The role of the Financial Reporting Advisory Board (FRAB) is “to ensure that government financial reporting meets the best possible standards of financial reporting by following Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) as far as possible”.  The FRAB includes representatives from the accountancy profession in the private and public sectors, academia and government bodies.  The board meets regularly to consider proposed changes to policy and practice.

Key topics discussed during the meeting included:

• A high level overview of IFRS 16 Leases and consideration of the proposed work plan and impact that the standard will have on the public sector.
• An update on developments in International accounting, International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and the work of Eurostat in developing European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS).
• IFRS 9 Financial Instruments.  The Board was presented with a paper discussing and interpreting the business model assessment in IFRS 9 and its applicability in the public sector context.  An update was also provided of the implementation progress of IFRS 9 including feedback from the IFRS 9 technical working group.
• The International Accounting Standard Board’s (IASB’s) amendments to IFRS 4 Insurance Contracts to address concerns about the different effective dates of IFRS 9 and the new insurance contracts Standard that will replace IFRS 4.
• An update on International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers implementation progress against the work plan.  It was confirmed that work was proceeding as expected.
• A verbal update on current thinking with regards to the potential development of a ‘FReM lite’ which would aim to make reporting less onerous for smaller bodies. 

Click here for detailed minutes and other supporting documents on HM Treasury website.