Five minutes with… Alan Limb, Inspector at the IPA
Other articles (Insolvency Practitioner, June 2020):
- Michelle Thorp, CEO
- Kevin Hellard, President
- An update from HMRC
- Warning about Insolvency Practitioner identity fraud and scam websites
- Job Vacancy: Deputy Chief Inspector
- IPA Members LinkedIn group
- Join an IPA Committee
- SARs: New glossary codes
- SARs online submissions: User update
- SARS in Action issue 5
- Risk based changes to monitoring
- Guest article from Dunedin Advisory
How long have you worked at the IPA?
I’ve only been here since January of this year. Previously, I worked full time in insolvency for more than 25 years; 13 of those as an appointment taking IP. In 2018, I embarked on a change of career. I moved to west Wales with my family, passed a PGCE Course at UWTSD in Swansea and trained to work as a Business Studies Teacher at secondary school. However, the call of the profession was too great to keep me away forever so I have seized the opportunity to join the IPA as a Monitoring Inspector.
What does your role entail?
Obviously, it’s early days yet and I’m still learning my new role. So far, it has been a mixture of compliance and support. The role of the Inspector involves assessing the quality of IPs’ work and their ability to conform with a whole myriad of legislation and regulations. However, I believe that we do that empathetically at the IPA. We are willing to suggest how our members can follow best practice adopted by their competitors in order to improve their systems and procedures.
What have the highlights been for you so far?
The clear highlight has been how the whole team has rallied together in recent times and responded to the Coronavirus crisis. We’ve adapted well to working from home and helped each other cope with the conflicting demands of supporting our families and the IPA’s members. Our regular meetings via Teams have enabled us to talk more to each other about things other than work than would normally be the case and get to know each other better.