CIPFA is to begin delivering accountancy and finance apprenticeships from autumn this year, after being accepted onto the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s (ESFA) register of apprenticeship training providers

HMRC staff at the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) annual conference have condemned the department’s plans to close local offices as ‘impractical’, and indicated they will continue to campaign for a review of the decision to move most employees to new regional hubs under HMRC’s Building our Future (BoF) strategy

The OECD is consulting on outline guidance on the approach to pricing transfers of hard-to-value intangibles (HTVI) described in its transfer pricing guidelines, which is one of the requirements of its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) action plan

Tom MacLennan and Iain Fraser, partners with FRP Advisory, have been appointed joint administrators of Hamilton Burns WS Ltd, a Scottish-based immigration, criminal, matrimonial and civil practice law firm which has collapsed with half of its staff losing their jobs

Changes to data protection laws will have wide-reaching impact on UK companies and subsidiaries, with tough penalties for non-compliance when the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is introduced in 2018. Huw Beverley-Smith, a partner in the technology transactions group at Faegre Baker Daniels, considers the implications for accountants

The accounting sector’s presence on social media is lacking compared to other industries with only half of firms having a twitter profile and 13% admitting to not having a website, according to a report by Propero Partners

Swiss power transmission and automation technology specialist ABB is to appoint KPMG as its external auditor effective for the financial year 2018, ending a more than 16-year relationship with EY

Companies are suppressing wages by an average £200 a year in order to plug historic gaps in defined benefit (DB) pension schemes, even though some low earners are excluded from such schemes, according to a study by the Resolution Foundation

Restructuring and insolvency practice Quantuma has reported turnover up by 21% in the year to 31 March 2017, and has announced an expansion of its regional offices

Accountants are becoming increasingly ambitious and are craving quicker career progression routes as well as wanting more recognition for their work, with over two thirds aspiring to reach senior positions such as CEO and CFO, according to Hays’ What Workers Want report 

Over a third of accountancy students are unhappy about their work-life balance according to a survey of wellbeing amongst ICAEW ACA students conducted by CABA, the sector charity, which found that many are worried about long hours and are concerned their health is suffering

Matthew Tait and Colin Haig, BDO business restructuring partners, have been appointed joint administrators of upmarket jewellery firm Theo Fennell Ltd, which has hit financial problems