Over the past few months a debate has erupted in the press about the hitherto neglected subject of the impact of international accounting and auditing standards on the long-established British principle of “true and fair” accounting.

On one side are those who claim that the UK’s adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards and International Standards on Auditing threatens to water down the true and fair override – a vital safeguard against the rigid application of standards resulting in possibly misleading financial reporting.