Ask members of the public, and they’d struggle to tell you precisely why R3 is called ‘R3’. We know, of course, that it stands for ‘Rescue, Recovery and Renewal’, the, um, well known three ‘R’s of the insolvency profession.

To the general public, the body probably sounds like a character from Star Wars.

Maybe it’s not bothered, but while it’s thinking about its structure, coming up with a name that means something to the man on the Clapham Omnibus might be worth some thought.

The problem with R3 is that, if you write it in any context, not just in the media, you’d have to add another sentence explaining what it is. Why not just have a name that explains what it is?

Some might question too what the relevance of two of those ‘R’s is, as well.
Recovery I can understand, but Rescue? It isn’t a lifeboat association. And renewal? Sounds a little bit New Labour, doesn’t it?

R3 does do some good work, its warnings on debt management plans recently being a good example of the impact it can have.

But just think how big that impact could be.

Alex Hawkes is the news editor of Accountancy Age