Inside ICAS: Top talking points from September 2023
Your Office Bearer team review their top talking points from September.
Your Office Bearer team highlight some of the key ICAS initiatives and activities during September 2023.
Clive’s top talking point
We will foster increased confidence in accountants and accountancy by providing excellent activity across our regulatory functions.
Clive Bellingham CA, ICAS President
“I was delighted when we launched our new ICAS Regulation Strategy earlier this month. It sets out our new vision for regulation to promote trust in the accountancy profession through excellence in regulation.
“We perform a range of regulatory functions, issuing more than 1,700 practising certificates to our members, and supervising more than 800 firms. We are authorised to supervise our firms across different statutory schemes, including audit, insolvency and anti-money laundering.
“The new strategy, which has been approved by ICAS Council, sets out how we will foster increased confidence in accountants and accountancy by providing excellent activity across our regulatory functions.”
Read the new ICAS Regulation Strategy.
Alison’s top talking point
The free, easy-to-use toolkit gives suggestions on how to approach implementing EDI into your business.
Alison Cornwell CA, ICAS Deputy President
“Placing equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) at the heart of your organisation can help create a working environment and culture where individuals feel safe, have a sense of belonging and are empowered to achieve their full potential.
“The new EDI Toolkit from ICAS which was launched in September has been produced to help small and medium business get this right.
“The free, easy-to-use toolkit gives suggestions on how to approach implementing EDI into your business. It includes an inclusive language guide, as well as links to free ICAS webinars, podcasts and articles which can help you and your teams better understand EDI.”
Access the EDI Toolkit and its resources.
Karen’s top talking point
Council approved several changes to the Public Practice Regulations which should be noted by all practice firms.
Karen Scholes CA, ICAS Vice President
“In December 2022, Council approved an amendment to the Public Practice Regulations to require alternates to be in place for all practice certificate (PC) holders who operate as sole practitioners.
“The change was made in recognition of the difficulties which clients and family members may have when an accountant in practice dies without having succession arrangements in place.
“After publicising this change, we received some queries and challenges that the new requirement could have a disproportionate impact in some instances. Following the recommendation of the Regulation Board, ICAS Council has decided that a more flexible approach can still achieve the original aims.
“At its meeting on 2 September, Council approved several changes to the Public Practice Regulations which should be noted by all practice firms.”
Read the update from Robert Mudge, Executive Director of Regulation, as he highlighted the changes in September.
What else has got us talking...
- On this year’s International Day of Charity, we celebrated Alison’s fundraising campaign Foundation 25.
- We announced our support for the UK government’s decision not to create a single regulator for the insolvency profession.
- We launched ‘Regulation News’ – a new quarterly update. With so much happening in regulation, we need to make sure that we’re providing our regulated members and firms with everything they need to know.
- In our response to the draft revised UK Corporate Governance Code, we called for ethical leadership to be enshrined in the new code, and for changes to support wider government objectives to grow the economy.
- We highlighted what our new anti-money laundering (AML) monitoring regime, which came into effect from August, means for you and your firm.
- As part of our strategic focus on transforming learning at ICAS, we launched a new results portal for students which is integrated within our learning platform, Advantage. Students can view all summative results and download academic transcripts.
Let's keep talking
- Connect with Clive on LinkedIn.
- Connect with Alison on LinkedIn.
- Connect with Karen on LinkedIn.
