§ Mr. Nicholas BakerTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment he has made of the proposal of the Accounting Standards Board for abandonment of historical cost accounting. [20269]
§ Mr. OppenheimThe draft of the proposed "Statement of Principles for Financial Reporting" published for public comment by the Accounting Standards Board does not propose an abandonment of historical cost accounting. Present practice already incorporates certain current values. The draft statement of principles makes clear the ASB's belief that, as markets develop, current values will become increasingly relevant and reliable. The ASB therefore encourages the development of practice in that direction but has stressed that it will not move faster on this subject than the business community will accept.
I welcome the publication of the draft statement as apart of the ASB's valuable work on improving the quality of financial reporting. I hope that the business community will consider what the statement has to say on the numerous important issues it addresses and will take the opportunity to contribute to the debate on them.