Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales to retain the fine money levied on KPMG and one of its then partners by the Financial Reporting Council, rather than paying it to the Silentnight pension scheme which lost out as a result of KPMG’s actions.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) undertook the investigation into Silentnight under its accountancy scheme as the Silentnight investigation was into KPMG’s accounting services. This requires fines and any costs recovered to be paid to the chartered accountancy body that funded the investigation and sanctions process.

In this case the fines and costs were paid to the Institute for Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The same would be true if ICAEW had taken forward the investigation and sanctions process itself.

Accountancy bodies may make private arrangements as to the use of fine income for the benefit of groups that have suffered losses as a result of an insolvency.