourced and co-sourced internal audit. Assessments are led by professionals holding the Chartered Member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (CMIIA) qualification. The firm works from London with organisations across the UK.
The firm delivers both routes permitted by Standard 8.4 — a full external quality assessment, or independent validation of a function's own self-assessment — and also supports in-house teams preparing for an assessment carried out by someone else. Acumon does not assess an internal audit function it delivers or co-sources.
Key Highlights:
Chartered accountants and registered auditors
CMIIA-qualified assessors
Full EQA and validated self-assessment routes
Assessment readiness support for in-house functions
Independence maintained — no assessment of functions the firm delivers
BDO is a UK accountancy and business advisory firm whose risk and advisory practice includes internal audit. Its service list names an External Quality Assurance (EQA) Review among its internal audit offerings.
Its wider internal audit work covers outsourced and co-sourced delivery, risk-based planning and reporting to audit committees, with sector teams across the mid-market and listed company space.
Key Highlights:
UK accountancy and business advisory firm
Member of the BDO International network
EQA review listed within internal audit services
Focus on entrepreneurial and mid-market organisations
Offices across the UK and Ireland
Services:
Internal audit
External quality assurance review
Audit and assurance
Risk advisory
Tax
Consulting
Contact Information:
Website: www.bdo.co.uk
Address: Central Square, 29 Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 4DL
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bdo-llp
Deloitte
Deloitte's UK risk advisory practice includes a dedicated team of internal audit professionals specialising in quality assurance reviews.
The firm works with boards and audit committees to assess an internal audit function's conformance with industry expectations and its relative performance against peers, and supports in-house quality assurance teams as well as delivering assessments directly.
Forvis Mazars provides internal audit services in the UK that expressly include external quality assessment of the internal audit function.
The firm leads and operates internal audit functions in close alignment with stakeholders, and is an established internal audit provider to the insurance sector, supplying outsourced and co-sourced arrangements alongside EQAs.
Key Highlights:
Internal audit and EQA within risk consulting
Established insurance sector internal audit provider
Outsourced and co-sourced delivery
Public and social sector internal audit experience
Grant Thornton's business risk services practice offers external quality assessments as an independent internal audit effectiveness review, using an approach the firm describes as compliant with Institute of Internal Auditors requirements.
The practice also supports resource gaps at all levels, from audit seniors and managers through to interim heads of internal audit, and has partners who specialise in EQA and quality assurance work for financial services clients.
Key Highlights:
EQAs delivered on an IIA-compliant approach
Independent internal audit effectiveness reviews
Specialist financial services EQA and QA capability
Interim resourcing up to head of internal audit level
KPMG is a professional services firm whose UK internal audit practice offers external quality assessments benchmarked against IIA standards and leading practice.
Alongside assessment work it provides methodology, quality assurance and transformation support, helping functions modernise how audit work is planned, executed and reported.
Key Highlights:
Global professional services network
EQAs benchmarked against IIA standards and leading practice
Methodology, QA and transformation support
Experience across regulated and listed organisations
Offices in major UK cities
Services:
Internal audit
External quality assessment
Risk and regulatory consulting
Audit
Governance advisory
Technology risk
Contact Information:
Website: kpmg.com/uk
Phone: +44 (0)113 231 3000
Address: 1 Sovereign Square, Sovereign Street, Leeds, LS1 4DA
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/kpmg-uk
Protiviti
Protiviti is a global consulting firm whose UK practice is built around internal audit. It conducts independent reviews of internal audit functions against Institute of Internal Auditors standards.
The firm describes an EQA as providing assurance to the board and audit committee that internal audit operates with independence, quality and consistency, with benchmarking against peers and leading practice to identify opportunities to enhance methodology, reporting and stakeholder engagement.
The firms below do not have an office in Leeds. They are internal audit specialists working with organisations across the UK, and they are listed here because external quality assessment is bought infrequently and delivered nationally — the assessor's independence, sector experience and qualifications matter more than travelling distance. Their head office addresses are given so the position is clear.
Validera
Validera is a UK internal audit specialist with a dedicated external quality assessment service. The firm undertakes EQAs against professional standards and works with in-house teams on their processes and practices.
Its wider work covers establishing start-up internal audit functions, outsourced delivery, training and ad-hoc support. The firm states that its own last external quality assessment achieved the highest grade of conformity.
Key Highlights:
Internal audit specialist with a dedicated EQA service
BHBi is an internal audit consultancy and training provider with a dedicated external quality assessment consultancy service, delivered in cooperation with Littlechild & Haley.
Its EQA reviews are framed around the professional standards of the Institute of Internal Auditors and, for public bodies, the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards. The firm also runs internal auditor training courses.
Littlechild & Haley was established by Donna Littlechild and Paul Haley, Chartered Internal Auditors with more than fifty years of combined experience, and offers external quality assessment to the Global Internal Audit Standards.
The firm has worked across sectors and publishes analysis of recurring themes it sees through assessments. It was appointed by HM Land Registry to carry out a preliminary readiness assessment followed by an external quality assessment of the internal audit function.
The single most common problem with an EQA shortlist is that the favoured firm cannot lawfully do the work. A firm that delivers or co-sources your internal audit cannot assess it. Care is also needed where the assessor is your external auditor, or where they expect to bid for work arising from their own findings.
Lesser relationships do not automatically disqualify a provider, but they should be disclosed to the audit committee before appointment rather than surfaced afterwards. Ask every candidate to confirm in writing what work they have done for the organisation, and whether they intend to bid for anything that might follow the assessment.
Before you approach a provider
Three things make the conversation more productive and the quotes comparable.
Know your deadline. Count back from the date the last assessment concluded, not forward from convenience. Assessor availability, not your calendar, usually sets the date.
Decide the route. Standard 8.4 allows a full external quality assessment or a self-assessment with independent validation. Going to market without deciding produces proposals you cannot compare.
Get your evidence in order. A function with a documented internal self-assessment and an assembled evidence pack takes materially less assessor time than one reconstructing five years of records — which reduces cost and improves the finding at the same time. Our guide to preparing for an EQA covers that work.
Acumon provides external quality assessment, internal audit and assessment readiness support — details are on our external quality assessment and internal audit service pages.
AC
Written by the Acumon team
Acumon is an ICAEW-registered firm of chartered accountants and registered auditors
based in London, with offices in Pitstone, Aylesbury and Bournemouth. Need advice on
anything covered here? Talk to us.
An internal audit function must be assessed by a qualified, independent assessor at least once every five years. That requirement is Standard 8.4 of the Global Internal Audit Standards, which…
An internal audit function must be assessed by a qualified, independent assessor at least once every five years. That requirement is Standard 8.4 of the Global Internal Audit Standards, which…
An internal audit function must be assessed by a qualified, independent assessor at least once every five years. That requirement is Standard 8.4 of the Global Internal Audit Standards, which…
Read article
Get in Touch
Ready for Accountants Who Move Your Business Forward?
Tell us what you need. Within one business day, a qualified accountant will be in touch to talk it through and give you a clear, fixed-fee quote — no obligation.
We use essential cookies to run this site, plus Google Analytics and Google Ads to
understand how visitors use it and measure our advertising — only with your consent. See our
Privacy Policy.
