The Standards Advisory Council SAC

Chapter 1 – Financial Reporting Context Page 11 IFRIC consists of 12 members who are required to operate on the basis of their own independent views and not as representatives of the organisations with which they are associated. 6 The IASB’s “Stable Platform” The IASB issued in July 2006 a Press Release setting out that it would not enforce the introduction of any new accounting standards until 2009; instead there would be a period of stability. This period of stability is to assist entities as they implement international standards for the first time and to encourage countries that have yet to adopt IFRS to do so. The IASB may still issue new standards or major amendments during this period, and indeed has done so, although their mandatory implementation date will not be until 2009. Entities are permitted to adopt a new standard early if they wish. Interpretations or minor amendments that arise from existing standards during their implementation will continue to be published under the current process. Following an extensive consultation process the IASB has also agreed to the following actions:  increased lead time to prepare for the implementation of new standards – the mandatory implementation date of new standards or major amendments to existing standards will be a minimum of one year from the publication date of the standard or amendment. This is in response to entities’ pleas that they are given longer to introduce a standard into their reporting systems, as well as providing Governments and other national authorities with sufficient time to translate any new requirements. The European Commission alone is required to translate new international standards into its 23 official languages;  increased opportunity for input on conceptual issues – to allow users, preparers and other interested parties time to reflect and comment on proposals, publications of a conceptual nature will generally be issued as a discussion paper in the first instance, rather than immediately as an exposure draft. This will allow commentators two opportunities at the discussion paper stage as well as at the exposure draft stage to influence the discussions and outcomes, as well as having an official role at an earlier stage in the process and therefore increasing their ability to influence the early decisions; and  public roundtables on key topics – the IASB is using the roundtable forum to improve interested parties’ ability to influence early discussions. These forums have been used on several occasions since 2004 as an effective vehicle to bring together both interested and knowledgeable people from different organisations. Two such roundtable events were specifically mentioned in the July 2006 Press Release; these were to take place in early 2007 in the areas of the proposed amendments to the recognition and measurement principles in IAS 37 Provisions, contingent liabilities and contingent assets and the measurement phase of the Conceptual Framework.