The SRA published a report in May evaluating their reforms to the Accountants’ report requirements. They found that in the period June to November 2017 they received 923 qualified reports, which is only a third of the number received in the same period in 2015. 121 of those reports were investigated, with 6 leading to regulatory action. Paul Philip, Chief Executive of the SRA, said: "These findings are encouraging and show that this approach is meeting our expectations. We are ensuring a sharp focus on public protection, while reducing unnecessary bureaucracy for firms." The full report can be found on the SRA website.
Executive Council member, Andy Harris focuses on the new Accounts Rules due from the SRA in his column “The View”. We have all been waiting for details of the toolkit that the SRA had indicated would accompany the new rules, but Andy has heard from the SRA that they do not now plan to issue and guidance alongside the rules. At the time of writing, the SRA have still not confirmed when the new rules will be published.
The ILFM is excited to have available some scholarships in a three year arrangement funded by Iceberg. You will see in this edition that our first scholarship under this arrangement has been awarded to a Practice Manager in Leeds, enabling him to take one of our Associate courses. If you would be interested in applying for a scholarship, details of how to apply are on our website. Thank you so much to Iceberg for making funds available for these scholarships.
One of our members has written an article on his journey to becoming an ILFM Associate member. If you are considering whether to take our Diploma or Associate courses, do read his article to see how they have helped him both in the role he was in and in career progression. Jason Mitchell from Francis Clark has given us a useful summary for COFAs of the money laundering regulation requirements – it’s good to be reminded of our responsibilities in that area.
Also in this edition we have an article focussing on sitting down, which tells us that sitting is bad for our health! It outlines some of the dangers of sitting for a large part of the day and encourages us to find ways to move more, which is quite a challenge given the nature of office work!
I’m sure you’ll all be aware of the introduction of the Living Wage, but does your firm pay it? We have an article by Sam Hepher of the Living Wage Foundation which encourages us to become accredited Living Wage employers. Do read the article and think about discussing whether your firm should become accredited.
Included with this edition is the Software Suppliers Guide, which will hopefully be useful to some of you. And the Software Users Survey is now available to complete. Do take a few minutes to take part in this and give your opinion of the software you use. Our members are in a very good position to judge how good the different packages are.
Well, we are approaching the summer season now, the weather suddenly got rather warm a few weeks ago and certainly down here in Devon we have been enjoying some sunshine. I hope you will all have the opportunity to get away from the office and enjoy a week or two of family time during the summer. Much as we all (hopefully!) enjoy our work, it does us all good to forget about it completely for a while sometimes!
http://www.ilfm.org.uk/site/publications/legal-abacus/
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