Derek McDowell (Labour)

The accountancy bodies are concerned with the definition of "the public interest" and with the discretion of the supervisory authority, which seems unlimited, to determine that it should carry out an investigation in the public interest. They are anxious that some effort should be made to spell out what the phrase means or at least to include an objective test; in other words, to require that a matter should be in the public interest rather than its being the opinion of the supervisory authority that it is in the public interest.

They are also concerned that the investigatory procedures of the bodies should have been completed so that if the supervisory authority receives a complaint from a member of the public – from a client, for the sake of argument – he or she should, in the first instance, refer it to the accountancy body so that its internal disciplinary procedures or investigation should take place first. If necessary, an investigation should then be carried out by the authority but it would not, in the first instance, carry out an investigation simply because it has received a complaint and deems it to be in the public interest.