Government rejects call for UK accounting inquiry
The government has rejected a call for an inquiry into the implications for UK corporate accounting practice following the collapse of Enron on the ground that 'it couldn't happen in the UK'.
Junior trade minister Melanie Johnson claimed that ‘major differences between the accounting requirements in the UK and the US make it unlikely that the principal accounting factors we understand to have been involved in the collapse of Enron would be replicated here’.
Replying to a formal question in the Commons from Tory Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson she added: ‘We are, however, following the developments in the US’.
Johnson said: ‘The UK Accounting Standards Board has been playing a leading role for some time in international discussions of accounting requirements in this area.’
Meanwhile energy minister Brian Wilson refused to say when British ministers were informed there were problems at Enron in reply to another question from Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price.