Finance: In Brief

THE GOVERNMENT has broadly accepted the accountancy profession's proposals for improving regulation. Publishing a consultation document last Monday, Ian McCartney, Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, said he believed that the creation of a framework based on an independent foundation could deliver public confidence. While he favoured a non-legislative approach for the time being, he warned that the structure would allow for the imposition of a statute-based system if it did not work.

HIGH-TECHNOLOGY and other knowledge-based companies are risking the millions of pounds invested in their research and development programmes through not paying sufficient attention to their intellectual property rights, according to research published by Taylor Joynson Garrett, the City law firm. The survey, "All in the Mind: Investing in Technology and Life Sciences", produced in conjunction with London Business School, found that only just over half of companies regularly reminded employees not to disclose details of their work until intellectual property issues had been safeguarded, and that more than a third acknowledged that they did not have a complete set of contractual documentation to protect these assets.

THE AUDITING Practices Board has published a consultation paper to examine the "complex issues" surrounding auditors' roles in reporting on fraud. It reflects an awareness of the need to balance the consequences of increased regulation with encouraging an environment of commercial success.