Statutory Regulators Research Articles

Accountability of the accountancy bodies: the peculiarities of a British accountancy body

The UK accountancy bodies, enjoying Royal Charters, exercise considerable social power. They act as statutory regulators for the auditing and the insolvency sector. Their regulatory activities (e.g. disciplining members) have a potential to blemish the name and reputation of their members and can bring the accountancy bodies into dispute with their members. In liberal societies, a common understanding is that the aggrieved individuals may be able to take legal action to correct perceived injustices. However, as this paper shows, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has asserted, and the courts accepted that they themselves have no powers to intervene in the internal affairs of the ACCA. Such powers, the ACCA established, are reserved for an official known as the ‘Visitor’, who may be appointed by the Lord Chancellor's Department on behalf of the Sovereign/Crown. The ACCA has relied upon this legal precedent, which it helped to create, to prevent an aggrieved member from airing his grievances in courts. However, eventually the legal precedent became problematic for the ACCA, as it had the potential to directly enmesh the state in the governance of the ACCA. At this point, the ACCA sought reversal of the legal precedent. The case illuminates the politics of accountability and shows the manner in which one of the UK accountancy bodies mobilised its resources to enact a very particular kind of accountability.

Developing programme specifications with professional bodies and statutory regulators in health and social care

This article describes a collaborative and ambitious project involving academics and colleagues in the health‐ and social care professional body and statutory regulatory body community to develop a consistent approach to programme specifications and transcripts. Through an iterative consultative process a consensus emerged amongst the majority of relevant professional bodies and statutory regulatory bodies that, over a period of time, consistent programme specification and transcripts could be integrated into their accreditation and regulatory processes. The implementation of higher education policy on programme specification and transcripts must be seen in the context of rapid and profound change in the health‐ and social care professions. It concludes that the adoption of programme specifications will promote greater clarity about the objectives for education and training for health‐ and social care professionals which in turn will help ensure a supply of fit for practice and purpose professionals to form the future health‐ and social care workforce essential to meet the government’s ambitious modernisation agenda.