PwC UK, which includes revenues for PwC Middle East, increased its revenue by 12% to £4,233m ($5,267m) for the year ended 30 June 2019.
One of the key reasons for growth was attributed to a ‘higher than expected demand as clients seek help tackling uncertainty, risk, and the need to transform’.
PwC chairman and senior partner Kevin Ellis said: “In the face of uncertainty and the fourth industrial revolution, clients sought our support to transform their businesses, with 21% of revenues this year coming from technology-related services.
“Our Intelligent Digital approach of combining business and industry insight with technology solutions delivered greater efficiency and value for our clients as we help them adapt to the increasingly complex world they operate in and tackle their biggest challenges.”
As demand for technology-related services increases, Ellis said ‘investment in innovation, technology, and upskilling our workforce remain key priorities’ and announced the firm’s plan to invest a further £140m this year, including £30m in audit quality.
The investment into audit quality comes as no surprise as UK firms have faced increased scrutiny over their audit businesses in the wake of high-profile company collapses which put the spotlight on the role of the auditor.
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By GlobalDataEllis said: “We have responded constructively to the multiple regulatory reviews into the audit profession. Our Future of Audit initiative which launched in November 2018 saw us engage with hundreds of stakeholders on how they believe the audit needs to evolve. We welcome more choice in the market and reforms that will improve audit quality and are committed to playing our part in building trust and confidence in the sector.
“We rolled out our wide-ranging Programme to Enhance Audit Quality in which we are recruiting an additional 500 people, investing further in training and technology, and have commissioned an independent paper on the culture of challenge in audit from professor Karthik Ramanna.
“We are disappointed that this year’s FRC audit quality inspection results were below the high standards we are committed to achieving on all of our audits. Supporting our teams to deliver high quality audits consistently is the primary objective for our audit business.”
All areas of PwC’s business grew as can be seen in the table below:
| Service Line | 2019 (£m) | 2018 (£m) | Growth (%) |
| Assurance | 1,442 | 1,334 | 8.1 |
| Tax | 1,068 | 941 | 13.5 |
| Consulting | 950 | 778 | 22.1 |
| Deals | 773 | 771 | 8.7 |
