Political uncertainty and Brexit have had a negative impact on UK company formations and business growth, with fewer new companies being established during 2017 and the overall growth rate in the number of UK businesses falling, according to analysis by software supplier Inform Direct

A senior finance professional who was appointed Carillion’s final CFO in September last year, had blown the whistle on accounting issues at the outsourcer several months earlier, which the KPMG audit partner described as ‘due to incompetence, negligence or sloppy accounting’, board minutes have shown

Although the UK’s productivity is showing signs of improvement, over-optimism can lead to errors in forecasts, warns Martin Beck, senior economist at Oxford Economics

Accounting rules on the recording of intangible assets should be reviewed following the liquidation of giant outsourcer Carillion, says Nauzer Siganporia FCA, audit partner at HW Fisher & Company, after external auditors KPMG identified risks with the companies valuation of goodwill in its balance sheet

With only three months to go to the deadline, just 8% of small firms have completed their preparations for the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to research by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which is launching an awareness raising campaign

UK workers contributed £31.2bn of free labour last year, completing a total of two billion hours unpaid overtime, according to research by the TUC

EY has been ranked in the top ten as one of the 25 best big companies to work for, in a national list compiled annually by The Sunday Times, with Deloitte also featuring at number thirteen

While the majority of insurers have diversity strategies in place, only 20% of the top jobs are held by women, according to a survey of talent and diversity in the insurance and long-term savings sector conducted by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), which says more action is needed to improve the gender balance

Accountants have a critical role to play in advising businesses as blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies increasingly mature and enter the mainstream, according to a study from ACCA

The UK’s exit from the EU should be the trigger for a first-principles discussion of tax policy making, encouraging a much broader debate about how or whether the tax system can meet society’s needs, according to a report from think tank Common Vision (CoVi), which has been backed by CIOT

The Central Bank of Ireland has ordered CBL Corporation Limited (CBL), a specialist insurer and reinsurer focused on credit and financial risk, to stop writing new insurance through its European subsidiary, CBL Insurance Europe Dac (CBLIE), until further notice

Barclays, one of the early signatories to the Treasury’s Women in Finance charter, has come under fire for a ‘shocking’ gender pay gap at its investment bank, where female employees are paid on average half as much as male colleagues