FAQs on the ICAEW disciplinary process

Yes – The most crucial point is that you/your firm must respond to any requests for information from us promptly and in full, irrespective of your view of the complaint. Not replying can escalate matters, as a failure to respond or cooperate can itself lead to a disciplinary finding. However, if we (ICAEW) consider the complaint to be vexatious we may refuse to investigate it. We will never label a complainant as vexatious; rather we will focus on the issues that are raised to determine whether they have been brought solely with the intent of causing annoyance, worry or trouble for the member and/or firm. The Investigation and Disciplinary Regulations set out the rights and obligations of people who make complaints against ICAEW firms, members, students, and affiliates, at regulation 10.1 and 10.8.

All members, students and firms regulated by ICAEW are expected to uphold and observe high professional standards. For this reason, if there is evidence of a significant and serious departure from the standards of behaviour expected, ICAEW, as an independent regulator, will get involved.

We do try to ask for everything at the outset. However, once we receive this information, or it has been seen by the other party to the complaint, we may need to ask for additional information. We appreciate this can be inconvenient, but we do need to do this to make sure that our investigation is fair and thorough.

As an investigation may result in disciplinary action, we need to be thorough to ensure the Conduct Committee has all the information to determine whether there is a case to answer.

No, we are impartial. We will never represent you or your firm or the complainant.

All complaints are treated in the same way, whether against a small practitioner or a large firm.

The Conduct Committee cannot make ICAEW pay any money to you and/or the firm. The Tribunals Committee panel cannot make ICAEW pay for the time you and/or the firm have spent dealing with the case. If you and/or the firm have spent money on representation after the complaint has been sent to the Tribunals Committee, it is possible for the panel to order that some or all those costs be paid. However, only in particular circumstances will such an order be made. The panel will consider how both you and/or the firm and ICAEW have behaved in the proceedings and will only make ICAEW pay costs in particular circumstances, as set out in Investigation and Disciplinary Regulation (IDR) 32.5 and 55.2.

Any complaint received by ICAEW (whether made anonymously or not) about an ICAEW member, student or firm that is regulated by ICAEW may indicate potential misconduct and must be considered.

For an investigation to be fair, it needs to be thorough. This means that we need to research all the facts and give you or the firm enough time to answer the allegation. This can take some time. Although we always aim to finalise cases as quickly as possible, it can take anything between three months for straightforward cases and a year or more depending on how complicated and strongly contested a case is.

• Read more about the Conduct Committee

The Fitness to Practise Committee (FtPC) meets as a panel; each panel is made up of two lay members (one of which will chair the panel) and one accountant. Its primary role is to decide if you are fit to respond to an investigation and/or to participate in disciplinary proceedings and/or regulatory proceedings and/or whether your fitness to practise is seriously impaired through physical or mental health. Referrals to the committee can be made by ICAEW, chairs of the disciplinary committees, or by you yourself.

In addition to this, the FtPC will also consider applications from individuals who wish to register as ACA students (provisional members) where applications disclose potential fitness issues, such as previous criminal convictions and applications for readmission to membership in certain instances.

More information is available in the If you are suffering from a medical condition section.

• Read more about appearing before the Tribunals Committee.

You can appeal against a decision made by a Tribunals Committee (TC) panel provided you do so within 28 days of the date of service of the committee's written record of decision. The Appeal Committee (AC) considers these appeals. The AC works in panels of five people: two chartered accountants, two non-accountants and a legally qualified chair. The AC can affirm, vary, or rescind the decision of the TC. If an appeal is successful, the AC can still ask the ICAEW member, student or firm to pay the costs of the appeal and, in certain circumstances, ask ICAEW to pay. If an appeal is unsuccessful, it may order the ICAEW member, student or firm to pay ICAEW's costs.

We always aim to be thorough in our investigation of complaints. Both parties will be asked to provide evidence to support their claim or position. It is important you and/or your firm responds to any requests for information from us promptly and in full.

Investigation and Disciplinary Regulation (IDR) 16 puts an obligation on ICAEW members, students, and firms to provide specified information if asked to do so by the Conduct Department in accordance with the duty to cooperate set out in Disciplinary Bye-Law 8.1. Members can be (and are) disciplined for failing to provide a satisfactory response to a formal IDR 16 letter. However, the sequence of events will, almost without exception, be that we will have written to the member but will have received no response. We will usually then send two further reminders at fortnightly intervals. If these produce no reply, only then will we consider issuing a requirement for information under IDR 16. If you do not respond within the specified period, you will make yourself liable to disciplinary action.

We have no experience of members complaining that they have been the subject of litigation using information obtained during the handling of a complaint against him or her. Often claims are based on allegations of poor work. If we receive such a complaint that is a disciplinary issue, the ICAEW case manager may try to help both parties find a solution to the problem through conciliation. If conciliation works (which it does 90% of the time), the parties agree a mutually acceptable solution and sign a document that prevents subsequent legal action on the same subject matter as the complaint.

Yes there is. Conciliation is used to try to resolve the problem whenever it is appropriate do so. This process is non-judgemental and non-adversarial. The ICAEW case manager will try to help both parties find a permanent solution to the problem rather than allocate blame. Solutions are never imposed but are mutually agreed between the parties. If an agreement is reached, ICAEW cannot take disciplinary action against the ICAEW member, student, or firm in respect of that complaint. 90% of the cases we try to conciliate are resolved.

• Find out more about conciliation

If a complaint is investigated against an ICAEW member or firm and the Conduct/Tribunal Committee determines that the case is proven, then they may include costs recovery as part of their disciplinary order. ICAEW staff time is charged at £180 an hour for the investigation.

The money received from any cost order is retained by ICAEW. No recovery is made regarding any time that may be spent by a complainant or informant. Neither complainant's nor informants are entitled to charge costs to ICAEW.