18 Understanding the

Development of the
Accountancy Profession
in the United Kingdom
Keith Robson and David J. Cooper 1

The 'professional' basis of accountancy practice has only recently

been subject to any serious analysis. Of course there has been
traditional concern about the independence of accountancy and
auditing, and this concern has been brought to public attention by the
debates about accounting regulations and standard-setting, corporate
financial scandals and the dominance of large accounting firms (Ster-
ling, 1974; US Senate, 1978; Davidson, 1978). Much of the account-
ancy literature has regarded the 'professional' basis of accounting
practice as relatively unproblematic. It has relied on the view of
accountants and auditors themselves and their occupational insti-
tutions as to what it means to be professional.
This chapter offers an analysis of what it means to talk of the
professional basis of accountancy and auditing in the United King-
dom (UK). The analysis places particular emphasis on accounting
practices, their knowledge base, and the connections with the state
and capital. In the first section, the accountancy profession's self-
image is discussed and shown to be an inadequate basis for serious
analysis, either of current arrangements or, particularly, of the possi-
bility and desirability of change to those arrangements. In the second
section, the meaning and significance of the term 'accountancy pro-
fession' is analysed, using the literature in the sociology of pro-
fessions, particularly that literature which considers professions in
their social context. Such an analysis places the accountancy pro-
fession and accountancy practices within modern British society.
The third section provides an assessment of the models of the
profession offered and explores two particular issues, the role of the
state, and the significance of accounting knowledge in the develop-
ment of the UK accountancy profession (Hopwood et al., 1979;
366
D. J. Cooper et al. (eds.), Critical Accounts
© David J. Cooper & Trevor M. Hopper 1990
 Cooper & Robson 367

Hopwood, forthcoming). This section of the paper identifies the role

of the state in mediating between groupings of capital and locates
accountancy within specific developments in British society. In so
doing, it identifies how changes in the institutions of accountancy in
the UK reflect and reinforce changes in capitalist development.

CONVENTIONAL APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONS

There have been a series of challenges to the accountancy profession

and to the adequacy and accountability of its practices both in the
United States and the United Kingdom. Criticism of the (lack of)
independence of auditors and accountants, the (lack of) quality of
audit work and the (weak) competition in the provision of accounting
and audit services had, of course, been made many times before (for
instance, cf. Scott, 1931; Briloff, 1972). In Britain, criticisms have
tended to concentrate on accounting practices although such critic-
isms have incorporated concerns about the organisation of the account-
ancy profession itself (for instance, Stamp and Marley, 1970, Briston,
1979). Similar concerns about the independence of auditors has lead
the European Commission to suggest restrictions in the activities of
audit firms in its Eighth Directive on Company Law (1984).
There have been a variety of responses to such criticisms (Cohen
Commission, 1978). One has been to challenge the observations
concerning the power of the accounting establishment (Hussein and
Ketz, 1980; Haring, 1979). A second response has been to challenge
the observations about monopolistic concentration in the 'accounting
industry' (Simunic, 1980; Moizer and Turley, forthcoming). A third
response to criticism has been to strengthen and emphasise the
knowledge base of accounting, in an attempt to demonstrate its
scientific and neutral orientation (FASB, 1978 and 1980; Maeve 1981;
Solomons, 1986).
This chapter is interested in a fourth response to criticism of the
accountancy profession. This response has been to emphasise the
professional nature of the occupation of accountancy. Clearly these
four responses (and others) are not independent and in discussing the
professionalisation of accountancy practices, the other responses will
be relevant. This section reviews the two conventional approaches to
the analysis of professions which, whatever the source of their devel-
opment, have been used in the implicit project of demonstrating the
professional conduct of accountants.