Measurement concepts and principles

The staff noted that the Board was at the beginning of Milestone II of this phase of the Conceptual Framework project and that it had agreed to have a discussion of measurement concepts and principles at this stage. It was the intention that the measurement concepts and principles should be the first set of criteria used to evaluate the measurement basis candidates brought forward from Milestone I.

The staff noted that the paper was the first stage of an iterative process and should not be seen as the basis for immediate decisions to be reflected in the forthcoming discussion paper. It was designed to provoke a discussion-as such the Board was asked whether the definitions and approach was thought to be useful and helpful.

Opinions were sharply divided. Some thought that the staff were absolutely right to catalogue and address the issues as they had done. There is nothing substantive on measurement in the current FASB and IASB Frameworks and it was necessary to address the topic from the very foundations. Others, however, saw the exercise as needlessly academic and a recipe for unnecessarily delaying developing the discussion paper. In defence, the staff noted that much of the material in the papers presented would form part of the Basis for Conclusions rather than the concepts themselves.

The debate was lively but no decisions were reached. The staff will review their suggestions in light of the opinions and concerns expressed by Board members. The staff did not pursue a paper included in the meeting Observer Notes on the evaluation of measurement basis candidates using the proposed measurement concepts and principles.