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Practice Assurance Regulations

ICAEW practising certificate holders, member firms and firms with a contract for Practice Assurance are required to comply with the Practice Assurance Regulations. These set out how the Practice Assurance scheme operates.

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Practice Assurance Regulations effective 1 June 2023

The Regulations have been updated in order to align terminology with ICAEW's updated disciplinary framework.

Practice Assurance Regulations archive

This archive includes previous versions of the Practice Assurance Regulations:

The Practice Assurance Committee

The Practice Assurance Committee (PAC) can offer Practice Assurance (PA) penalties to ICAEW members or firms for less serious compliance or conduct issues identified during Practice Assurance reviews.

  • The penalties are only applied with the consent of the member or firm.
  • This process allows the PAC to deal with Practice Assurance matters more quickly by applying a sanction where appropriate, for example for AML breaches (at the request of ICAEW's oversight regulators).

Referrals to the Conduct Committee

If the member or firm does not agree that a breach has occurred, or to the penalty proposed, as before, it has the right to request the matter is referred to the Conduct Committee. Serious matters are referred by the Practice Assurance Committee to the Conduct Committee to be dealt with in accordance with the Disciplinary Bye-laws. Practice Assurance penalties are not used for serious matters.