Committee publication · Report · 16 July 2026 · HC 540
8th Report - Pre-appointment hearing with the Government’s preferred candidate for the Chair of the Financial Reporting Council
Summary
This report documents the Business and Trade Committee's pre-appointment hearing with Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the Government's preferred candidate for Chair of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), held on 14 July 2026. The committee found her to demonstrate appropriate awareness of FRC independence and accountability trade-offs, and to possess relevant entrepreneurial, commercial, public sector and audit experience. However, the committee noted that Gadhia declined to set out detailed reform priorities, required powers, competition measures, or the case for statutory status.
Key findings
- Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia was selected as the Government's preferred candidate from a field of 23 applicants following a fair and open competition; four candidates were interviewed and three found appointable.
- Gadhia is a Chartered Accountant with extensive financial services leadership experience, including as CEO of Virgin Money (2007–2018), CEO of Salesforce UK&I (2019–2020), and founder of fintech Snoop (2019–2023), plus multiple current and former board roles.
- The committee questioned Gadhia on FRC independence, audit market competition, the Kingman and Brydon review recommendations, Carillion lessons, growth duty compliance, and emerging risks including AI and cyber security.
- The committee concluded Gadhia demonstrated understanding of the trade-offs between FRC political independence and accountability, and possessed competence and integrity for the role.
- The committee expressed concern that Gadhia declined to set out at the hearing specific reform priorities, powers needed for the FRC, competition-fostering measures, operational performance details, or the case for statutory status as recommended by prior reviews.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Liam Byrne (Business and Trade Committee Chair), Peter Kyle (Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade), Sir Jan du Plessis (outgoing FRC Chair), Gavin Lambert (Department for Business and Trade Director General), Richard Moriarty (FRC Chief Executive), Financial Reporting Council, Cabinet Office
Notable line
“Gadhia declined to set out at this stage the reform priorities now required for the UK's audit system, the powers needed by the FRC to ensure scandals like Carillion are not repeated …”
Key Quotes
“… my preferred candidate for appointment as Chair of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia”
“As a qualified Chartered Accountant, trained as an auditor by Ernst and Whinney, I understand the importance of the FRC in ensuring that systems, processes, skills and understanding underpin essential financial reporting standards in the UK and beyond.”
“During the hearing Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia demonstrated awareness of the trade-offs between, on the one hand political independence of FRC decision making on individual cases, and on the other, the importance of accountability to Government ministers and to Parliament.”
“We appreciated that Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia brought a positive range of entrepreneurial, commercial and public sector experience, with an audit background and a track record of integrity along with the requisite level of competence and qualifications to do the role.”
“During the pre-appointment hearing Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia declined to set out at this stage the reform priorities now required for the UK's audit system, the powers needed by the FRC to ensure scandals like Carillion are not repeated, the measures needed to foster greater competition in the UK audit market as the CMA recommended, the operational performance of the FRC on case resolution and the case which the FRC needed to present to Ministers to put the FRC on a statutory basis with the powers recommended by the Kingman and Brydon reviews.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗