Supreme Court rules against Scottish replacement for Westminster Brexit bill December 13, 2018 The Supreme Court has decided parts of a Scottish law passed to take control over areas such as farming and fishing after Brexit are “outside of the legislative competence” of the Scottish parliament. Holyrood passed its own Brexit legislation in March after disagreeing with Westminster’s own Brexit bill. Most of the Holyrood bill was within [...]
Give accountants the tools they need to fight money laundering December 13, 2018 THE GOVERNMENT estimates that around $90bn of dirty money comes through the UK each year. Inevitably, this money eventually comes into contact with finance professionals, which has prompted charges of widespread ethical failures. Clearly, there are people with financial skills who are knowingly laundering money. But the truth is more nuanced than the frequent accusations [...]
Want to master the art of negotiation? You need emotional intelligence December 13, 2018 With so much focus on the detail – or lack thereof – in the UK’s proposed agreement for leaving the EU, you could be forgiven for thinking that deal-making is a technocrat’s art. For the negotiation teams here in the UK and Europe, technical expertise and competences about the issues at stake are, of course, [...]
EY and PwC reveal that both dismissed five partners over inappropriate behaviour December 11, 2018 The final two Big Four financial services firms have disclosed the number of partners that have left the companies following allegations of inappropriate behaviour. PwC fired five partners for inappropriate behaviour including harassment or bullying over the last three years. EY revealed that five partners had left the company over a four year period, becoming [...]
And BDO makes five? Don’t count on it, says firm’s global chief December 11, 2018 The global boss of professional services firm BDO had said it has no ambitions to join the ranks of the Big Four, as it aims for dominance of the mid-market across its operations. The firm, Britain’s sixth-largest auditor, revealed its global fee income hit $8.99bn (£7.16bn) for the past year – a 10.7 per cent [...]
Seven KPMG partners left the firm over inappropriate behaviour including bullying and sexual harassment within four-year period December 10, 2018 A total of seven KPMG partners have left the financial services firm over the last four years following accusations of inappropriate behaviour, including sexual harassment and bullying. The revelation comes after it was reported that fellow ‘Big Four’ firm Deloitte fired 20 partners for similar behaviour over the same period and as workplace culture faces [...]
Tesco fraud fiasco leaves new SFO boss with serious questions to answer December 6, 2018 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has had more ups and downs than Thomas Cook’s share price. When it scores a big success, like the near £500m deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with Rolls-Royce, it gets cheered to the rafters, while failures such as the Tchenguiz brothers debacle sees it dubbed the Serious Farce Office by critics. [...]
Serious Fraud Office trial against Tesco executives collapses December 6, 2018 The Serious Fraud Office’s case against two senior former Tesco’s executive has collapsed because of insufficient evidence. At Southwark Crown Court this morning Judge Sir John Royce instructed the jury to acquit both defendants, former UK managing director Chris Bush and ex-UK food commercial director John Scouler. The pair had both been charged with one [...]
Ted Baker appoints law firm Herbert Smith Freehills to probe hugging claims December 6, 2018 Fashion chain Ted Baker said this morning it has appointed law firm Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) to investigate claims of forced hugging by its boss Ray Kelvin. The Ftse 250 chain’s shares have been battered since the news emerged that the fashion retailer has launched an internal investigation into harassment claims. In a trading update [...]
‘Front end’ of company reports do not meet auditing standards, says regulator December 6, 2018 Auditors’ work on non-financial information in company reports does not meet auditing standards, a new report has found. A report published today by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said auditors are often not doing enough to support statements made in the ‘other information’ section of company reports. The ‘other information’ section, also known as the [...]