ATOL protection acts as a crucial safeguard for UK holidaymakers booking package holidays, helping to prevent consumers being stranded abroad or from losing money in the event that their travel provider becomes insolvent. Travel providers offering these holidays must hold an ATOL licence, which are provided for no more than one year.

In order for ATOL holders to renew their ATOL licence, they must submit financial and non-financial information to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and engage an ATOL Reporting Accountant (ARA) to report on certain aspects of this information. An ARA is a member of an ATOL Reporting Accountant Scheme and ICAEW’s Licensed Practice Scheme has been approved by the CAA for this purpose.

This Technical Release sets out good practice guidance for ARAs on how to perform these engagements. The guidance includes the know-how to help ARAs to scope and perform their work to meet their professional responsibilities.

The Technical Release has been developed with input from the CAA and is intended to help promote consistency in approach. This guidance reflects changes to the ATOL regulations in 2018 and replaces TECH 09/16 AAF. The main changes relate to what ATOL holders are required to report under licensable revenue, and definitions of single and multi-contract packages.

The guidance includes standard terms of engagement, suggested work procedures for reporting on licensable revenue and CAA agreed upon procedures for other types of reporting.

Other resources

• ICAEW’s Licensed Practice Scheme
• CAA’s Official Record Series 3 including Appendix A Requirements for ATOL Reporting Accountants