Start-up and small business owners are increasingly using unqualified accountants to advise them. In many cases, this will be due to lack of knowledge, understanding and making the presumption that anyone describing themselves as an accountant is necessarily professionally qualified.

The term accountant has been in widespread and unregulated use for well over a century. This factor, together with the complex structure of the profession, make it practically impossible to introduce legal protection for the name.

The introduction of legal protection for the existing term would have to be government-led and there would inevitably be intense demarcation disputes between the constituent elements within the profession, as to which groups would be considered an accountant and which would be excluded.

What is required is a pragmatic solution that can be instituted by agreement between existing professional bodies without the need for government intervention.

The six CCAB bodies should devise a suitable generic name for their members and firms, which would be used alongside the existing membership body’s name. Members of the CCAB bodies would thus describe themselves using a generic name as well as, for example, a Chartered Certified Accountant. The generic name would be equivalent to the term solicitor and would be registered to provide protection.

My reason for not proposing a generic name is to avoid discussion focusing on my effort, as opposed to a discussion about having one, which is more important.

The use of an additional generic name for CCAB bodies’ members and firms would identify and differentiate them for the general public far more clearly than six different usages of the word chartered, which, in any case, has somewhat lost the kudos it once carried. Put simply, if the generic name is not shown, the accountant in question is not a member of one of the first-tier bodies (ie. CCAB).

A business owner could then make an informed decision on how to proceed in light of this knowledge. The relatively small non-CCAB bodies, their members and unqualifieds would not be directly affected and they would be able to continue to use the term accountant.

The general public would have considerably more protection than at present as the generic name covering CCAB members and firms would itself be protected and would be viewed as the accountancy equivalent of solicitor.

Malcolm Nettleton is a sole practitioner at Azur Consultancy