Abstract

This chapter outlines issues and identifies research opportunities for assurance of general purpose stand-alone reports whose subject matter covers environmental, social and sustain-ability issues. The focus of this chapter is assurance of general purpose reports because these reports are made available to shareholders (or more broadly stakeholders), rather than being available only for internal or specific regulatory purposes, and therefore assurance of these reports is a matter of broader public interest. Stand-alone reports are examined as they can give rise to assurance engagements separate from the audits of general purpose financial reports (GPFRs), even though GPFRs can sometimes include elements of nonfinancial performance.