In the United Kingdom LLPs are governed by the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000 (in Great Britain) and the Limited Liability Partnerships Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 in Northern Ireland, with the rules governing this scheme consolidated across the UK with the Companies Act 2006, the latter coming into effect in 2009. It was lobbied for by the Big Four auditing firms, all of which had converted by January 2003, limiting their liability for their audits. A UK limited liability partnership is a corporate body - that is to say, it has a continuing legal existence independent of its members, as compared to a partnership which may (in England and Wales, does not) have a legal existence dependent upon its membership.