Welcome: Results of our independent survey

We hope you all managed to have a good break over the summer and if you travelled abroad, that you managed to avoid the chaos at ports and airports.

In our last issue, we promised to report on the findings of the EDI research survey which was conducted in March. We are pleased to report that over 3,000 responded to the independent survey which has provided us with a greater understanding of the profiles, views and experiences of members and students. That comprised more than 600 students and over 2,400 members. Thank you to all those that took part.

Key points from individual profiles include the following:

• Across the combined membership, there is an overall balance of females and males. The CIOT membership includes a higher proportion of older males. The ATT membership comprises more females than males and that applies across all age groups.
• About 15% of all students who responded to the survey are ethnically diverse, which is very much in line with statistics for the UK population. By contrast, members are more predominantly white.
• Members and students in part-time employment and/or with caring responsibilities are more likely to be female.
• About 5% of those responding to the survey identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual.

Overall, attitudes towards CIOT and ATT are positive but with the majority reporting a passive or occasional relationship – often because of being too busy or having family/caring responsibilities.

On personal experience:

• Around one in four or five responses reported having experienced inappropriate activity in the previous year – mostly related to gender, then age, then ethnicity.
• Many who returned to work after a career break found that difficult.

Our research agency, James Law, will be following up with some of you who experienced inappropriate behaviour, and who offered to help us further, so that we can better understand this area and what actions we might be able to take.

The EDI Committee discussed the findings at its June meeting and will be putting together an action plan at their September meeting. We will be focusing on a couple of areas initially so that we can make a positive impact.

September is the start of the new school year and certainly for us it’s a very busy month. The CIOT is gearing up for branch activities and its Autumn residential conference on 16‑18 September at Queens’ College, Cambridge. If you haven’t yet booked, there is still time, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone.

The ATT is holding the Prize Winners lunch for Prize Winners from the last three years, and we hope there will be no further delays due to train strikes! This Autumn we will be running our popular Sharpen your tax skills conferences jointly with AAT. The speakers this year will be Rebecca Benneyworth, and members of the ATT Technical team. It promises to be a very informative day.

A final, special mention to the #KiliTax2022 climbers for later this month. See www.justgiving.com/fundraising/KiliTax2022-Team for details of how to support their heroic fundraising efforts.