A recent development in the assurance services profession is the emergence of engagements on a broad range of subject matter that are designed to provide a moderate level of assurance. A significant issue for the profession is how to convey to users the limited extent of the assurance provided by such engagements. This study identifies four main categories of moderate assurance reporting forms (opinion on procedures, negative assurance, positive assurance, positive assurance with a limitations paragraph) being used in practice worldwide for providing assurance on environmental and sustainability reports. It examines whether these four reporting forms convey a lower level of assurance than that provided by a traditional high assurance report, and whether these reporting formats lead to significantly different levels of assurance perceived by a group of 792 shareholders. The findings indicate that users perceive that these moderate assurance reporting formats generally provide a lower level of assurance than that provided by a high assurance report. However, one significant difference was found between the four types of moderate assurance reports, with the opinion on procedures format providing higher assurance than the positive assurance with a limitations paragraph format. Implications for policy makers in their deliberations on assurance report wording in relation to moderate assurance engagements are considered.

In 2001 the International Auditing Practices Committee (IAPC, now the International Auditing and Assurance StandardsBoard (IAASB)) commissioned research on the determination and communication of moderate assurance. This research was published in IFAC research monograph No. 1 (2002). Part of this research involved surveying the types of assurance services undertaken by 56 assurance firms from 11 different countries, the levels of assurance at which these assurance services were generally provided, and for those services provided as moderate assurance services, the reasons why. This paper re-analyses this data and extends the IFAC research report (2002) by examining the differences between the types of assurance services (other than historical financial statement assurance) and levels at which these assurance services are provided by the former Big 5 audit firms compared with the non-Big 5 audit firms. Information was also collected on 166 moderate assurance engagements provided by these participating assurance firms. The determinants of the level of assurance for these assurance service engagements were identified and differences between the Big 5 and the non-Big 5 audit firms are reported.

Aligning with the movement to improve collaboration between mental health professionals and service users requires developing relationships with family members. Identifying strategies to involve families in the development of CME is crucial to initiating and maintaining family engagement.