New Charities SORP Committee
Following the open recruitment exercise undertaken by the joint SORP-making body, a new SORP Committee has been appointed.
The new committee will serve until 2018 and includes members drawn from accountancy practice, the charity sector, funders, commentators on the sector, sector umbrella bodies and academia. Its membership spans the four charity law jurisdictions covered by UK-Irish Generally Accepted Accounting Practice and includes representatives from the Republic of Ireland.
The Charity Commission for England and Wales and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator make up the joint SORP-making body
A number of members who served before applied to re-join the committee and their continued contribution of expertise and experience has been welcomed by the joint SORP-making body. Supporting the work of the committee is the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) which is providing the secretariat services to the committee free of charge. CIPFA is also the sole Official Publisher of the new SORPs.
The names of the new Committee members are available on the SORP microsite.
High standards of transparency are increasingly essential to maintaining public confidence and the SORPs have an important role in helping charities to tell their story fully and accurately to their public. Members of the SORP Committee will play an essential role in peer-reviewing the on-going development of the new SORPs and identifying issues for review, discussion and inclusion in the SORPs. One of the first challenges will be considering what to do now that it seems certain that the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (FRSSE) is to be withdrawn.
It is anticipated that members will serve until 2018. For a full listing of members and more information view the SORP committee page on www.charitysorp.org.
Nigel Davies, Head of Accountancy at the Charity Commission and Joint Chair of the SORP Committee said:
We were delighted by the high standard of applicants to join the committee and we welcome the breadth of experience and perspectives the new committee will bring together with CIPFA which is providing the technical support. We look forward to ensuring a high quality SORP framework is in place for UK and Irish charities.
Laura Anderson, Head of Enforcement at OSCR and Joint Chair of the SORP Committee said:
Members will be joining us at an exciting time as we look to take on the challenges of more changes to UK-Irish GAAP following on from the launch of the two new SORPs. We particularly welcome the extension of membership to the Republic of Ireland where the SORP framework is currently voluntary best practice.
Ends
PR 104/14
Notes to editors
- The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales.
- The commission’s mission is to be the independent registrar and regulator of charities in England and Wales, acting in the public’s interest, to ensure that: * charities know what they have to do * the public know what charities do * charities are held to account
- The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is the independent regulator and registrar of Scotland’s 23,500 charities and publishes the Scottish Charity Register at www.oscr.org.uk. Our vision is for charities in which the public has confidence and which provide public benefit.
- The commission and OSCR together form the joint SORP-making body for charities and is authorised by the Financial Reporting Council for the purpose of developing and issuing the Charities SORP.
- The SORP Committee is a sector-based expert committee that advises the joint SORP-making body in its development of the SORP. The committee includes charity finance directors, charity auditors as well as members reflecting broader charity sector and academic interests.
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