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Strong response to ACCA member's petition

21 Jul 2008

A petition posted by an ACCA member on a UK government website calling for the legal protection of the term 'accountant' has attracted more than 4,000 signatures.

Alan Shooter FCCA FCA submitted the petition to the Prime Minister's Number 10  website because of his strong views towards unqualified accountants, tax and financial advisers providing services to the public and to businesses.

'Lawyers must have professional qualifications, but anyone can currently provide services calling themselves accountants, tax or consultants without qualifications,' he said. 'These people need to be regulated.

'There is a real groundswell of opinion about this issue and I am very pleased with how this petition has developed. Judging from the numbers of ACCAs and FCCAs who have signed up, this is a subject that matters to those of us who take our training and professionalism seriously.'

Andrew Harding, ACCA's managing director of finance and operations, said: 'ACCA has watched Alan Shooter's petition with interest. We are pleased to see it has done so well. We recently encouraged Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats' Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor, to table an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the House of Commons to call for the term "accountant" to be legally recognised. They say this is necessary in order to protect customers from unqualified and incompetent financial advisers, very much echoing Alan Shooter's petition.

'Working with the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB), ACCA is keen to protect the term "accountant". This is a very important issue for ACCA members and students alike.'