This article investigates the development of the public sector accounting policy for the United Kingdom’s Private Finance Initiative. A novel approach to investigating the development of accounting regulation is applied, based on interviews with persons involved in the process. A fuller explanation of events is obtained by going beyond published material that is already in the public domain in order to reflect the informal procedures which cause regulatory outcomes to be determined by negotiation
and persuasion. The article concludes that the limited participation of public sector bodies at the formal stage of lobbying through written representations may not be critical in view of the existence of other means to influence the outcome of the regulatory process.