Part of a pretty good article on privilege and the case the ICAEW has been intervening in to try and convince the judge to extend legal professional privilege to accountants.  But this is a howler:

Chartered accountants pass rigorous exams and gain valuable experience through their employment during a three year training contract. Once qualified, they have to complete a number of hours of continuous professional development each year to ensure their technical knowledge is up-to-date.

You would expect the Chief Executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants to know his own body's rules on continuous professional development.  The ICAEW ditched the 'hours' system years ago.  Now, members must certify that the actions they have taken during the year address any risks to their professionalism.

The new system is altogether more difficult, in that you can't just turn up to a bunch of useless courses, sign the register and then bugger off down the pub for the rest of the day.  Indeed, that's such a problem with US accountants, who still have the hours system, that course providers now have to take the register at the start and end of the course (and some even do it at lunchtime too to prevent an obvious cheat).  Chartered accountants must think about the risks to their professionalism, plan a course of action to deal with it, and then follow it through.  And be prepared to explain what they've done if asked to.

They don't have to "complete a number of hours" at all.

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Filed under: Ethics, Institutes, Regulation with tags cpd, icaew, legal professional privilege, michael izza