Regulation - Review plan 'still a draft'

Plans for a new profession-wide regulator were thrown into confusion this week, when the government said proposals put forward by Chris Swinson for a Review Board would need to be revised before ministers could consider them, writes Phillip Inman.

The Department of Trade and Industry has written to other groups interested in the review telling them that they have time to make their own submissions because the plan for a Review Board, which would oversee the six major accountancy institutes, is currently being revised.

The delay is likely to postpone any recommendations by the DTI on how to regulate the profession until November – after the summer holidays and the party conference season.

Ian McCartney, the industry minister charged with pushing through a new regulatory regime for the profession, is understood to be uneasy about the commitment of the six institutes and their ability to carry through the plan in the face of possible member opposition. But Chris Swinson, president of the English ICA and author of the Review Board, denied he had talked to ministers or received any feedback from the DTI.

He said the proposals had been presented to the DTI in draft form and had so far not been altered, though ‘we will need to consider whatever the DTI has to say on the matter’.