An old established firm makes the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. The headlines indicate ‘financial irregularities’ - whatever they might be - but when you see the growth rates for the firm indicated in the reports you might not be surprised.

Delivering accounting, taxation and business advice requires systems to ensure that standards are maintained as well as good staff ­ at growth rates approaching doubling fees in a year those control systems are going to be put under immense strain. Yes, special fees may well not require a doubling of available staff but the pressure placed upon the principals will take its toll, as it seems to have done.

The lesson to be learned from the very vague details currently available is that control systems operated in any professional services firm have to be robust and capable of coping with rapid expansion and probably in the current economic climate contraction, too.

Regular internal reviews of the systems are required by our regulatory bodies but how often are they done and how committed are the principals to having their own work reviewed? In a growth situation these internal reviews often lag behind.

As both a practitioner and president of the UK200Group I am always sad that a firm ends up in the headlines. Just remember that this news appeared not only in the professional press but also locally.

Yes, some direct competitors will rub their hands (behind closed doors, of course) and will possibly pick up some work but for the whole profession such headlines diminish us in the eyes of the public.

I am firmly of the opinion that the system operated by the UK200Group of annual peer reviews ensure that our member firms do keep those control issues firmly in the forefront of their thinking. We see many potential members and the issue is always the regular quality assurance reviews. The firms that go it alone can and do make it, but sometimes you need friendly support.

I hope Wenham Major’s problems can be resolved quickly and do not burst into the headlines again. Both for their sake and for the sake of the whole profession.

David Ingall is president of the UK200Group