AAT President calls for accountancy profession to focus on ethics
19 October 2022
To mark Global Ethics Day today (19 October), AAT has called for more focus within the accountancy profession on ethics and highlighted the benefits of increasing and maintaining public confidence.
AAT has a firm commitment to enhancing and upholding the highest professional standards. All AAT members are required to comply with its Code of Professional Ethics, which is based on the IESBA (International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants) Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. This sets out five fundamental principles which all AAT members are required to adopt: integrity, objectivity, professional conduct and due care, confidentiality and professional behaviour.
AAT provides a range of resources to support members in understanding the Code of Professional Ethics and applying ethical principles, including ethics and sustainability, digital ethics and ethical leadership and culture. Case study examples also help members to apply the fundamental principles to ethical issues, as well as guidance on other areas including anti-bribery and whistleblowing.
Additionally, ethics is embedded into AAT’s new suite of accounting qualifications – Qualifications 2022 (Q2022) – which launched last month. It is one of four key themes which runs throughout the qualification, from being referenced at Level 1 to the ability to understand the impact and analyse the themes at Level 4. These themes link to the new skills needed by accounting technicians to help students thrive in their future careers.
In a speech at AAT’s Future Finance conference, taking place today in Birmingham, AAT President Christina Earls said:
“On Global Ethics Day, the accountancy profession has a real opportunity to focus on this area, both in the sense of professional integrity and standards and of our ethical duties as people to show care, compassion and community values. Not only do we pride ourselves on these values at AAT, but we believe in these values as a whole sector. The new suite of AAT qualifications – Q2022 – incorporates a greater emphasis on the fundamental principles of professional ethics from the very first levels, engaging with students’ hearts and minds from their first exams and helping them apply what they learn to real-life examples. This has become a core part of the curriculum and runs through every module at each level and I’m very excited to see the impact the new qualifications will have.”
Christina added:
In terms of ethics, I’ve been challenged several times in my career, and having a robust ethics policy is very important. As the sector changes and new challenges come up, it’s vital that we make ethics less of a dry subject and help students look at how they can put it to practical use. Professional integrity is about doing the right thing when no-one is looking, and AAT has robust policies in place to ensure our members and students understand how to apply the highest levels of professional judgement.
More information on AAT’s professional standards and requirements, including the Code of Professional Ethics and how to contact AAT’s ethical helpline, are available via the AAT website.
AAT has also produced a guide, ‘What you need to know before appointing an accountant’, as part of its ongoing Accountable campaign which aims to raise standards across the accountancy profession by dealing with the problem of unregulated accountants and tax advisors. The free guide helps consumers understand the risks of using unregulated accountants, including examples of malpractice and incompetency, and how to avoid costly financial mistakes.
