Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 24 September (HL8051), what is the proposed fee payable to the International Accounting Standards Board; and how that fee will be funded.

The fee payable to the IFRS foundation is commercially sensitive and falls below the public disclosure threshold. The Government believes that the agreement with the IFRS Foundation reflects good value for money due to the wide use and acceptance of IFRS amongst the major financial capitals across the world, and the fact that the Standards promote transparency and investment. The agreement also ensures that the UK will be able to continue to influence the independent, not-for-profit, global standard setting body, to ensure that Standards meet the needs of UK companies and investors.

The inaugural fee will be funded by Government and our intention is that future payments will come from the FRC’s general levy on preparers of accounts.