CCAB Ethics Survey to take the ethical temperature of the accountancy profession

ICAS members are invited to complete the CCAB Ethics Survey and to share it with professional accountants in their network.

ICAS is one of the five members of the CCAB along with the ICAEW, ACCA, CIPFA and Chartered Accountants Ireland. The CCAB provides a forum for the five member bodies to work together collectively in the public interest on matters affecting the profession and the wider economy.

As accountants, ethics must always be at the forefront of every decision that we make. The UK and Irish professional bodies that make up the CCAB have Codes of Ethics against which we hold our members accountable, which are all substantively based on the IESBA International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants.

As professional bodies, we play a role in supporting our members to do the right thing. The CCAB has created a simple 10-minute, anonymous survey to identify underlying workplace cultures that may be encouraging behaviours that could be seen as unethical.

This survey is an attempt to take the ethical temperature of the accountancy profession over the last 3 years and as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey was open until 29 August. Members are invited to complete the survey and to share it with any other professional accountants in their network.

You can find the CCAB Ethics Survey on their website.

ICAS ethics resources

We are committed to providing ethics resources and support to our members. Since 2015, we have published a series of publications, guidance and resources as part of the Power of One initiative which are all available here.

In November 2020, to mark the fifth anniversary of The Power of One, we issued second editions of our series of publications on ethical leadership:

• Ethics -The Power of One
• The Power of One – Personal responsibility and ethical leadership
• The Power of One – Moral Courage
• The Power of One – Personal Reputation
• The Power of One – Organisational culture and values
• The Power of One – The CA and the organisation
• The Ethical Journey – The Right, the Good and the Virtuous

We also offer the following:

• Guidance on conflict of interest;
• An ethical decision making framework;
• Ethics videos;
• Ethics case studies including CAs’ real-life ethical dilemmas featured within the ICAS research publication Speak up? Listen Up? Whistleblow?; and
• research.

From 1 January 2021, compulsory ethics CPD is introduced for all of our members. This does not involve compulsory attendance at courses or the purchase of material – it could simply mean some reading of ethics-related material available online. In addition to our own ethics resources as noted above, other websites provide useful sources of information as explained here.

If you have an ethical query, including a query on the provisions within the Code of Ethics in relation to values of equality, diversity and inclusion, we offer an ethics helpline service.

We also partnered with whistleblowing charity Protect to provide Members and Students with access to an independent, confidential helpline. This service offers free advice regarding whistleblowing and speaking up.