ACCOUNTANTS' SOCIETIES. Under British law there is no restriction on the right to practice as an accountant, although the designations of the recognized professional bodies (e.g., "char tered" and "incorporated" accountant) are protected by decisions of the courts, which have confined their use to members of the body concerned.
Until the passing of the Local Government Act, 1933, generally speaking only chartered or incorporated accountants could audit the accounts of municipal corporations, but under that act a mu nicipal corporation may adopt either the system of district audit (by district auditors of the Ministry of Health) or professional audit. In the latter event the auditors must be members of one or more of the following: (i ) Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, incorporated by royal charter in 188o; (2) Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors, incorporated in 1885, and with branches throughout the British Dominions; (3) Society of Accountants in Edinburgh (the earliest, formed in ; (4) Institute of Accountants and Actuaries in Glasgow; (5) Society of Accountants in Aberdeen; or (6) The Association of Certified and Corporated Accountants, formed in 1939 by the amalgamation of the Corporation of Accountants and the London Association of Accountants. There are other statutory limitations on the right to act as auditor in certain cases. No qualification is laid down for the auditors of limited companies, but it is usual for such appointments to be made from among the members of the older bodies. There is a body of chartered accountants in Eire.