Inside ICAS: December update from the Office Bearer Team
An update from the ICAS Office Bearer Team on what’s been happening at ICAS over the past month.
President Catherine Burnet CA, Deputy President Bruce Pritchard CA and Vice President Indy Hothi CA together make-up the ICAS Officer Bearer Team. Here they bring you a monthly round-up of ICAS news.
Catherine Burnet CA, ICAS President
“This month we published the key findings from ICAS’ recent equality and diversity survey (now named the 'EDP survey'), which all Members were invited to participate in. The survey results provide rich insight and indicate areas that need to be a real focus of our attention. Feedback has highlighted experiences of discrimination in our profession, revealing that there is much work to be done to create a more diverse and inclusive culture within our organisations. I know that ICAS and the ED&I Committee will use the insight from this research to drive forward their work in 2021 and beyond.”
Bruce Pritchard CA, ICAS Deputy President
“As we reach the end of the year, it’s staggering to learn of the volume of webinars ICAS has delivered for Members over the past nine months. There has been a total of 73 webinars, with nearly 9,000 attendees joining live, and many more watching on-demand. Now is a good time to catch-up on what you’ve missed via the webinar hub. If you have a chance you can even meet myself, Catherine and Indy in our introductory webinar ‘meet the ICAS Office Bearers’ held back in June.”
Indy Hothi CA, ICAS Vice President
"Our latest CA magazine, which will take us through December and into January, provides an interesting read and the positive message that ‘this year’s challenges can be next year’s opportunities’ is a helpful way to begin thinking about 2021. It’s a time to look ahead, but there is much we can learn from 2020 to improve what we do going forward. I’d encourage Members to take a look at the magazine, for insight and inspiration."
Other news and updates
At the end of November an ICAS Special General Meeting was held online. Members were asked to vote on a range of resolutions including the final recommendations of the comprehensive Governance Review. All resolutions were carried, delivering a clear mandate from ICAS Members that will allow us to continue our journey to becoming a future-looking, inclusive, 21st-century professional body.
ICAS joined forces with Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) to issue a statement highlighting climate change risk and how it should be reflected in financial reporting. The Accounting for Sustainability Annual Summit took place over two weeks and ICAS attended the plenary session with an address from HRH, The Prince of Wales, and Ban Ki-moon, former General Secretary of the UN.
Other highlights from our policy and influence work include:
- Chief Executive Bruce Cartwright CA participation in the Brexit Business Taskforce on Professional and Business Services round table event hosted by Michael Gove MP.
- ICAS participation in the PACE partnership ministerial meeting chaired by Jaime Hepburn, Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills. PACE Partnership is a multi-agency response to redundancies in Scotland.
- ICAS participation in a meeting on future legislative and non-legislative changes held by Accountant in Bankruptcy which could impact on the Protected Trust Deed market.
- ICAS joined various meetings with HMRC on a range of matters including making tax digital, the Employment and Payroll Group, the HMRC Joint VAT Consultative Committee the HMRC Trusts and Estate Advisory Group, and the HMRC Construction Forum.
- ICAS participation in a CIOT-hosted Round Table on Public Understanding of Tax.
- A virtual meeting with representatives from the Big Four and Group A firms in Scotland, chaired by Catherine Burnet CA and including a Q&A with Sir Jon Thompson, CEO of the FRC.
Engagement
We held our last webinar of the year in the first week of December – ICAS Insights: Risk, resilience & sustainability. Our speakers discussed the importance of corporate resilience and how companies can embed sustainability within their strategy, scenario planning and corporate reporting.
Other webinars held in our ICAS Insight series include CAs can be a force for good. Held on 24 November as we celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Power of One, the webinar provided an opportunity to reflect on what has happened in the last five years and explore recent and forthcoming changes to the Code of Ethics.
We also held a Bank of England Update on 25 November, when the Bank of England Agent for Scotland, Will Dowson, gave an ‘off the record’ briefing on the economic outlook, followed by a Q&A session. And on 2 December the ICAS Grampian Area Network hosted a webinar with Robert Gordon University, exploring ‘Accounting for crypto’.
Our weekly Ask ICAS series has included the following webinars, also available to watch on demand:
- 26 November – Going Concern – Revised ISA (UK) 570
- 3 December – Brexit: Customs transition and VAT
Also, this month a meeting of the UK and International Area Network Chairs was held to share best practice. There was representation from all five UK Networks as well as Singapore, Hong Kong, Cape Town, Johannesburg, New York, New Zealand, Jersey and Guernsey.
CA training
Seventeen out of eighteen university accreditation reviews have been completed for accredited universities against the new ICAS syllabus. The remaining university review will be completed before the end of the year.
The final ITP (ICAS Tax Professional) exam diet marking school took place. ICAS now offers the CA/CTA joint qualification which has replaced ITP.
We also held exams on the new syllabus for TC (Test of Competence) for 750 candidates on MIT (Management Information and Technology) and on TC Finance for 750 candidates. TC results were issued to 3,000 Students at the start of December.
ICAS also delivered a Young Enterprise Scotland lecture to schools across Scotland in an ‘Introduction into Managing Finances’.
That’s all for this month’s round-up. Look out for your first update of 2021 towards the end of January.
The latest episode in the CA Agenda podcast was released this month when Vice President Indy Hothi CA interviewed our President Catherine Burnet CA.