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Deloitte UK reports 2024 financial results

Strong results in a challenging market

30 September 2024

  • Revenue for the year ended 31 May 20241 increased by 2.4% to £5.7bn with varying performance across businesses;
  • Distributable operating profit in line with last year at £756m. Average profit per equity partner drops by 5%2 to £1.012m;
  • Continued investment in our people despite challenging markets – 3,387 new colleagues hired, 6,800 colleagues promoted – including 80 new partners - plus £326m invested in reward and learning;
  • State of the art 22,000 sqm EMEA learning campus launched near Paris, accommodating up to 20,000 professionals each year;
  • Ongoing investment of £135m into technology, including AI, to improve client service and ways of working.

Richard Houston, Deloitte UK Senior Partner and CEO, said:

“This is a strong set of results in a challenging market, against a difficult economic and geopolitical backdrop. Like many businesses, we had to carefully consider our cost base and make some difficult choices this year. We were therefore pleased to be able to recognise our people for their hard work with sustained promotion levels and investments in reward and benefits, including a 5% increase in average pay and bonuses.

“We’ve also continued to improve our people’s experience of working at our firm, with new benefits like equal parenting leave demonstrating our commitment to being a family-friendly employer.

“The UK economic outlook has been improving in the last 12 months. A recovering economy, alongside the government’s commitment to work with business in tackling economic and technological challenges, offers the prospect of stronger growth to come.”

Our distributable operating profit3 for the year ended 31 May 2024 was in line with last year’s profit at £756m [2023: £756m]. Average profit per equity partner dropped slightly to £1.012m [2023: £1.060m], reflecting our confidence to continue to invest in equity partners.

Business performance

More challenging market conditions led to mixed performance across our businesses, with revenue for the year ended 31 May 2024 seeing an increase of 2% to £5.7bn [2023: £5.6bn].

Our Tax & Legal business recorded 3% growth from £1.21bn in FY23 to £1.25bn. This was a result of working with clients on their transition to technology-based solutions, onboarding of new tax and legal regulations, as well as the management of increasingly complex and mobile workforces.

Audit & Assurance saw a continued focus on quality, with sustained market leading quality scores from the Financial Reporting Council, alongside an 8% growth in revenue from £869m in FY23 to £941m. With a financially resilient business and culture of acting in the public interest we are well placed to meet the needs of the market as it continues to evolve in the coming years.

Consulting revenues contracted by 1% from £1.6bn in FY23 to £1.58bn, reflecting more cautious investment in services in light of economic conditions. However, there was continued demand for business transformation, cloud migration, technology modernisation, data and analytics plus GenAI evaluation projects.

Risk Advisory saw revenues of £495m – in line with the previous year (£493m) - as it continued to work with clients on financial services risk and regulatory change, Cyber and resilience services and preparing for upcoming internet and sustainability regulations.

Our Financial Advisory business faced a challenging market, particularly in Forensic and M&A advisory, with revenues contracting by 2% from £669m in FY23 to £653m in FY24. Despite a slower M&A market, our Transaction Services team grew on prior year and non-transaction-based Advisory offerings also saw strong demand.

Investments in our people, the regions, technology and communities

In response to a challenging market we had to take the difficult decision of making a number of targeted redundancies early in the year. However, we have continued to hire in areas of growth, with 3,387 new colleagues, including 2,150 graduates, apprentices and interns joining the firm. 6,800 of our 27,000 people were promoted this year – 80 of them to partner.

We invested over £263m in salary increases and bonus payments, as well as nearly £63m in learning and development (up from £53.9m in 2023), with our new EMEA leadership centre in Paris (Deloitte University) opening in June this year. With 20,000 colleagues across EMEA attending the university every year, we're investing in our people to shape the future of our firm.

Our benefits package now includes 26 weeks fully paid family leave for all new parents – in addition to policies around bereavement, maternity, fertility and caring responsibilities – highlighting Deloitte’s aim to become the UK’s leading family-friendly employer.

We continue our commitment to the UK’s nations and regions, opening new sustainability-focused offices in Edinburgh’s city centre last year and in Manchester and Bristol this summer.

Alongside this we increased our investment in communities across the UK to £10.7m, up from £10.4m in FY23, working with nearly 90 society partners through volunteering, fundraising, charitable donations and Fwpro-bono projects.

We have continued with our WorldClimate4 actions, including introducing sustainability goals for all our people, asking them to advance their knowledge and identify opportunities to play their part in our net zero transformation.

We have accelerated our investment in technology, including AI, to improve client service and our people’s working experience, with £135m invested in FY24.

In addition to building solutions for our clients we rolled out our own language model powered virtual helper – PairD - to 75,000 people across Europe and the Middle East.

Outlook

Richard Houston concluded:

“Business leaders want industrial strategy to be top of the UK’s economic priorities. Our role is to help business and government find and deliver inclusive growth to create a more sustainable future for the UK.”

Revenue by business
 

Notes to editors

  • 1All revenue numbers presented herein, unless otherwise noted, represent UK and Switzerland consolidated, and have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (‘IFRS’) and IFRS Interpretation Committee interpretations, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.
  • 2This reflects the firm’s increase in investment in the number of equity partners
  • 3Distributable operating profit differs from profit as reported in the firm’s Statutory Financial Statements as a consequence of, among other things, the treatment of member annuities under IFRS 17, the firm’s defined benefit pension schemes and distributable capital profits. Average profit per member is based on distributable operating profit and was £1,012,000 per equity partner in the year ended 31 May 2024 (2023: £1,060,000).
  • 4WorldClimate is our plan to reach net zero, embed responsible climate choices throughout our organisation and use our reach and influence to help others do the same.
  • Our total UK tax contribution was £1.75bn in the year ended 31 May 2024 (2023: £1.7bn) and consisted of £1.15bn of taxes collected on behalf of HMRC (VAT, PAYE and employee national insurance) and £0.6bn of taxes in relation to members’ income taxes, national insurance, corporation tax and employer’s national insurance. The effective UK tax rate for equity partners was 49.9% (2023: 50.4%).
  • Deloitte’s Annual Review for the year ended 31 May 2024 has been published. This Review discusses the firm’s performance, alongside a wider review of the impact we have made for our people, clients and the communities we work in. Links have been provided to the firm’s Tax Impact Report, Pay & Inclusion Report, Audit Transparency Report, ESG report and Financial Statements.