Friday, April 10, 2015

Insolvency Service Review of IP Regulation



This has now been out for a couple of weeks and if you want to read the full gory detail of the monitoring visits the Insolvency Service have undertaken and the disciplinary action taken against IPs then click here.  We just have one comment to make on table 8 at page 24 of the document setting out the outcomes of RPB monitoring visits to IPs.  This table highlights the slightly different regulatory approaches taken by the RPBs, which in turn reflects their differences of approach when dealing with their members generally in respect of the multi-discipline regulators such as ICAEW, ACCA, CARB and ICAS. 

We see these differences as a good thing and that they highlight the benefits of self-regulation.  The RPBs have each refined their approaches to regulation over recent years, both as a result of internal and external influences and that has led, in our view, to a steady improvement in the regulation of the profession.  Among the external influences are the Insolvency Service as the regulator of regulators who undertake monitoring visits to the RPBs, and we have certainly seen the approach of ACCA change in recent months since their monitoring visit.  A single regulator would not have the same internal influences, whilst it would retain the same external ones. We think that would stifle change and improvement in regulation and would result in the single regulator moving towards a model that the Insolvency Service would like to see.  The report on ACCA already suggests that they have their view on how it should look, but it was good to see that ACCA resisted a number of their suggestions that would have moved them down this path.  Hopefully the other RPBs will resist those suggestions as well, although of course with the new regulatory oversight provisions in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 the influence of the Insolvency Service over the RPBs has increased considerably.  Only time will tell how that affects the regulation of the profession.