The ICAEW Regulatory Board (IRB) is an independent board that is responsible for ensuring ICAEW’s regulatory and disciplinary work, undertaken by the Professional Standards Department) is carried out in the public interest. It also provides assurance to government, oversight regulators and the public that these tasks are carried out independently and objectively.
About the IRB
The IRB’s primary objective is to ensure ICAEW’s regulatory and disciplinary work is carried out in the public interest and to provide assurance to government, oversight regulators, media and members of the public that each task is carried out objectively without any bias shown either towards or against the interests of an ICAEW member or firm.
ICAEW’s regulatory and disciplinary roles are carried out by the Professional Standards Department (PSD). These roles are separate to ICAEW’s other activities so that the PSD can monitor, support or take steps to ensure change if standards are not met.
The IRB also has a wider objective at the heart of its work. This is the quest to promote and maintain the highest professional standards among ICAEW members and firms and for ICAEW to act, and be seen to act, as an improvement regulator. It seeks to ensure that the work of the PSD achieves this by its Regulatory Practice & Policy team (RPP) enabling only appropriately trained and experienced individuals to carry out the highest risk work, and the Quality Assurance team (QAD) pointing out areas for improvement at the end of quality assurance monitoring reviews and running webinars for members and firms on problem areas. There is also an important role to be played by Professional Conduct (PCD) in its work by ensuring that there is an effective deterrent against poor conduct or poor-quality work.
The IRB also has general oversight of the performance of Professional Standards committees. These professional conduct and regulatory committees are not answerable to the IRB for their decisions in individual cases.
The IRB has 12 members, including the chair. For accountancy oversight purposes, it has an equal number of lay and non-lay members. A lay member is someone who is not, and has never been, a member, affiliate or employee of ICAEW or any accountancy body. For legal services oversight purposes, it has a lay majority where a lay member is someone who is not legally qualified.
The accountancy members of the IRB have different backgrounds and specialisms including audit, insolvency and tax. They provide the perspective and insight not only as members in practice but also as members working in business. Many of the lay members have significant experience in other regulated sectors. The combination of technical experts and lay representatives ensures a broad range of views and insights while keeping the public interest at the centre of the IRB’s work.
The current IRB chair is a lay member, Philip Nicol-Gent.
The appointment, performance evaluations and remuneration of chairs and members of the IRB are dealt with by the Regulatory & Conduct Appointments Committee (RACAC). The RACAC reports to the IRB on its activities but is independent of the IRB.
ICAEW Regulatory Board (IRB) response to the BEIS consultation ‘Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance’
We welcome many of the proposals in the Consultation Document. Our main concern is that it does not sufficiently recognise the significant level of independent oversight already exercised by the ICAEW Regulatory Board (IRB) over the member conduct and disciplinary functions of ICAEW.
We believe that, working closely together with ARGA, we can continue to provide an extremely effective audit and accountancy oversight regime. This would enable ARGA to concentrate on the other areas of oversight where enhancement is required, particularly where significant public interest concerns have been identified.
Establishment of the IRB
The IRB was established in 2015 (meeting for the first time in 2016) to enhance the distinction between ICAEW’s representative and regulatory roles following an independent review of ICAEW’s regulatory governance.
The IRB superseded the Professional Standards Board. To enforce the principle of independence within ICAEW’s governance structure which separates regulatory and membership activities, ICAEW office holders, ICAEW Board and council members are not allowed to sit on the IRB or regulatory and disciplinary committees.
IRB board members
The current IRB board members are:
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Philip Nicol-Gent Chair |
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Parjinder Basra Lay member |
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Angela Foyle Non-lay member |
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Annette Lovell Lay member |
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Claire McManus Lay member |
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Thomas Palm Non-lay member |
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Asif Patel Non-lay member |
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Anthony Pygram Alternate Chair |
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Richard Thorpe Non-lay member |
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Caroline Turnbull-Hall Non-lay member |
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Jonathan Williams Non-lay member |
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Ann Wright Lay member |
Terms of Reference
The IRB’s terms of reference set out the role and responsibilities of the IRB and contains practical information on how the IRB operates, for example its quorum. The terms of reference also detail the powers delegated to the IRB and the powers the IRB itself has delegated to other committees.
IRB meeting agendas, papers and minutes
Visit our dedicated page for meeting dates, related papers and records of decisions
Further information
ICAEW Regulatory and Conduct Annual Report 2022–2023
View the ICAEW Regulatory and Conduct Annual Report 2022–2023
View report