Professional Conduct

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Conduct regulations applying to members, students, and employees of ICB Practices in their professional & business activities, both paid & voluntary.

"Professionals are expected by employers, clients and by the public to adopt a higher standard of conduct and behaviour in their professional life. It is that which underpins our value and the confidence the public has in us as professionals. These rules set out those basic principles of minimum conduct. However, ethics and professional conduct rules do more than that. The choices faced by a professional on a day to day basis are rarely black or white. Those choices are often made at a time when one is under pressure from a client or the clock. The professional rules help us judge our conduct by an objective benchmark at those difficult times. They provide us with a ready and polite reason for saying 'Sorry, I can't do that' when faced with pressure to stray across the line."

Prof Mark Watson Gandy

Professor Mark Watson-Gandy, Barrister
1996-2006 ICB Head of Professional Standards

ICB Professional Conduct Regulations

If you are an ICB member or an interested member of the public and have a question about ICB’s Professional Conduct Regulations or any other matter relating to Professional Standards, please send us an email at professional.standards@bookkeepers.org.uk

Professor Mark Watson-Gandy

Professor Mark Watson-Gandy was ICB's founding Head of Professional Standards and was made an honorary Companion of ICB on 1st November 2021 in recognition of the 25th anniversary of ICB's inception.

Watson-Gandy was called to the Bar in 1990 and was made a Junior Counsel to the Crown in 2000. In 2004 he joined the Bar Council's panel of Young Spokesmen for the Bar.

He is a tenant at 13 Old Square Chambers. 13 Old Square is a specialist chancery/commercial barristers' chambers in Lincoln's Inn and was founded by leading chancery silk, John McDonnell QC. His work is primarily in the areas of insolvency and company law.

He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster (Corporate Finance Law) and was the first practising barrister to hold the Institute of Chartered Accountant's Corporate Finance qualification. Dual qualified as an accountant, he is the author of "Watson-Gandy on Accountants" and the ICAEW Guide "Tax Advocacy". He has recently updated and co-authored the sections on Directors Duties in "Butterworths Corporate Law Service". He is Head of Professional Standards for the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. He has acted for three of the UK's accountancy institutes and two of its second-tier bodies and drafted the legislation on auditors for Dubai.