Raising Issues

We take all issues and concerns very seriously. Whether this relates to one of our Members or the Association as an organisation. 

We know that things don’t always go how they’re supposed to. CPAA is an organisation committed to high professional standards both for us and our Members. 

Below we outline how to raise concerns about a CPAA Member and how to let us know if you feel the Association or one of its representatives has not acted properly. 

Complain about a Member

If you feel one of our Members hasn’t acted properly you can lodge a complaint with us. We encourage you to carefully read this page to make sure that submitting a complaint to us is the best course of action. If you decide to submit a complaint you will need to put it in writing by emailing complaints@cpaa.co.uk. 

Your complaint must contain a written statement as to what has happened. This can be a separate MS Word document, a PDF or contained within the body of the email. The statement should provide the following information: 

1. Any details of the Member you can provide to help us identify them (name, practice name, address, email, membership number)
2. Background as to your relationship with the Member (are you a client, a friend, another accountant)
3. Details of what has happened and why you feel it is not right

It will help us if you are able to submit any supporting documents by email. For example, you may have email correspondence, phone logs or letters to support your complaint. 

We aim to acknowledge receipt of complaints within five working days. Once received we will evaluate if we can investigate your complaint. If we cannot investigate, we will try to signpost you to the most appropriate organisation. 

If we can investigate your complaint we will present your written complaint to the Member concerned. We can remove certain Personal Identifiable Information (such as your address, or phone number), but we cannot present a complaint anonymously to our Member. Our Member will have a right to respond and we will make further investigations 

While handling complaints we can only corresponded through the complaints@cpaa.co.uk inbox. We cannot accept phone calls. If there is a legitimate reason preventing you from being able to email us, we may make a reasonable adjustment, on request, to allow correspondence by post. 

Where possible we aim to arrive at an agreed course of action between the Member and the complainant (mediation). Though this is not always possible and we may need to issue a judgement. Our judgements are issued on the balance of probability. 

The investigation of complaints is the responsibility of the Disciplinary Investigating Officer, who is appointed by the Board of Trustees.  

Review of Judgment

If a judgement is issued both the Member and the complainant have a right for the decision to be reviewed. This request must be made in writing within ten working days and should be accompanied by a written statement explaining why a review of the judgement is being requested. The other party will be given an opportunity to provide a statement as well. 

These statements, a report from the Disciplinary Investigating Officer, the original compliant, response, all correspondence and evidence gained during the investigation are collated and anonymised. They are given to a Disciplinary Review Panel, which is formed of three persons who cannot be current or former employees or Trustees of the CPAA. The members of the Panel are randomly selected from a group of suitable people who sit on the Disciplinary Commission. All members of the Disciplinary Commission are lay Members of the Association or non-Members. 

Disciplinary reviews conducted under this process are not tribunals. No party is given the opportunity to speak to the Panel. The Panel is there to review the decision arrived at by the Disciplinary Investigating Officer. The Panel may decide on a simple majority to support the decision or may amend the judgment. The Panel has sixty working days to arrive at its decision.